COVID might just be the break that Qatar was waiting for! Ok, not really, but hear me out.
Much concern was had about the fact that the number of people who generally attend the World Cup is larger than the population of Qatar, the 2022 host. But with COVID it seems likely they may greatly reduce the number of fans actually in attendance. By 2022, Qatar can certainly handle creating a (hopefully COVID free) bubble for the athletes to compete in, but if most of the world is still unvaccinated, there’s no reason to shove millions of people into the country.
There are still the issues of slave labor and the ludicrous move to November, of course.
Qatar hosted the 2019 World Athletics Championships (track and field) in October of that year. No daytime events, but even at 8:00 in the evening it was over 80°. The marathons began at midnight, with temps over 86° and 70% humidity for the women and 84°/50% for the men. The women’s winning time of 2:32:43 was the slowest in WC history. No athlete died during the competition, but all agreed the conditions were completely unsuitable for a track meet.
The Qataris are going to have to start the soccer matches late in the evening, and I doubt the world will be seeing the best soccer.
I don’t think it’s the corruption that makes FIFA not care about US soccer fans. Sure they’d like more money out of the US, but they are far more focused on places where soccer is the #1 sport already. The Middle East throws a ton of money around on soccer (and not just on bribes to hold a World Cup).
I watched some matches from the UEFA Club World Cup in Qatar…damn those are nice stadiums, though they managed to wear down a couple of sections of the pitch, so I’m not sure how good the grass is.