When the 2022 World Cup is confirmed to take place in Winter...

A World Cup in Qatar will pass few peoples cost-benefit analysis I think.
What makes you say that?

It's a couple of hours flight from Europe and all 64 matches will be played within about an hours drive from each other. Could be the cheapest world cup for many Europeans since 2006. Cheaper even than Russias will be.

(aside from what I assume will be crazy food/drink prices)
 
What I don't understand with this whole fiasco is, why not just air-condition the whole country (or at least all the cities) for a month? Surely they have enough natural gas to do it?

burns-and-world-cup.jpg
 
What makes you say that?

It's a couple of hours flight from Europe and all 64 matches will be played within about an hours drive from each other. Could be the cheapest world cup for many Europeans since 2006. Cheaper even than Russias will be.

(aside from what I assume will be crazy food/drink prices)
Drinks will be very very expensive, considering you can only get them in 5 star hotels...
 
What makes you say that?

It's a couple of hours flight from Europe and all 64 matches will be played within about an hours drive from each other. Could be the cheapest world cup for many Europeans since 2006. Cheaper even than Russias will be.

(aside from what I assume will be crazy food/drink prices)
Based on an assumption that most people go to the world cup not solely to attend games and that spending time in Qatar would fall under costs rather than benefits. Maybe I'm completely wrong though.
 
Drinks will be very very expensive, considering you can only get them in 5 star hotels...
Yeah but FIFA will change that law probably... ala Brazil.

Unless Qatar refuse, in which case FIFA will probably keep a huge portion of revenue that would otherwise have gone to them. Which Qatar could probably afford.

Who knows.
 
Who's to say a load of Asian fans won't take up the slack? You certainly see plenty of non-European and US fans at OT for example. I'm sure they'd snap up world cup tickets, not even counting the Middle East.
Because there are less Asian teams than there are European. The three largest World Cup attendances are Germany, USA and Brazil. Japan and S-Korea didn't have those numbers. South Africa was far off.
 
Yeah but FIFA will change that law probably... ala Brazil.

Unless Qatar refuse, in which case FIFA will probably keep a huge portion of revenue that would otherwise have gone to them. Which Qatar could probably afford.

Who knows.
I believe Qatar already said there'll be plenty of areas where one can drink alcoholic beverage.
Anyone think these designated drinking areas will sell cheap alcohol? or just another way for Fifa to pocket more money?

Because there are less Asian teams than there are European. The three largest World Cup attendances are Germany, USA and Brazil. Japan and S-Korea didn't have those numbers. South Africa was far off.
Japan & Korea both do Christmas anyway.
 
It's really just another form of slavery in the modern world. All those workers dying are migrant workers from countries like India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. The poorest of the lot are lured by a decent wage, and are not in a position to fully evaluate their rights and working conditions etc. Here is an excerpt from a Guardian investigation:

"Workers described forced labour in 50C (122F) heat, employers who retain salaries for several months and passports making it impossible for them to leave and being denied free drinking water. The investigation found sickness is endemic among workers living in overcrowded and insanitary conditions and hunger has been reported. Thirty Nepalese construction workers took refuge in the their country's embassy and subsequently left the country, after they claimed they received no pay."

Middle east, Europe and Americas can easily turn a blind eye to all of this, as none of their citizens are dying. Football authorities can not see past money and and their own interests. All these deaths are not just Qatar's fault. Everyone involved has blood on their hands. In the end FIFA will congratulate itself for the excellent tournament held with great logistics completely turning a blind eye to everything that happens before and after the tournament. All the stadiums will ultimately be junked and a multi-billionaire royal family somewhere will have had the last laugh having the pleasure of making the entire footballing world bend to fulfill its whims.

Well said mate, i agree anyone making money from this world cup knowing about the deaths of the construction workers should be ashamed.

Those working conditions sound appalling no idea how these practices are allowed to continue in day and age.

The whole thing stinks, no fecking good reason a world cup should be held in a tiny country like qatar. All these deaths and disruption to world football just because some ultra rich tosser decided he wouldn't mind hosting a world cup.
 
Well said mate, i agree anyone making money from this world cup knowing about the deaths of the construction workers should be ashamed.

Those working conditions sound appalling no idea how these practices are allowed to continue in day and age.

The whole thing stinks, no fecking good reason a world cup should be held in a tiny country like qatar. All these deaths and disruption to world football just because some ultra rich tosser decided he wouldn't mind hosting a world cup.

It all stinks. Some places just aren't suitable, end of. .
 
The designated drinking areas will sell expensive sponsor brews like Budweiser. No local drinking culture means no bars with atmosphere where you can try local brews etc. May as well stay sober.
 
I'm surprised the whole construction corruption angle hasn't been covered by the media. From the outside, it seems obvious that the main reason why, since Germany 2006, FIFA has favoured hosting World Cups with little existing infrastructure is the possibility of building new stadiums: nothing hides corruption better than juicy construction contracts.

The only way to stop it is fans unite and boycott the WC - sadly, never going to happen. Fans struggle to unite at club level so forget global. That leaves the powerful football associations - Germany, England and Spain - to take a stand. The English seem universally hated across FIFA - never understood why (lingering post colonial hangover perhaps?) - so any stand they take will be opposed. There's no chance that Spanish will complain. Real Madrid (Perez) owns a construction company that has won contracts to build the new stadiums and Barcelona have been in bed with the Qataris for a long time. Nothing will change and I suppose it's merely symptomatic of the world in general where large, powerful institutions unscrupulously feck over everyone else for their benefit.
 
I'm surprised the whole construction corruption angle hasn't been covered by the media. From the outside, it seems obvious that the main reason why, since Germany 2006, FIFA has favoured hosting World Cups with little existing infrastructure is the possibility of building new stadiums: nothing hides corruption better than juicy construction contracts.

The only way to stop it is fans unite and boycott the WC - sadly, never going to happen. Fans struggle to unite at club level so forget global. That leaves the powerful football associations - Germany, England and Spain - to take a stand. The English seem universally hated across FIFA - never understood why (lingering post colonial hangover perhaps?) - so any stand they take will be opposed. There's no chance that Spanish will complain. Real Madrid (Perez) owns a construction company that has won contracts to build the new stadiums and Barcelona have been in bed with the Qataris for a long time. Nothing will change and I suppose it's merely symptomatic of the world in general where large, powerful institutions unscrupulously feck over everyone else for their benefit.

I agree fans will not boycott but even for an enthusiastic football fan I think it will be important to have something to do on non-match days. A typical team will play every 4 to 5 days. Even if one goes to watch just 2 or 3 matches of their national team, there will be quite a lot of days to kill. Last few world cups have been held in countries (Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Japan etc) which are good tourist attractions. I am not sure whether Qatar has enough to keep people occupied. In my opinion this could be an important factor specially for fans coming from further away.
 
Any occasion is good to re-post this video which sums up the beauty of FIFA.



It's incredible that they're going to get away with this and apart from a few articles and angry people on the internet, that it won't cause that much of a stir. They're brilliant, they're like a more media-savvy SPECTRE.


I just want to say that because of that brilliant video I've vanished down a YouTube Last Week Tonight hole from which I won't return until about 2am tomorrow morning.

I thank you.
 
I just want to say that because of that brilliant video I've vanished down a YouTube Last Week Tonight hole from which I won't return until about 2am tomorrow morning.

I thank you.
You're very welcome, he's great! The Youtube clips have most of his 'main segments' of each show, but the whole show is well worth a watch if you have the opportunity. :)