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ALL sporting eyes in the Middle East will tomorrow be cast towards events in Zurich to see which countries the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has decided will host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 and 2022.
The Middle East has a vested interest in what many describe as one of the quirkiest bids of all time, emanating from Qatar. Its bid is considered by many from outside the region to be 'odd' given the extreme heat that competitors will face in the summer months. This is compounded by the small size of the country, making it difficult to demonstrate its capacity to provide a legacy.
Qatar has developed some innovative solutions. Fully air-conditioned, temperature controlled stadiums will be powered by solar energy, making it, Qatar claims, the first carbon neutral World Cup Finals in history.
To overcome the concern about legacy, Qatar has unbelievably promised to move its stadiums to some of the poorest football nations after the tournament - a real winner!
Should they be successful, the whole of the Middle East will benefit through increased tourism and interest in the local game and culture.
The race to host the World Cup started way back in January 2009 with national associations having to register their interest by February 2 last year.
This is the first time that FIFA has elected to decide on two successive hosts at the same time. Originally intended to save themselves the cost and aggravation of hosting this event every four years, the decision has back-fired with corruption and collusion coming to the fore with countless allegations.
The FIFA Executive Committee meet in Zurich tomorrow to vote to decide which candidate will host each of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. The multiple round 'exhaustive ballot' system is to be used, meaning that, once each of the members has cast their vote, the candidate receiving the fewest votes will be eliminated for the following round. In the event of a tied vote, FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, will have the deciding vote.
Normally there would be 24 members voting, although the bids have been surrounded by controversy, most notably with the suspension of Reynald Temarii (a French FIFA vice-president) and Amos Adamu (the Nigerian president of the West Africa Football Union) who were exposed by a newspaper posing as lobbyists for the US for 'guaranteeing'votes for $800,000.
As these members are now ineligible to vote there will only be 22 votes cast in each round, meaning that 12 will be sufficient to win.
Further controversy has surrounded the English and Russian bids that have frequently criticised each other, breaching official protocol preventing such comments, resulting in apologies and retractions.
There were originally nine bidders for the 2018 event and 11 for 2022, although, given FIFA's rotation policy there was an expectation that Europe would be successful for 2018. In October this was whittled down to four, resulting in only bids for 2018 from England and Russia along with joint bids from Belgium and the Netherlands and Spain and Portugal. The race for 2022 is much more open with sporting powerhouses Australia and the US bidding against Japan, Qatar and South Korea.
So who will win? The 2018 bid looks competitive. Russia has the financial muscle yet faces problems over logistics while England is considered to be the 'safe' option with the assortment of stadiums and infrastructure already in place.
While England recently achieved success in a similar bidding war for the Olympics, I have a feeling that the constant bickering with Russia will leave the door open for the joint bid from Spain and Portugal who will ride the wave of Spain's on-field World Cup success in South Africa.
In my opinion, the bid to host the 2022 World Cup is easier to narrow down. I believe that there are too many Asian countries bidding to effectively compete. The US is my favourite to succeed given their proven track record for hosting massive sporting spectacles and the scope of the commercial activities available, although Australia also ticks many of the right boxes.
The first World Cup was hosted by Uruguay in 1930. The decision to host the 20th and 21st now rests with 22 men, average age 63, arriving in Zurich from places as broad ranging as Chesterfield and Tahiti. What a challenge they have. The world awaits.
