There are many reasons for people to be angry about this, but I'm going to attempt to be a little more level headed about this despite my obvious bias at wanting the US to win the 2022 bid.
Had South Korea, Australia, or Japan won the bid I would have accepted the defeat without much consternation. After all, each are modern nations with the ability to host the games and a history with the sport. Qatar, however, is a different scenario altogether.
It would be easy to come out against Qatar for all the obvious reasons:
Had South Korea, Australia, or Japan won the bid I would have accepted the defeat without much consternation. After all, each are modern nations with the ability to host the games and a history with the sport. Qatar, however, is a different scenario altogether.
It would be easy to come out against Qatar for all the obvious reasons:
- No soccer history
- Has never competed in a World Cup
- Overbearing summer temperatures averaging 110 degrees
- Lack of suitable stadiums
- "Terrorist threats" despite there only being a single instance (2005)
But really, those reasonings have their own faults. One could apply many of those same arguments to the USA's 1994 bid.
To take this argument in another direction, I'd like to know why Qatar was allowed the opportunity to host the world's game despite ranking 144/167 on the Democracy Index and maintaining a number of archaic laws that not only discriminate, but openly punish people who don't fall into Qatar's social norms.
For a nation that is to host an event which proudly and unabashedly fights racism they sure do have some terrible discriminations against other sects of society such as homosexuals who are imprisoned and whipped for not being straight. Or women who are treated like possessions where men are openly beating and abusing women when the courts do nothing to protect them?
I suppose, however, the worst insult to the sport and the people who enjoy it is that Qatar openly uses forced, underpaid labor (basically the next thing to slave labor). Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Qatar is going to need to build an awful lot of infrastructure and stadiums to prepare for this event which means that we are undoubtedly going to help fund this kind of activity. That's not something I'm comfortable with.
At this point, I need to decide whether to support the sport I love, or stand by my humanitarian convictions and avoid the 2022 event altogether. Right now, I'm leaning toward the latter.
Here's to a successful 2026 bid.