The Arabian country has confirmed that it has filed its proposal to FIFA to host the World Cup of 2018 or 2022. If FIFA accept their bid, Qatar would become the first Arabian nation to host such a big sport event. Qatar have already been given the duty of hosting the 2011 Asian Cup, but this would be too late to influence the football authority’s decision, as the hosting nations for the World Cup must be decided by 2010. The Qatar football authority made no secret of their willingness to host the event, and this FIFA proposal is only the formal representation of their wish.

Attracting nearly-retired players from Europe who wish to earn some (or many!) cash before they hang up their boots, Qatar is no recognised football power. This country’s main natural resource is crude oil, just like its neighbouring Arab nations. Their bank account is virtually infinite. However, unfortunately for them, money cannot (until now) buy success. Their players being brought up are nowhere near the standard of nations like England, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Germany. This is something that will be considered by FIFA when deciding the hosts. Although on the same reasoning, South Africa shouldn’t have been given the 2010 World Cup, it was clearly done in order to include Africa, by hosting the event in, arguably, the safest country in the continent. It is still unclear whether Qatar have the necessary stadiums to host the event. Their national stadium, the Khalifa International Stadium, has only 50000 seats. However, new arenas can be built until 2018, or more likely 2022.

(Khalifa International Stadium: a possible World Cup 2018/22 venue?)

The Qatar Football Federation General Manager, Saud Al Mohannadi, said:

“I can confirm that the Qatar football federation has today sent a letter to FIFA in which it officially declared its candidacy for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. We have the stadiums and we have experience hosting top sports events. We don’t want to rush into anything, we need to find out what the full requirements are, but we are interested.”