Analysis of Bids for 2018 World Cup — Part II

Let’s begin Part II of our analy­sis of bid­ders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup with a sur­prise entrant whose deep pock­ets could sneak in and win the right to host a World Cup.

QATAR

The oil-rich nation with plen­ti­ful nat­ural gas reserves would become the 1st Arab nation to host a World Cup. Accord­ing to the CIA World Fact­book, Qatar has the high­est per capita income in the world so the money to build new sta­di­ums and ren­o­vate cur­rent sta­di­ums to FIFA stan­dards is there. In the cap­i­tal of Doha, there is a rev­o­lu­tion­ary under­ground sta­dium sched­uled to be com­plete in 2010. The plans are the coolest for a sta­dium ever seen, imag­ine WC Matches played there. WOW!. The ques­tion is will they have enough clout in FIFA to win the vote?

Out­look: A long­shot but undoubt­edly the most intrigu­ing of the bid­ding nations. 2022 is their best bet.

RUSSIA

The world’s largest coun­try placed its bid know­ing that the sheer size of the coun­try presents big infra­struc­ture prob­lems. Rus­sia is much like Eng­land in that Moscow has a ton of sta­di­ums like Lon­don does. Russia’s sta­di­ums would need upgrade and orga­niz­ers would have to keep the matches west of the Ural Moun­tains to avoid Siberia & the time zones. Ear­lier talk of the Eng­lish FA back­ing Russia’s Euro 2016 in exchange for Rus­sia drop­ping its 2018 WC bid is dead.

Out­look: Wor­thy of con­sid­er­a­tion but won’t get 2018 or 2022.

Bids from Asia & Europe have been made and now let’s take a look at the 2 CONCACAF nations that could host the tournament.

MEXICO

His­tory could be on the side of Mex­ico when it comes to their bid at becom­ing the only nation to host 3 World Cups. 1970 WC was Pele’s last and 1986 WC was the Maradona Show, that might not mean as much as the new sta­di­ums being built by Mex­i­can league teams. Chivas, Mon­ter­rey, San­tos, Cruz Azul are among the clubs build­ing new sta­di­ums. 1994 was the last time a CONCACAF nation hosted a World Cup, 2018 may be the year to bring it back.

Out­look: Major con­tender, #2 con­tender of nations out­side of Europe. Pre­vi­ous mag­i­cal World Cups favor Mexico.

UNITED STATES

The host of the 1994 World Cup has been the land of boom­ing sta­di­ums since Brazil defeated Italy on PKs in the final. It seems like every team in a major sport in the States has a new sta­dium or arena. There are no real weak­nesses other than not hav­ing much clout amongst the FIFA Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee. Sug­ges­tion: Play the final at FedEx Field its the largest sta­dium in the NFL (90K+ capac­ity), its close to D.C. (the U.S. cap­i­tal), and the Rose Bowl is played out as the cen­ter­piece sta­dium of sports in the U.S. Also, the new Dal­las Cow­boys Stadium.

Out­look: Fierce con­tender, #1 con­tender of nations out­side of Europe, slight edge over Mex­ico because of the qual­ity of the infra­struc­ture and the stadiums.

Well there it is. Let’s us know what you think about the nations men­tioned and if you can think of any other nations wor­thy of con­sid­er­a­tion. We are aware that China & Japan are in the mix so let’s see what hap­pens with their bids. Despite their his­tory, a China/Japan joint bid would be inter­est­ing. Tell us what you think.

Tagged as: 2018 World Cup, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, United States