Qatar Threatened With Withdrawal of World Cup

Qatar, the host of the FIFA World Cup 2022, is threatened with withdrawal of the tournament. According to German media website, Focus.de, FIFA will announce a decision in late summer this year.

After the scandalous World Cup allocation to Russia 2018 and Qatar in 2022, FIFA has recently changed its procurement process and will vote in the future with all 211 member countries on World Cup orientation.

In the vote for Russia and Qatar, only the 24 members of the former executive committee were entitled to vote - but because it was said to have been so unclean in their votes, now, it seems that many drastic consequences are possible.

As can be heard from the Saudi Arabia Sports Minister, Turki Al-Sheikh, Qatar is actually threatened with the withdrawal of the World Cup 2022.

Between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, conflicts have come up again and again. In addition to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt also imposed an economic blockade on Qatar in the last summer.

Now it is said from Al-Sheikh circles that Qatar will lose the rights to take part in the World Cup in September. According to the information provided by the minister, England or the US should act as hosts instead.

The decision by FIFA, which is already set and should be announced in late summer this year, is no longer deferred because of clear evidence of a vote-buying by the Persian Gulf Arab state.

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, had officially commented on the tournament in Qatar after the draw for the 2018 World Cup group at the beginning of December 2017: “Unfortunately, there is a bad past, we have to learn and look ahead, we organize the best World Cup ever in Russia, and then in 2022 we organize the best World Cup ever in Qatar.”

Qatar has been heavily criticized since the surprise World Cup bid winning in December 2010. A month-long investigation led by former Chief of the FIFA Ethics Committee, Michael Garcia, had produced many suspicious details but failed to substantiate the bribery of the electorate. Qatar has always denied any forbidden influence on the election as well as Russia, the host of 2018 World Cup.