FIFA Exec Thinks 2022 World Cup Won't Be Played in Qatar

It’s been a couple ~~months~~, ~~weeks~~, ~~days~~, minutes since the latest story about how the 2022 won’t be played in Qatar. The tiny Gulf State won the rights to host the tournament back in 2010 but has since been dogged by all sorts of questions ranging from the its temperature in the summer to its use of migrant labor to construct billion-dollar stadiums in the middle of nowhere. How could I forget, there’s also been the long-standing allegations that billions of dollars worth of bribes were a massive reason Qatar won the bid.

Monday there is more fuel to the flames that the 2022 tournament won’t be played in Qatar via comments from FIFA ExCo member Theo Zwanziger. From the Guardian:

"“I personally think that in the end the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar,” the German told Sport Bild on Monday. “Medics say that they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup taking place under these conditions,” the former German football (DFB) chief, who is now a member of the world football’s governing body Fifa that awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010."

These make for nice headlines, but Zwanziger’s personal comments don’t mean all that much or carry any weight. The more practical thing to watch is if and when FIFA approves the decision to move the 2022 World Cup to the winter months, if only to cut down on some of the heat issues. Whatever the other issues are about the Qatar bid, playing soccer games in 100 degree heat seems dubious unless the bid committee makes good on its claims of installing air conditioning methods inside stadiums.

Nasser Al Khater, Qatar’s executive director of communications, issued this statement, via the AP, about Zwanziger’s comments:

"“The only question now is WHEN, not IF. Summer or winter, we will be ready.”"

Something else to watch, for a long time we’ve heard rumors if the Qatar World Cup is moved that it would be awarded to the United States. Given how political everything is at FIFA HQ, I wouldn’t rule out Australia or another country from within the Asian Federation from stepping in as opposed to the U.S.

The good news? There’s still eight more years to hear variants of what Zwansiger said today.