hmm, so since 94 MLS has managed to take hold in the US, and since 2002 it has grown in Japan & Sth Korea, and that tells you it should go back there, rather than another new country or 2? Of course it was bent, but if the objective of FIFA is to popularise football in places where it hasn't taken hold, then Qatar makes more sense than sending it back. Of the ME countries it's probably one of the more stable and secure, I imagine the perfect scenario for FIFA would be a WC split between Pakistan and India, 2 huge countries where football is just starting to take hold, just a shame that hate each other too much to see it happen. Or China, which is definitely a 'developing market'.
I wasn't saying that it should go back to those countries, but that they had justifications for selection at the time that they held them. Qatar has a population that's lower than that of Wales. It's 142nd in the world in those terms. China, Pakistan or India would all be far more legitimate in terms of growing the game, I agree.
Plus none of those countries has temperatures that reach 50 degrees celsius during June. Even Pakistan and India have cooler summers in those months with a ton of rainfall, the biggest threat would be monsoons.
I’m sure Australia would host a superb World Cup. It is ****ing miles away from almost everywhere else though - that might explain the lack of support for their bid (that and the lack of brown envelopes they dished out).
