Russia, Qatar to host Football World Cup 2018 and 2022
The 2018 and 2022 World cup hosts have been decided. The decision came out on Thursday by the 22 executive members of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Russia and Qatar are chosen to host the World cup in 2018 and 2022 respectively.
Russia received nine votes in the first round of voting and then went on to receive an outright 13 votes in the second round. The Russian bid to host the World cup was chosen ahead of the other countries like England, Spain-Portugal and Holland-Belgium. On
the other hand, Qatar received 14 outright votes in the fourth round of voting. Qatar bettered Australia, South Korea, United States and Japan.
The Russian deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was delighted with the decision and claimed that FIFA wouldn’t be disappointed by this decision to give Russia a chance to host the World cup for the first time. The Russian Prime Minister Valdimir Putin was
absent from the vote but would arrive in Zurich to thank FIFA for showing trust in his country. On the other hand, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad-Bin-Khalifa-Al-Thani was present in Zurich and he thanked FIFA for giving Qatar the opportunity to host such a big
event.
Qatar is the only Middle Eastern country to have the honour of hosting such a big international event. The oil rich country will be expected to do some construction in the region before the World cup in 2022. It is expected to renovate several existing stadiums
and build nine new ones which would cost around three billion Euros. The only concern in hosting the World cup in Qatar would be the massive heat rise in the country but they claim that this also happened in Mexico and United States in 1986 and 1994 respectively
when the heat levels were quite high. This didn’t affect the events back then and both the World cup tournaments were a success.
Russia will also be looking forward to develop the outdated infrastructure. Russia will host the World cup in 13 different cities. The main problem in Russia is that it is a vast country and due to its remoteness from other countries around the globe, the
fans might have concerns while travelling to the country and within the country. However, the Russian Prime Minister has assured that the travelling would be problem free for the fans and he would also ensure that commuting within the cities on public transport
would be free. He also assured that there will be no visa problems for the visitors who would be entering the country to follow their favourite teams.
The former England captain David Beckham was confident that England would win the bid to host the World cup 2018. David believed that everything possible was done to be the hosts of this mega event and he remained optimistic about the chances of England
until the very last minute. The decision would have disappointed the former English captain who was almost certain to be the host of the event.
Football is one of the most watched sports. To host a mega event such as the Football World cup is an honour for any country. Being the most popular sport across the globe, it also gives some challenges to the hosts to arrange the tournament with the best
possible facilities for the team, officials and the fans. Russia and Qatar have plenty of time to make the arrangements prior to the event. It has always been an exciting event to watch and the spectators will be looking forward to all the coming events. Many
other countries have been host to this event before but Russia and Qatar would get the opportunity for the first time in history and they will be looking forward to make the most of it.
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