You have plenty of dunes and beaches, lots of shopping and restaurants, a few different museums. Matches going on from 1pm-midnight.
temperatures will be as hot or hotter in host cities in the US in June/July 2026, and there are some uncovered stadiums. Completely concur with your second comment. I've yet to find a single thing that interests me outside attending the matches in Qatar. Watching matches I don't attend on TV in soulless hotel bars paying $20 a beer doesn't excite me either.
These outbreaks happen about every 4 years. Usually the year of United States presidential elections. I think Coronavirus will be contained, gone or we've learned to live amongst it by the end of 2022.
It could be less of a hazard if spread out over various cities though. My vote is Germany if it is moved.
That is the thing about viruses. You just never know. And as has been pointed out in a previous post the Spanish Flu in 1918 had a 4th wave in 1920 so it is not impossible for Covid or some other mutated strain to be around winter 2022.
If they strip Qatar of it. USA should've won the bid in 2022 but if you host in 2022 due to pandemic November - December now makes sense I want a warm climate. USA would have NFL teams occupying those stadiums at those times.So they are out. Germany would be too cold. Give me somewhere warmer like Spain.
Germany seems to be the best at testing and dealing with this type of pandemic according to statistics. They are also one of the few Countries that can host a World Cup tomorrow at the drop of a hat due to their organization and efficiency. I would say start it in October or something. But Spain would not be a bad option. Just not sure they would be as organized.
if the virus is either still around or a subsequent wave is hitting in late 2022, I think it's much more likely they postpone the tournament but keep it in Qatar. As much as many of us would absolutely love to see it moved to just about anywhere else, I think that is extremely unlikely in any plausible scenario. As much as it pains me to say it, the opportunity to move it passed long ago. With stadiums already built and so much money already invested, it's not going anywhere.
Those group stage times convert to 9PM, midnight, 3AM and 6AM for my local time. R16 & quarters are 2AM and 6AM, Semis 6AM and final and 3rd place matches 2AM. Lots of sleepness nights coming up as usual.
They're bad here on the US west coast at 2:00 AM, 5:00 AM, 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM for the group stage. The final would come on at 7AM which is better than 2AM though. Neither is ideal.
2006, 2010, 2014 had the most ideal time slots for Europe, Africa, and The Americas. Not ideal for Japan, China, Australia but watchable. In 2018 and now 2022 they are going with 6pm local time kickoffs for the final which is good for locals but sucks for everyone else. If they'd start the match just a few hours later it would be prime time in Europe and Africa, lunch time in much of the Americas and early morning breakfast in East Asia and Australia the next day.
It would be good for FOX Television though. Only one match time slot would really conflict with Saturday College football. And none would conflict with NFL football because they can just show the match in that Sunday late time slot on FS1 cable network.
College football will essentially be ending its season. The first two Saturdays of the World Cup is all they have to worry about. The second of those Saturdays they don't have an early college football game. My guess is Michigan and Ohio State will still get their Noon eastern Saturday after Thanksgiving slot. World Cup will be on FS1 at that time. Any other college football game that they have the rights to will go to FS2, Big Ten Network or PAC12 Network. They may even utilize FX if need be.
In a COVID world, having the WC in one (or two nearby) cities is actually ideal IMO. Minimizes air, train and bus travel. And of course the stadiums are not going to be completely full if the virus is still an issue. So it is not far off what NHL, NBA and MLS are in the process of doing right now. And if there is a vaccine it will be easier to ensure that the general population of the host cities are vaccinated. That would be more difficult if the WC was spread over an entire continent like in 2026. [Not that I'm suggesting that the Qatar WC is a good idea, in general]
It's usually not. And if it is, the low 80s and virtually cloudless and dry is pretty much standard "hot" for that time of year - which is absolutely lovely. The dew points are almost always minuscule at that time of year in the Gulf.
The immediate option would be mid-2023 - Concacaf, the CAF and the AFC would have to move their continental tournaments, and there'd be hell to pay from the press if FIFA ran the Men's and Women's World Cups concurrently/in the same summer, but it could be done.
On another note...I spent way too much time thinking about how Concacaf could have a WCQ route with a final round of 8, and it's dawned on me that there is a format that could accomplish several goals at once: 1. Giving everyone in Concacaf a shot at a direct berth to the WC finals at the start; 2. Appeasing FIFA by guaranteeing that the direct qualifiers have to play more than 6 games; 3. And fulfilling Montagliani's commitment to making sure the smaller sides' WC hopes don't get snuffed in only two games. So here goes - and this is dependent on FIFA offering a special window in January 2021 for make-up games if October and November of this year are unplayable. --- Oct 2020 - Concacaf Nations League finals; Gold Cup playoffs (single-elimination or in groups of 3); WCQ Round 1 playoffs: bottom six teams* drawn into 3 home-and-away series - winners move on, losers end up in Tier II Nov 2020 - WCQ Round 2 playoffs: all 32 teams drawn into 16 home-and-away series. Winners move on, losers end up in Tier II Mar 2021 - WCQ Round 3 playoffs: 16 winners from Round 2 drawn into 8 home-and-away series. Winners end up in Tier I, and are drawn into 2 groups of 4. Losers end up in Tier II (27 teams in total), and are drawn into 6 groups of 4 and 1 group of 3. Jun 2021 - Tier I matchdays 1-2, Tier II group stage matchdays 1-4 Jul 2021 - Gold Cup Sep 2021 - Tier I matchdays 3-4; Tier II group stage matchdays 5-6, after which all group winners + the best second-place team (determined UEFA-style with results against teams that finished in 4th place not taken into consideration) get drawn into quarterfinal series. Oct 2021 - Tier I matchdays 5-6 - winner of each group qualifies for the WC finals; Tier II quarterfinals Nov 2021 - Tier I playoff between runners-up in each group - the winner qualifies for the WC finals, while the loser ends up in the 4th-place playoff; Tier II semifinals Jan 2022 - Tier II final Mar 2022 - Tier I 4th place/Tier II winner playoff Jun 2022 - Intercontinental playoffs, 2022-23 Concacaf NL begins (concurrent with UEFA NL) * Gold Cup playoff participants exempt
This. Its extremely wishful thinking that they would move the WC out of Qatar because of a global pandemic (since the moon is not a viable option). Just a very basic observation: the epicenter of COVID is moving around - from China to Italy to Spain to US to Qatar to Brasil to Chile. Where things seem good today could be a shitshow next month, and vice versa (except for the US which has been a shitshow throughout and will continue to be). For all we know Germany could be the epicenter 3 months from now. My point being, moving the WC is a decision that needs to be taken a year in advance (at least). Fat chance predicting anything about this virus one year out. If anything, I will predict that the Euros may revert to a Qatar-like tournament (i.e. held entirely within one small EU country).
Yeah, the weather is the only good thing about Qatar. I see that the sun also sets relatively early (5:30ish), so I'd imagine the temps really drop off after that time which is when most matches are played.
The temps in any urban area are unlikely to drop as much as you might expect. Inland some it might, since that's a generally dry time of year despite the Gulf.