Russia has evaded bids from England, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium to claim the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On the other hand, a surprise victory for Qatar’s bid for the 2022 edition of the tournament will take the World Cup to the Middle
East for the first time.
The results were announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday. The decision was reached after FIFA’s 22-member executive committee cast its votes on the presented bids.
Qatar beat competition from Australia, Japan, South Korea and USA. Australia and USA were seen as the front runners for hosting the 2022 world cup but their respective bids failed. FIFA’s decision to award the tournament to Qatar has already started receiving
criticism. It is argued that the temperatures during June and July, the time when the FIFA World Cup is held, soar up to 50 degrees Celsius. Another issue being questioned is the fact that the stadiums proposed to host the World Cup fixtures are very close
to one another.
The most high profile bid in the Zurich voting was of England. From day one, it was predicted that either Russia or England would be awarded the competition. England’s bid however suffered quite a few set backs on the way. The investigations carried out
by BBC Panorama and Sunday Times on the FIFA member significantly hampered England’s chances of winning the bid. England’s final presentation was attributed to be “excellent and remarkable” by Sepp Blatter.
England was represented by big names in Zurich. Prime Minister David Cameron, David Beckham and Prince Williams all witnessed the 2018 world cup being awarded to Russia. "I think we're all gutted. We felt over the last 18 months we had an outstanding
bid. I think we had the best bid technically,” England’s 2018 bid adviser Sir Keith Mills said. On Cameron, Beckham and Prince Williams he stated,
“I think our three lions did an outstanding job.”
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