One of the countries against them is Egypt, not exactly stable. Part of what is going on is Egypt, run by an authoritarian, and four monarchy countries are annoyed by Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is based in Qatar and is the most legitimate and open news source in the region. Saudi Arabia complaining that Qatar is a source of terrorism is a farce. Another factor is Qatar does more business with Iran than any other Sunni Arab country because they both have lots of natural gas. I rip on the Qatar bid for the labor conditions and treatment of homosexuals and women as much as anyone, but I think the World Cup should stay now, and there's an argument that the light is has shed has improved worker conditions in the region (not that the Qatari's wanted it to, but, via sources like the Guardian, more people paid attention). I also think that now World Cups are going regional, Qatar might be the last chance to experience a small country World Cup.
Well, if few planes are going in and out of the country, no materials are going into their country to build things, and 40% of their food supplies are going to be impeded from reaching their destinations it is going to be difficult to host a happy and glorious World Cup as they were projecting. But alas, they have 5 years to figure out how to get out of this mess.
"Qatar might be the last chance to experience a small country World Cup." Yes, but the small country we are talking about is corrupt, exploitative, bigoted Qatar. For me, it is like saying we should let little Coventry City play for the FA Cup, even though there are about a hundred better choices out there.
For the most part there is little to "no comment" about the current situation officially from FIFA. Somebody at FIFA is commenting though: The head of Germany's soccer federation says that "political solutions must have priority over threats of boycotts" in the five years ahead of the World Cup in Qatar. Reinhard Grindel was asked in an interview posted on the federation's website Monday if there are questions over whether the 2022 tournament can be played in the Gulf state. He said that, independently of the current situation, "the soccer community worldwide should agree in principle that big tournaments can't be played in countries that actively support terror." Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries severed ties to Qatar on Monday, accusing it of supporting regional terror groups. Qatar has denied the allegations. Grindel said "we take note very attentively and with concern of the current, serious accusations." Grindel is a member of FIFA's ruling council. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article154360254.html
While I agree the Saudis going after the Qataris for even tangentially supporting terror is the pot calling the kettle black... it doesn't negate the fact that it does look like the Qataris do have some role in supporting internationally recognized terror groups from what was leaked.
Don't quite understand the Coventry City analogy but totally agree about the small country bit as if this was a proviso. North Korea is a small country. Let us not forget that Qatar is a totally bent allocation and even Fatter did not realise that Qatar was going to get it and he thought the USA was the plan.
Today's development is clearly about the Saudi Arabia-Iran proxy war in the region and to a lesser extent the Qatari support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (but that disagreement only led to ambassador recalls in 2014). Saudi Arabia lecturing anyone on questionable funding is rather amusing but let's not dive into the (very complex) political landscape here. We have the politics forum for that. The bottom line from a Qatar 2022 perspective is that the longer this goes unresolved the stronger the case (i.e. political cover) gets for FIFA to remove the tournament. The current FIFA leadership, if you can call them that, are quite cozy with China and that would seem like a quick fix keeping the World Cup in the AFC. I'm sure another Chinese sponsor can quickly replace Qatar Airways.
I was going to type up something along these lines. Can they be ready at a moment's notice though? Japan may be more ready at a spontaneous pace
Well, they built some infrastructure for the Beijing Olympics and I don't think the CSL stadiums need that much work. Japan would be a good choice too, but the frontier FIFA seeks is China. I think China could be ready in 2-3 years.
These terrorism funding allegations aren't exactly new. To date no liberal democracy has cut diplomatic ties with Qatar or pushed for sanctions. Either these allegations are overblown or financial interests weigh a lot heavier than righteousness in the developed world. In any case, until the usual suspects like the US or EU sign up to punish Qatar this should be considered a regional power spat. The way things stand FIFA isn't going to remove the tournament over alleged terrorism funding. They will justify it with concerns around infrastructure completion.
as much as I would love for the tournament to move almost anywhere and away from Qatar, they're so far into stadium and infrastructure construction that I think it's a very slim chance it'll move unless something much more substantial than this comes up. From a strictly selfish point of view of where I think I'd have a good time, China would be cool but Australia (or a joint Australia/New Zealand bid) would be my top choice, not just in AFC but anywhere in the world. But I think we're stuck with Qatar and that this latest development isn't going to change anything unless it somehow escalates into a lot more than cutting of diplomatic ties.
I think it all depends how long this lasts. Qatar is wealthy enough to shrug off a few months but if it drags into several years the country will definitely feel it.
Fair enough --- as I read more about the situation, I get what you are saying. It still begs the question though about sponsors of FIFA. I wonder how Coca Cola, VISA, Budweiser and McDonalds are feeling right now?
It is not a secret that China want to bid for the 2030 WC, China is now bidding for 2023 AFC Asian Cup, a lot of construction plan had already announced. The CSL clubs are requested to build their own stadium or joint construction with local government,as part of the technical demand of the League. the CSL want to host 2019 and 2020 FIFA club world cup, some clubs had started their project Tianjin Quanjian - a 45,000 seated soccer venue planed to be open in 2019 Hebei CFFC - had started the counstruction of CFFC stadium earlier this spring, Capacity 46,000 Special football Venue, will be open in 2019 Shanghai SIPG - the SIPG had started joint construction with Shanghai Government to build a 56,000 capacity football Venue in Pudong Area, planed to be open in 2019. Guangzhou Evergrande & Guangzhou R&F - on June 2016, Guangzhou Government announced the plan of a 80,000 Capacity football Venue in cooperation with Two CSL clubs, it will be built in Panyu District, planned to be open before 2020. Jiangsu Suning- their boss who is also chairman of Inter Milan，had announced that Suning Group will build a New stadium for Jiangsu Suning club Chengdu - the city doesn't have any CSL clubs currentlly，But it is a regular home city for Team China， planned to built a 60,000 Seated Football Venue，planed to start construction in 2018.
I think the Europeans would clamor against Australia due to kickoff times not being optimal for their television audience.
Just about all these sponsors operate in Qatar outside of their FIFA sponsorship. Even Budweiser is sold in Qatar. As long as liberal democracies deem Qatar an appropriate environment for business so will companies and sports governing bodies. That is the reality of the matter.
The ongoing Gulf spat has caused chaos in terms of sports television rights and coverage. For example, my BeIn sports package in the UAE has been blocked. Good thing Friday's Switzerland qualifier is on Abu Dhabi Sports! Elsewhere Egyptian clubs Al Ahly and Zamalek will not allow BeIn cameras into their stadiums in spite of being the exclusive rights holder of the CAF Champions League for the MENA region.
Ahh... maybe then it's good to be on this side of the spat afterall. I'd invite you over to watch a game, but don't know how you'd get here without flying via Oman or Kuwait, or if they'll let you in with a UAE residence visa in your passport.
To meet an 8PM kickoff time in Central Europe China needs to kick off at 2AM rather than 4AM local time in Eastern Australia. You are right that it makes a difference but it doesn't make that much difference and Europe still doesn't get evening games in a China world Cup. I suppose its easier to get a kickoff around 4PM with a China world cup (10PM in China as opposed to midnight in Sydney, But Australia still has a time zone that is the same as China, although only one potential host city in that zone. Time zones is what had the biggest impact on potential profits for FIFA when the bids were first considered.
And then add in the high likelihood that games in NZ would be part of any Australian WC, especially considering its a 48-team WC. That's another 2 hours further forward. But yeah... either way 20h00 CET kick-offs aren't happening. In any case, Europeans don't know what awkward kick-off times are all about. Even a Sydney WC final would mean a 13h00 Sunday afternoon match for them. Not so rough. How would they like 4h00 to 7h00 like in North America?