On the eve of the World Cup (I can't believe it's next week already), we've got a bona fide World Cup scandal. Although, this particular scandal isn't really much of a surprise. It's a scandal that's been four years in the making. Ever since that day in December 2010 when they controversially awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Almost immediately the higher-ups at FIFA began to regret that decision. For starters, Qatar is oppressively hot during the months of June and July, when the World Cup is traditionally held. It's so oppressively hot, in fact, that FIFA President Sepp Bladder has said that, even with the air conditioned stadiums that were so highly touted in the bid, the 2022 World Cup would have to be held at a different time. That means either February and a conflict with the Winter Olympics or September/October and the start of domestic league seasons, as well as the other type of football in the U.S. Neither one's really that fun a scenario.
Then there's the fact that Qatar is the size of a postage stamp, so building hotels and everything to house the thousands of people who'd be descending on the country for the World Cup is kind of another problem. Oh, and they've got to build the stadiums, too. Yeah, that's not going so well. A number of workers have died during construction, and they're not exactly working in the best conditions (again, ridiculously hot in Qatar).
But all that pales in comparison to what the Sunday Times of London is reporting. According to the newspaper, Qatari FIFA member Mohamed Bin Hammam bought the election for his home country. They claim to have millions of e-mails proving Bin Hammam offered more than $5 million in cash and gifts in exchange for votes. This is the same Mohamed Bin Hammam who was banned from FIFA for life a year after the World Cup vote for trying to buy votes in the presidential election.
FIFA has appointed Michael Garcia to lead an investigation into these claims. And if Garcia can prove that there is some truth to this, there are plenty, including some high-ranking FIFA officials, calling for the World Cup to be taken away from Qatar.
None of this is actually funny, but the part that I find "funny" is that it's only now that people have started asking if Qatar bought the World Cup. Did they really need this scandal to come to light to ask that question? Ever since the results of the vote were announced I've been working under that assumption. How else do you explain a country that has no soccer history or any sort of infrastructure, as well as a bid with so many potential problems finishing ahead of countries such as the United States and Australia? That only makes sense in FIFA's eyes. To the general public, the vote has always been highly questionable.
After all, Qatar has been trying to buy major sporting events for years. Whenever they don't win, they cry about "closing the door on the Arab world." It couldn't possibly be that 110-degree temperatures aren't healthy, and that you can't ask world-class athletes to compete in those conditions! Qatar's money can only get it so far. Doha's many Olympic bids have failed because the IOC is never going to get caught in another bribery scandal again. Not after Salt Lake City. But in the World Cup, they found their event. This is the one they were able to buy.
It's been a long standing belief of many that FIFA is corrupt. This scandal has done nothing to disprove that notion. If anything, it's further proved people's suspicions. Although, I guess the good thing is that this will no doubt bring about some much-needed change and bring some transparency to the voting process.
If they can prove that the vote was tainted, FIFA has to take the World Cup away from Qatar. They won't have any other choice. I'm sure there will be plenty of legal challenges from Qatari officials, but there's no possible way for them to have all this evidence of corruption and vote tampering and still let them host. Especially since the selection was highly questionable in the first place. And it might be the easy way out, but taking the 2022 World Cup away from Qatar would also mean they wouldn't have to deal with the problem of figuring out when to hold it.
Of course, when and if they take the 2022 World Cup away from Qatar, the question then becomes "Who will host it?" The U.S. finished second in the vote and would be an easy replacement (no need to build the football stadiums that would be used). But do you just give it to the U.S. or do you have a whole new bid process? And if you did that, would you let Qatar bid again? Regardless, they've got eight years to figure that out. It's plenty of time.
One thing's for sure, though. FIFA wants this scandal to be over quickly, even if it means taking swift action immediately after this year's World Cup ends. Fortunately, the Brazil-Croatia game is less than a week away. For the next month, people will turn their attention to the soccer being played at the 2014 World Cup instead of talking about the "What ifs?" surrounding the 2022 World Cup. For FIFA, kickoff in Brasilia can't come soon enough.
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