2018 and the 2022 World Cup goes to…

Well even though this news came out today I’m sure you know already, especially from my last post, that the U.S. was in contention for the 2022 World Cup bid. Something we haven’t been able to host since the 1994 before soccer was even remotely big in this country and when MLS was pretty much a laughing stock to the rest of the world. And yes I have to give it up they’re definitely improving thanks to getting overseas players.

The World Cup bids today were finally announced at the podium with the 2018 World Cup going to Russia. Russia? I don’t know if I have a huge desire to go there despite being partially Russian but I can live with that.

Drum Roll please! As he opened the envelope and read it aloud I could not believe what I had heard. The 2022 World Cup will be hosted by Qatar. Say what?

Ok back when I was a geography buff I used to throw out Middle East country names like Oman and Qatar so I sounded smart. And people had no clue what I was talking about. But for real this is happening. I have to be honest that I’m extremely bummed that we lost the Olympics and now we lost the World Cup. What is going on!?

Not that I want to give a geography or topography lesson on Qatar but just so you understand why this is such a big deal is that this country, which is only roughly the size of San Francisco, is the first country to host the Cup in the entire Middle East.

I will tell you that I really do enjoy FIFA and I think they do a really great job at expanding soccer to new parts of the world and giving people who might never get a chance to see soccer, will get to see it in their backyard now.

“We go to new lands,” FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

And that’s a real bold and adventurous statement. It’s only going to make the number one sport in the world more popular so I can’t disagree there. But for me I think I’m going to attempt to make it to the 2014 World Cup which is hosted by none other than powerhouse Brazil.

This begs the question: Anybody wanna come?

-Matt Smith

Tags: 2018 World Cup, 2022 World Cup, World Cup in Qatar, World Cup in Russia