Why did Qatar Win the FIFA World Cup IN 2022 - Essay Example

?Ibrahim Alawainati Hawthorne English 111 11 November Why Qatar won the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup over the United s? Football is commonly known as the most popular sport in the world. It is a team game that consists of 11 players from each team and a total of four referees. The main purpose of the referees is to oversee the game and make decisions that uphold the law of the game. The pinnacle of this beautiful game is the FIFA World Cup, which is held once every four years. As billions of people love this game, it is not easy for a country to win the hosting rights of a FIFA World Cup. It happens so rarely that many people only get to see the FIFA World Cup played on their home soil once during their lifetimes. To decide which country has the right to play at a world cup, all of the countries play qualifying matches against each other in the preceding three years. From this, thirty-two teams get to go and play in the greatest show on earth. Qatar has a developing interest in football because of its popularity among its youth. Football is just one of the things that Qatar is trying to use to expose itself on the world’s stage. Because of its vast wealth, the Qatari government has the objective of getting as many people as possible to learn about Qatar. This is done through festivals, scientific conferences, and sporting festivals, of which the FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious. It is very clear that not just any country can win the hosting rights of the FIFA World Cup. FIFA has very strict criteria that potential host countries must abide by in order to be able to host the cup. Whenever a world cup is hosted, FIFA demands that its laws must override any local laws. This has proved to be a problem with the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke, has recently said: “Either we do (the Cup) together or we will never manage it (Murphy, 2011). Some of these requests include the price of match tickets, penalties for counterfeit goods, and banning the sale of certain alcohol brands in the stadiums. Also, because of the magnitude of the event, the country that wins the hosting rights must provide adequate security for all the players and fans. Hospitals, hotels, and food are some of the major logistical requirements that need to be taken care of. Because the aim of the event is to make as much money for football as possible, the host country is required to have a certain number of large stadia so that revenue from ticket sales will be high. One of the goals of FIFA is to publicize football all around would and to assist poorer countries that rarely get the chance to participate in such an event. FIFA thinks of football as a global game, and that is why it wants to take the game to new places. Every region of the world has already organized the FIFA World Cup at least once. The Middle East is the last major region yet to have hosted FIFA’s most prestigious event. Quite a few people predicted that it would be too difficult for Qatar to win the hosting rights for the FIFA World Cup compared to the rival bids of the United States of America and Australia. There were many reasons why this was thought to be so. First of all, Qatar is a hot country. FIFA has a limit on what heat is considered to be okay to play football in, and Qatar’s climate is well above this range (Marcus, 2010). Also, geographical area of Qatar is very small when compared with other large countries. In addition, the Middle East is not considered to be a safe place for tourists. Many Western governments warn their citizens who travel in the region simply because of the level of violence that is associated with the area. The latest political protests in countries such as Syria, Egypt, and Libya have shown that things can get out of hand very quickly. On the other hand, the Qatari government used this disadvantage and pleaded that the FIFA World Cup could help to unite the divided region. Also, to alleviate foreign concerns, the Qatari bid team promised to install air conditioners in every football stadium for the world cup. This system would be based around clean energy and could provide a way to the future in terms of how world cups are hosted. Another positive with Qatar is that, compared to the rest of the region, it is a very safe state because of the low percentage of crimes that occur. To use its geographical location to its advantage, Qatar has promised to build trains that run between each of the stadiums (Johnson, 2010). This would be a first for the FIFA World Cup because it may be possible to go to more than one match on the same day because it will only take 20 minutes to get from one stadium to another. Also, Qatar will donate much of the profit that it makes to the poor nations within the region. Once the cup is over, many of its stadiums will be dismantled and given to countries in Africa. Despite being a strict Muslim country, Qatar will allow alcohol to be consumed during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In addition to this, Qatar has the best sport group channel in the world. If the FIFA World Cup happens in the Middle East then three billion people will be able to watch the games live because Qatar is located directly in the middle of the world. Because of this, all the surrounding regions will be able to watch it live in their own time zones. To further help its bid, Qatar has taken onboard many ambassadors such as Zinedine Zidane, one of the best players in the modern era, and Josep "Pep" Guardiola, one of the best managers in the modern game. Zinedine Zidane helped lead the bid and he thinks that the cup will give a boost to the whole Arab region: “It’s a victory for the Arab world. Qatar has received support from the Arab world as a whole and I think that’s been an important factor” (FIFA.com, 2010). Something that may have turned the vote in Qatar’s favor was the use of Israeli children in its presentation to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. The members of the FIFA Executive Committee saw the images of Israeli children during Qatar’s presentation bid. One of the Israeli kids mentions that he supports the World Cup coming to Qatar and he wishes that his team would make it to the finals that year and face the host nation. His dream was that the players of both countries would shake hands with each other and recognize each other for the football nations that they are. This was a touching gesture and it may have had a lasting impact on the FIFA members who viewed the presentation. Before the vote, the Qatari bid was largely written off, but this act of kindness may have helped to sway the votes of some members of the FIFA Executive Committee. Currently, the whole world is going through a major financial crisis. This makes it hard when it comes to hosting a FIFA World Cup. At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa received millions of dollar in aid to help make the event as successful as possible. FIFA has promised that it will help future nations in hosting the world cup to the tune of at least one billion dollar. However, Qatar did not ask for this extra help while America did so. The total cost to host the world cup in Qatar is expected to be around $54 billion. This will help fuel the local economy for many years to come. Although Qatar is a small country, its citizens enjoy the highest average income in the world. The per capita income is more than 85 thousand dollars per year according to the Bulletin of the International Monetary Fund for 2008. As a result of this recent growth, Doha is building infrastructure in 2012 that is expected to be worth than $100 billion. The awarding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup is a milestone because Qatar will be the first country in FIFA to host the world cup having never previously qualified, although this could change if Qatar manages to qualify for either of the next two world cups. Some people say that the purpose of the bid was to ensure that Qatar would get to play at a FIFA World Cup. When it came to the all-important vote, Qatar received 14 votes while the United States of America only got eight. The Qatari presentation was the best overall because it was more compelling than the others. Also, the Qatari bid covered all the important points and gave special reasons why the FIFA World Cup would benefit Qatar the most. Zinedine Zidane said, "There is nothing that is impossible. We must strive for perfection, and then the impossible becomes possible. There are no limits to our dreams, but we simply have to believe them to become a reality. Only when we work hard and respect the big and small achievements can we achieve success and go beyond the limits of life."  Works Cited FIFA.com. “Zidane: A victory for the Arab world.” FIFA.com, 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. Johnson, Geoff. "Five things Russia and Qatar did right to win World Cup bids." Christian Science Monitor 02 Dec. 2010: N.PAG. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.  Marcus, Jeffrey. "SOCCER ROUNDUP; FIFA Criticizes U.S. and Qatar Bids for 2022 Cup." New York Times 18 Nov. 2010: 21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. Murphy, Peter. “FIFA urges Brazil to pass World Cup legislation.” Money Control, 9 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. Read More