World cup 2022 in Doha
In a dramatic turn of events the FIFA's executive committee voted Qatar to be the host of 2020 football world cup event. Amid controversies surrounding the choice of host nation the FIFA president Sepp Blatter's announcement has created a history of sorts by giving opportunity to bring the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time and help in building dialogue across the religious divide. And the world cup event promises to be a commercial bonanza.
The man behind the successful bidding of World Cup is none other than the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani whose campaign helped the tiny Gulf nation to be brought into the map of great sporting nations.
One of leading newspapers of the Arab regions showed lot of appreciation to the fact of Qatar's successful bidding for hosting the world cup. The leading newspaper daily quoted the turn of events as a major achievement for Qatar and termed the honor of hosting the FIFA World Cup to be distinct and under the leadership of Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani's competency and capability as a great historical milestone.
The normal bidding process involves years of intense campaigning and lobbying by the members of FIFA's executive committee representing their respective nations, can turn ugly as the date of actual bidding approaches near. But the bidding process for the forthcoming world cup was different from earlier ones in the aspect that the fates of two world cups were to be decided i.e. two host nations were to selected for the next two world cup events in the bidding process.
The lobbying was between two sets of groups of nations that were vying for a chance to host the world cups. The first group had nations like England, Russia, Spain and Portugal, Netherlands and Belgium bidding for the 2018 world cup. The race intensified and Russia somehow managed to get the bid to host the 2018 world cup.
The other groups of nations that were bidding to host the 2020 world cup had representations from United States of America, Australia and Qatar, Japan and South Korea. The different campaigning strategies of the bidders were quite strong.
The Australian campaign stated that it would turbo charge the football in Asian and Pacific region if it were to be given the hosting rights.
The South Korean campaign had a slightly somber tone and argued that hosting the world cup would help in bringing peace to the people of the peninsula.
Whereas the Qatar campaigning had its officials declaring that granting of rights to host a football world cup will be a historic opportunity and would help in building a dialogue across the religious divide and promises to a be huge commercial success.
The United States of America had a unique video campaigning that had appeals from present and past Presidents of the country.
Japan had a futuristic vision and promised to create 400 grounds with giant 3D flat screens that would give hundreds of spectators a unique world cup viewing experience in the stadiums.
In the final bidding stages Qatar managed to secure the rights of hosting the world cup event of 2020 and biddings were a very closely fought contest that really went down to wire. The event is going to be a truly special one since the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar not only represents it own people but is also the representative of the all Middle East nations.