Qatar is not far from the World Cup, a unique and very controversial place that will host the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. Here's everything you need to know about Qatar's choice to host the 2022 World Cup, including the countries it defeated, the controversy and the general process for the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) to choose the site of the World Cup. tournament.
How does FIFA choose the venues for its World Cups?
The process of choosing new venues for the World Cups by FIFA has been changing in recent years, but generally it begins with a call for candidates, a stage of analysis of those candidates and then the voting among those that have fulfilled the requirements.
According to the official manual published on the occasion of the process of choosing the venue for the 2026 World Cup —begun in 2016—, which led to the triumph of the candidacy of Canada, Mexico and the United States, it begins with the approval by the Council of the FIFA, the decision-making body, of the general principles of the call and the requirements for the candidates.
From then on, a stage is opened to receive the applications and adjust the documentation, which in the case of the 2026 World Cup took about a year.
After the call is closed, the FIFA Council analyzes the candidatures and, if necessary, shortens the list of finalists.
Finally, the FIFA Congress, the organization's legislative body, meets to vote on the finalists and choose a new venue for the World Cup. For the 2026 World Cup, the entire process took just over a year and a half.
The host election process for the 2030 World Cup is expected to start in 2022, with the vote by the FIFA Congress taking place in 2024.
One of the most important requirements is that the confederations that have hosted the previous two World Cups may not present themselves to the current call. Therefore, countries from Asia (represented by Qatar in 2022) and North America (represented by Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026) will not be able to apply, leaving the way open for those in Europe, Africa and South America.
What candidates were left out?
In addition to Qatar, also Australia, South Korea, the United States and Japan submitted their bids to host the 2022 World Cup. Indonesia and Mexico showed their intentions, but later canceled their bids.
In the case of the United States and Mexico, they would later win the bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup, also with Canada.
The controversy surrounding the election of Qatar:
Qatar's election has been surrounded by controversy. A 2014 investigation by the English newspaper The Sunday Times claimed that the Arab country paid more than $5 million in bribes to secure support for its candidacy.
The accusation, based on emails detailing the alleged payments, gained momentum as Qatar was considered a "high risk" venue according to FIFA's own reports, given the intense heat, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius. The situation has led to the championship being moved to November, in an exceptional measure.
The Qatar 2022 Bid Committee denied the allegations at the time. "We vehemently deny all allegations of wrongdoing. We will take all necessary steps to uphold the integrity of Qatar's bid and our lawyers are looking into this matter," he said in the statement.
In 2018 The Sunday Times published another investigation, this time accusing Qatar of running an operation to spread negative propaganda about its two main rivals in the bid for the venue, the United States and Australia.
Qatar responded at the time by saying it rejected "every single accusation put forward by The Sunday Times".
Since then, both the US Department of Justice and the French Prosecutor's Office have been investigating these allegations.
What will be the next venues?
After the 2022 World Cup concludes this year, the next World Cup will take place in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
The process to decide the host of the 2030 World Cup has not yet opened, but Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay are negotiating to offer their candidacy together. Spain, Portugal and Morocco were also analyzing a possible candidacy, according to Reuters.
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