Qatar And The 2022 World Cup Bid

(Originally published as my 1st post as author of The Brotherly Game.  Due to pure unadulterated laziness (and possible violations of copyright law), the captioned picture I posted at TBG is not posted here.  Click on the above TBG link if you want to see it)

As soccer fans in the United States of America, we probably all remember where we were when we found out that after years of anticipation and hard work, the United States had lost their 2022 World Cup bid to a country smaller than the 48th largest state in the United States, Connecticut.  I also think we all remember how we felt when the announcement was made.  It probably is not far-fetched to say that some kind of combination of shock, anger, and disappointment dominated our feelings.  And with good reason too.

Qatar is a nation that has known issues with Israel, a possible qualifier for the 2022 World Cup.  Qatar is a nation that prohibits the drinking of alcohol, something that may cause kind of a problem when dealing with the loads of soccer fans that are sure to swarm the country.

Qatar may be a very wealthy country, but its location also has problems.  The average temperature high in Doha, Qatar, the capital and largest city of Qatar (large being a relative term, seeing as the population of the entire country is 840,926 according to the CIA World Factbook), in June is 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41 Celcius).  And with Doha being located near the coast, humidity is sure to kick in.  Now to combat this, Qatar plans on building air conditioned stadiums using technology that has not been invented yet.  For the health and safety of the players, hopefully that technology gets invented real soon.