Qatar 2022: News and Analysis Only!

Middle of winter in June in Australia...

 

like SOUTH AFRICA.

 

More like the beginning of winter, which is probably still over 60 degrees F during the day.

 

Australia eh? Great footballing nation that it is, can't play domestic football until October because of Aussie Rules, the fans don't get behind the domestic game.

Everyone says no one watches Qatari football, I do, and Australia has 21 million more people but only about 12,000 more fans per game, talk of football loving is cheap.

And to say everyone thinks Qatari MBH is corrupt, hell, I wonder how FFA got into AFC then?

 

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=683763

7 January 2011
19:15
Qatar 0 – 2 Uzbekistan Khalifa International Stadium, Doha
Attendance: 37,143

12 January 2011
19:15
China PR 0 – 2 Qatar Khalifa International Stadium, Doha
Attendance: 30,778

16 January 2011
19:15
Qatar 3 – 0 Kuwait Khalifa International Stadium, Doha
Attendance: 28,339

21 January 2011
16:25
Japan 3 – 2 Qatar Al-Gharafa Stadium, Doha
Attendance: 19,479


Amazing how the attendance dropped for each game. They couldn't even get 20,000 people out for a quarterfinal against a popular Japanese team at HOME. Yes, I know Al-Gharafa seats 22,000, but it wasn't even sold out. Khalifa is around 50k in case you were wondering.

Also, note the above tournament took place just a month after the Qatar winning bid was announced. You'd think that would prompt higher attendance.

25 January 2011
19:25
Uzbekistan 0 – 6 Australia Khalifa International Stadium, Doha
Attendance: 24,826

Australia drew almost as well as Qatar IN Qatar for their quarterfinal match.




Average attendance for the Qatar Stars League: 4,211
Average attendance for A-league: 8752

 

Well, like you said, you'd think it would prompt a higher attendance, well it did. 4,000 avergae for QSL and then double figures for Asian Cup with one months notice during the holiday season, quite a leap if you ask me.

Seem's you favour Australia Dave although they went out in the 1st round. Seem's you favour an Asian World Cup even though USA were 2nd best and if Qatar had to withdraw then surely it would go to them?

 

Australia is a terrific country, but great stadia...not by a long shot. Several of the stadia proposed in the bid are actually Aussie Rules stadia (and thus circular), meaning that supporters would end up sitting miles from the pitch and with horrible sightlines.

Probably why Australia's bid only received 1 vote and was the first country eliminated...

 

Opinion from When Saturday Comes

More at the site of the best football mag...

 

Re: Opinion from When Saturday Comes

EuroSnobs at there finest. Destroying and Ruining the local leagues.

 

Australia is the choice for me because FIFA are obliged to award the competition to the Asian region. Were it up to me I'd just keep the tournament in Europe and have done with it.

Qatar have not even come close to qualifying for a World Cup, and to award such a team one of the thirty-two places just doesn't sit right with me. I'd have just as much a problem if the tournament were awarded to a European nation like Finland.

 

But Qatar very nearly did make France 98, so when you have very little knowledge like that then you don't really have a valid viewpoint or opinion on said subject.

In fact if they had won their final game against Saudi Arabia who were a powerhouse in the region at the time then they would have qualified.

 

If, if, if... The fact is, they didn't. I hope the World Cup in Qatar goes ahead though, just for the lulz it provides when it fails spectacularly.

 

...powerhouse in the region....says it all.

 

The fact is also that they were 1 game away, thats totally different from the previous poster saying they have never come close.

 

And that was true around the era we were talking about. Can't see your point in responding to that.

 

Just making the point that "powerhouse" is relative....that "powerhouse" in the region got waxed in wc 2002 7-0 by the worst German team in living memory...

 

Talking 98 world cup qualifiers and you suddenly jumped forward 4 years. Well done. Well researched. You'll get the result right one day.

 

Why are they obliged to award the tournament to Europe. North America was the only region not to be awarded the World Cup because they ended the cycle. By 2022 the confederation will not have had a World Cup in 28 years.

 

They weren't still a regionally powerhouse in 2002?

Also, that 98 Saudi team did what exactly in the WC? A draw against South Africa?

Fine, Qatar made it close to qualifying for the world cup once. Other than that, they have been crap. You happy?

 

I don't think technical aspects had much to do with voting. Our one lonely vote was more likely a result of us having no representation on the Exco (the only bidder for either World Cup to be in this situation) and someone deciding that every bidder should have at least one vote.

 

You're too generous. Qatar came fourth in a qualifying group of five, that's not my idea of close.

Sure, Saudi Arabia topped the group with only 4 more points than Qatar, but the reason that it was a close finish was because all of the other teams in the group took points off the Saudis. Whereas Qatar lost to them twice, without scoring a goal.

Meanwhile, if Qatar had conceded a single goal in Kuwait they would have finished bottom.

 

What, by finishing fourth in their second-stage group, losing four matches en route? One might as well offer the ridiculous suggestion that Lithuania should host the next European Championship finals on account of their missing out on a France '98 play-off place by a single point.

But they didn't, did they?

 

You are talking about one occasion my friend - a one-game scenario that took place thirteen years ago. Iceland were more recently one game away from qualifying for the Euro 2004 finals - should we use this to promote them as potential tournament hosts?

You quite obviously work for the Qatari propaganda ministry and I claim my five bucks.

 

Who cares how their national team has done? They could have a great team and that wouldn't change the fact that they're a horrible choice for WC host.

 

Agreed, but any argument against is always best bolstered by value-free sporting criteria. For instance I am not the biggest fan of Russia being awarded the WC in 2018, but at least the country does have a decent footballing history.