I agree with the first comment on this article:

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8438089/UEFA-reveals-that-Euro-2020-will-be-co-hosted-by-13-different-countries

As if holding a World Cup in Qatar wasn't ridiculous enough, now this. Platini, please go away.

I don't see a problem with a world cup in Qatar. yes its in the Middle east but its in a settled, calm, advanced, gorgeous nation.

Im pretty sure South Africa is more prone to Problems then Qatar is.

Man... cue Jet Lag & problems  with money!

My issue with it, COYS, is that they will have to, literally, build all the stadiums specifically for the WC, waste all that money on venues which will not be used after the tournament, hosted in a nation with zero footballing history, overlooking (and denying) having the WC in real footballing nations who have been waiting decades for their next tournament...

Just because the Qatari royal family paid FIFA for it. 

That's not cool, man. It's not about the 'region'.

You are right. Qatar has no footballing history and some nations probably deserve it more then Qatar.. but its the region, the middle east has been waiting decades decades and more decades for something like this to arrive, the middle east/north africa loves football 100 million times more then those yanks, weve been waiting for decades and decades and decades for this one glimmer of positivity and joy,
 weve had enough with Political ,religious and secrretarian conflicts, i think enough people have died for us to deserve a little 2 month period of happiness to get away from all this bullshit we call "progress and advancement and democracy". The Yanks sit on there asses and never see a day of struggle but still get this spectacle to come to there nation, and the Yank have football history?
 i dont think so. Our people work for a living every day and struggle bleed and sweat,go through war and oppression on many different levels, football is the one thing we are able to gather and do that will help us forget about all this bullshit for altleast 90 minutes.. Lucky that our "Religious" leaders dont take that away because they think its sinful or distracting, hope the Government doesn't think were using football to plot a revolution. I hope that we dont get beat by cops on the way out of the stadium.

for me its not the nation it is the region, you might be right that the royal family pulled some strings.. but hasnt Europe and the America's hosted enough world cups?

Everyone was happy that the struggling Africa finally gets the World cup, but when its for us, THERES A PROBLEM!

These mere 2 months might change the lives of these people forever and they can live knowing something truly positive happened in there lives. Knowing that just for 2 months they escaped war, Secretarianism, Political bullshit and tyranny for alittle and smiled a lasting smile.

Well said, COYS. I would give you both my thumbs up, but I can only give you 1 :P. +1. But hopefully by 2022, all the revolutions and political conflicts will be gone or toned down by a lot.

@COYS: The US has only hosted it once, and yeah, many people believed that it was strange. However, before we agree that Qatar (and the Middle East in general) and the US have no footballing history, we should remember that, yes, the US is extremely stable, and had more than ample facilities already in place.

In short, all it took for the WC to come to the US was for the US to get organized. For Qatar? 

Well, here's some of the work needed, and this is just a start: http://beerandsoccer.com/2010/09/17/closer-look-qatars-bid-to-host-the-world-cup/

As for South Africa? The African continent has held a more than welcome place at the table for over 2 decades, man, from the successes of Nigeria and Cameroon in the 90s, to the rise of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Egypt as footballing nations. They're well respected, and while I would have preferred that one of the other African nations would have gotten it, obviously South Africa was the only country with the resources to do so.

None of the above applies to Qatar. I mean no disrespect, but none of the above applies to the Middle-East, period, if, as you say, it is about the region.

It's true that perhaps the WC coming to the Middle East would give the Middle East a break from their problems, but, I also feel it's true that those problems are of their own making, and that bringing the WC to it is a reward which is not merited. Who do you think the real benefit of this tournament will go to? The people of the region, who have a month to cheer about something before the problems return? Or the governments of that region who will rake in the marketing/revenue boosts, and continue to hoard the wealth generated by this 'event of the people'?

The whole world over has problems, and don't forget: this is the whole world's tournament, too. Many nations take football a LOT more seriously than Qatar, and we sure as hell take the World Cup seriously. It's bigger than the Olympics. For many (even most) nations, the World Cup is the single most important sporting event in existence. The lives of whole nations revolve around this singularly (and uniquely) magnificent spectacle. In some countries it is more important than their elections. It's not just a 'party' that moves around, or a 'break from everyday life'; it's what we build toward and look forward to for 4 whole years.

Is it fair to all those nations, and all those billions of people around the world who take the World Cup seriously that it is going to be held in a nation which does not do so, which is only doing this as a money-making scheme, in an unstable region of the world, just so FIFA can pretend as though it's trying to 'spread the love' around?

This may be incredibly arrogant, and if so, then I apologize for that sentiment. But the WC is not a toy, nor is it a gift. It's the collective hopes, dreams and pride of every footballing nation on the planet, brought together for the biggest and best showing possible.

And in 2022, it'll simply be a carnival for rich Qataris to make some more money. Forgive me for not being terribly inspired by that, for all my cushy life in the West.

@COYSPURS

I agree with you. Hopefully the WC in Qatar will help out the Middle East in sorting out their political and religious problems. And I'm happy that the WC is finally being held in a unique country for once. The only problem I have is the excessive heat in Qatar, but there's nothing we can do about that one.

As for the EURO 2020, this is ridiculous. Can you imagine the jet lag and mental and physical pressure on the players? The tradition is to have either one country, or two neighboring countries host it. This is just ridiculous. What if you have to play one game in Moscow, and your next game is in two days' time in London? Travel half-way around the world for this? Ridiculous. F*ck off Platini. I want the Europa League back.

Well excuse us for having no footballing history before the 60's or so.

Its not like the European powers occupied our nations for hundreds of years and Didn't allow us independence until the 1940's to 70's. How were we able to have footballing history if we had no independent nation's to create history with?

also you might of Forgot Saudi Arabia's run in 1994  in the USA and Algeria's amazing gameplay that defeated the likes of Germany in 82.
And the North African dominance of the AFCON at a point and the Middle Easter Domination of the Asian cup before as well.

Amongst other preformances. For a majority of our region to gain independence in the mid 1900's we haven't done too bad.

"Well excuse us for having no footballing history before the 60's or so."

Sure. But that, at the end of the day, is the point. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the political situation/history of the Middle-East, because this is a football forum. And Qatar are not a footballing nation, nor do they appear to have any footballing ambitions. This is being done for money, and that money is not going to go to the people of the country or the region. I think you're vastly overstating the effect the WC will have upon the region, and even if your guess was correct, it still doesn't change the fact that it's not FIFA's job to have that effect.

FIFA's role is to govern football. That's it. In choosing Qatar for 2022, they've let football down, severely, in my opinion. 

"also you might of Forgot Saudi Arabia's run in 1994  in the USA and Algeria's amazing gameplay that defeated the likes of Germany in 82."

You're right; I did forget about them. However, I put that down to them being pretty forgettable, not because I'm biased. :p

Senegal once beat France, at a World Cup. Is that 'history'? Should Senegal get the WC for it?

I feel you're making emotional arguments rather than sensible ones, dude. Like I said, I'm not attempting to be arrogant or callous, but whatever problems you feel might be solved/alleviated by the coming of the World Cup are problems to be solved in real ways, and are certainly not the business of FIFA to try and solve. In fact, I would go so far to say that the moment FIFA attempts to do so, they fail the world of football, and give false hope to people who need real solutions.

FIFA's job is not to play politics. FIFA's job is to govern football. Qatar hosting the WC does nothing for football, and deprives other countries of the tournament.

Sorry, but that's how I feel about it.

the only countries that should host WC are the ones that at least play football regularly... Qatar doesnt even have a professional league! Brazil would be a complete football party everywhere but in qatar there is probably people that don't know yet they are hosting a future WC. Why would Qatar be considered as an option for hosting such an important tournament if there are so many other countries, even in Asia, who can supply the fans and football a much more decent scenario and spectacle...

@Tuanis

Sometimes you need a change in scenario. The WC has been in Europe and South America plenty of times. That's why the 2010 one was so special, because it's the first time it's been held in Africa. Likewise, this is a special occasion, but only if the people of Qatar can clean up the messes in their country in time for the WC.

One might hope that having such messes already cleaned would be a criteria for nations to even bid for a World Cup. 

Yes Qatar will be making a lot of money out of this. But the venues are going to be beautiful and there are MANY Arab football fans that you don't know about. Plus people are coming from all over the world.. Guys, football is a passion for us but it is a business to those that run it, we must accept that because it will always be like that.

Since when has the World Cup been about 'business', tdot?

Find that point, and you'll find where things started to go wrong. There are football fans in every country, but that doesn't mean that every country should be hosting a World frickin' Cup.

What would you have said if 2014 was awarded to Ecuador, instead of Brasil?

It would have been every bit a joke as giving it to Qatar is.

Well I know Qatar is filled with tourists. Tourists that probably are from Europe? Europeans that love football? Business.

Plus crazy Arab fans.

I bet the Bahamas get more tourists. Shall we host it in the Bahamas? Business!

Notice how not a single argument FOR Qatar hosting it has anything to do with football.

Well the thing is, Bahamas don't even nearly get as much money as Qatar yearly. They wouldn't be able to invest in amazing football stadiums like Qatar. But to be fair, World Cup in the Bahamas would be amazing :P. I've always wanted to go to one of their water parks.

The fact that Qatar has to invest in such stadiums is what is alarming, to be honest.

And, just what manner of stadiums are we talking about? Stadiums which will be built to be pretty. Stadiums which, just like in Korea, will be built to also host athletic events. Stadiums with no history, no passion, no atmosphere, which everyone will have to travel half-way around the world to pile into, and virtually none of the attendees will be local.

Just like South Africa, in fact.

Take a look at Brazil, by contrast. In a year and a half, the entire world will be flocking into and zooming in on stadiums which have seen the likes of Pele and Garrincha, Sokrates and Emerson, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. The final will be in the Maracana, from where Zico ruled the entire footballing world in the early 1980s... there will be history, passion, legendary appearances, all in the very country that is unparalleled for footballing success, and to which the entire world looks for its next batch of new superstars...

Is anyone going to suggest that Qatar is going to be the same? Anyone?

It's going to be a marketing scheme to make oil-rich princes even richer. Everything will be sanitized, boring, lifeless and a waste of what could-have-been, if it had instead been given to a country like Spain, or England, whose people would treat the World Cup like the beautiful thing it is, instead of just something to make money from. Whose people would flock and pile into every stadium, to watch every match, to fill every fixture with the type of passion and atmosphere which breathes life into the sport in the first place.

THAT should be the World Cup.

Let Qatar have the f-ing Olympics, instead.

Woah woah woah... Chill. World Cups don't always have to be place that was historic. Hell, then make the World Cups in Europe and South America forever then if that's the way you see. Give Qatar a chance. Don't you get it? When they get to Qatar that is where history will be made for them. I'm sorry if you don't agree but for god's sake just let us Arabians enjoy top quality football in real life instead of TV. You guys have had enough World Cups in Europe. Can we know get to see one? It's not just about passion in famous footballing nations. We are extremely passionate about the game as well. And thankfully Qatar have got the money to make this a World Cup one Arabians will never forget. It will be amazing. Many people from different nations coming in, big fancy stadiums, and football history to be made for the first time in the Middle East. You wait and see, it will be something. Something different and something special for all the fans of the world.