For those of you whose news feeds and Twitter scenes haven't already been blown up by the news, the winners of the bids for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups have been announced. To the stunning disappointment of Americans who wanted the Cup in the latter of the two tournaments, neither event will be taking place in the States. So who got it? 2018 goes to Russia. Not really too interesting to me. But the 2022 Cup is going to take place in Qatar. Qatar. Where/what the hell is Qatar?
Time for a little worldly lesson for everyone who was in the same boat I was regarding Qatar. It is a small Arab country located on the northeasterly coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south. Other than that border, the Persian Gulf is what surrounds the nation. The picture above is of Qatar. Hey, I mean, that's not bad. Looks like a fairly beautiful scene. It is the smallest country to ever host the World Cup. Its land area is 4,416 square miles. If you want to put that in perspective, you could fit more than 800 Qatars inside of America. They have 1.7 million inhabitants. 3.8 million people live in Los Angeles alone. From a financial standpoint, the US obviously has a way higher GDP because of how excessively large we are in comparison. But when you look at the per capita numbers that divide that number over the population, Qatar is a fairly rich nation. Our per capita number is $46,381. Qatar has a per capita of $83,840. They have said the stadiums and everything will be fully air conditioned. Things will be nice. I'm actually somewhat excited for this World Cup.
I know it's 12 years away and I'll have passed the age of 30 by the time this thing actually happens, but I bet there will be plenty of hype when it comes. We're coming off one of the most hyped cups in a while this year in South Africa. Obviously I would have loved to see the tournament come to our own soil, but good for Qatar. I had literally never heard of them before this morning. Now they're putting themselves on the map. For all I know, they may have literally been omitted from maps beforehand. So they're putting themselves on it in every definition of the phrase today. Congrats, Qatar.
Surprised Qatar made it, as one of the counterpoints to their bid was the sweltering heat. But if they can AC their buildings (and they have the money to do so), it could turn out to be a nice venue. Brazil '14, Russia '18, Qatar '22. Time for a road trip.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: Come 2022, the previous four World Cups (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022) will have been played outside Europe -- there has yet to be two consecutive World Cups played outside Europe before this, and now there are going to be four in a row.
P.S. - I'll be there