I've learned 2 things from Qatar getting the World Cup in 2022: Hardly anybody in the media can pronounce it, and the average temperature will be 106 degrees during the matches.
Having grown up in the region, that number surprised me. I thought it would be closer to 110.
As far as the committee taking bribes? Not a big surprise.
Finally, I love Reuters. My brother used to work for them as their TV guy in China and elsewhere. I have a Reuters hat, and I'm always delighted when one of my jokes lands on their website.
But this sentence?
"Allegations aired in a British television documentary by the BBC that three long-standing members of FIFA's executive committee had received bribes from the body's marketing partners ISL and that a FIFA vice-president had ordered World Cup tickets for himself to sell on to touts were bad enough."

I'm sorry, but that's clunky.

Interesting point about the different pronounciations of Qatar. Personally, I know how to say it correctly, but rarely will I do so. That type of correctness in speech seems to reflect a certain phoniness.

Sort of like people returning from a trip to another region and with an accent they did not have before, or non latinos who insist on saying Sotomayor with a "rolling L". Heavens, I can barely stand it now to hear Mr Obama mention Pakistan.

"Guitar" for "Qatar" is close enough for me in any US arena.

Gosh,

I guess FIFA didn't read the wikileak cable on how most financing for terrorism is collected during the Hajj, when the faithful are panhandled constantly by "charity workers" who descend on them like so many locusts.

They might have wondered if choosing Qatar might raise millions more for terrorism from Muslim fans out to enjoy the subliminal warfare of world cup soccer. There won't be any European fans there, they'd be way too scared to go hang out in Qatar for the riots that will take place there.

Luckily, the 2010 world cup Algerian player who slapped a female reporter in the face for reporting on his personal life will probably have artificial knees by then.

This has been going on with FIFA since the last time we tried bringing cup games here. Say what you want about the NFL, but at least they are public about selling out.

Everything associated with it is anti-social. Anyone that cared should have been outraged during the World Cup. Schools bulldozed for new stadiums, kids evicted from their classes, vendors that have sold at existing stadiums for decades summarily rounded up, without warning, at the arbitrary behest of some mega sponsor that thinks there should be a minimum cordon around the venue...

And it's boring as hell. I follow cricket and soccer seems unreasonably tedious to me. It's a bloody spectacle. It contributes nothing positive. Even it's major contribution to the British language, to "put your hand up" for something, celebrates behavior after committing a foul. It's the closest footy comes to personal responsibility.

It's the old story; tribal gone mega professional, gone commercial.

Professional sports = slime.