And the winner is … Qatar

You would have to have been living on another planet to not know that world football governing body FIFA awarded hosting of its 2022 World Cup to the Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar – the Qatari bid beating other, apparently stronger, bids from Australia, Japan, Korea and the USA. The wisdom of awarding the event to a nation with a population of less than two million with limited sporting heritage has been widely debated, as has the timing of the event: will it be held in January, during the northern hemisphere winter; or should it be held, as planned, in July, when the Qataris have pledged to deliver climate controlled stadia to counter the country’s extreme summer temperatures? Yet, Qatar’s hosting of the 2011 Asian Cup in January resulted from the event having been moved from its originally scheduled dates in July. The reason was that the Asian Football Confederation felt that playing the competition in Qatar in July would be too hot! Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management. http://www.ausleisure.com.au