The tournament may not be all bad…
A FIFA task force, including Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, yesterday met to discuss the solutions to the hosting of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, coming to the conclusion that a winter World Cup, starting in November and having a December 23rd final, would be the best recommendation.
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The decision has caused uproar in European football, as it is now likely that seasons of leagues up and down the continent will be decimated due to the tournament, not least in England’s Christmas fixture campaign.
The news of a Qatar 2022 World Cup is not all bad though, here are five reasons to be positive:
Giving other countries a chance
A World Cup in Qatar presents the first time a Middle Eastern country will have hosted the tournament and continues FIFA’s commitment to making football a truly global export.
USA saw the benefits of this in 1994, followed by Japan and South Korea in 2002 and South Africa in 2010, we will now see Russia in 2018 and of course Qatar in 2022. Seeing how much of a frenzy was whipped up for each one of those tournaments, yet more excitement to a nation simply trying to be part of football’s global family can’t be bad.
Players will be fresh
In the past three World Cups, England captain Wayne Rooney has played an average of 50 games in a season, before then jetting off to play for the national side, in a busy Premier League season which has no winter break for players to catch their breath.
If, as is widely expected, the tournament is given the go ahead to happen through the months of November and December, the average Premier League player will have only played in 14 games. This will no doubt result in England being a completely different prospect and critics will no longer be able to use the excuse of burnout.
A winter World Cup could produce England’s best chance of winning the trophy since 1966.
Money solves everything
Money has dominated the coverage of the proposed Qatar Cup in 2022. It is common knowledge that the emirate nation is oil-rich and as a result, per capita is the most wealthy nation in the world.
The knock-on effect of this means that fans, players and in fact anyone associated with the month long festival of football can bank on no stone being left unturned as the nation of Qatar try to deliver a truly spectacular showpiece. It has already led to the employment of luminaries such as Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola to endorse the event.
The 2014 Brazil World Cup came under questioning due to the lack of transport infrastructure in the country to host a major tournament and was criticised for ‘not being ready’, there is little to no chance of this happening in Qatar.
Amazing stadia
Following up the monetary point of view, the entire nation of Qatar will we decked out in a swathe of state-of-the-art stadiums which are guaranteed to dominate the landscape in a grandiose statement of wealth.
Almost as soon as Qatar had been announced as the 2022 hosts, chiefs announced the construction of nine new stadiums costing in the region of $4 billion. Chiefs will also be acutely aware of the marketing potential, with a global audience watching on the viewer can rest safe in the knowledge they will go above and beyond to deliver a state-of-the-art, hi-tech spectacle.
An African challenge
African nations have historically suffered at the hands of more established European and South American countries, being touted as perennial minnows which a side would be embarrassed to lose to.
Recently. following a first World Cup on the continent in 2010, which captured hearts and minds in South Africa, there has seen a rise in popularity and quality from the sides who have been underdogs for so long.
Pele once said that an African side would win a World Cup before the 20th century was over and while that prediction didn’t come true, he may not be too far off. Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana have all reached quarter-finals in the past 25 years, in another seven years time who is to say where the African game will have developed to?
When looking at a possible candidate to win it from Africa, you’d have continental champions Ivory Coast near the top with world-class players such as Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony and Didier Drogba having hailed from the nation.