Qatar 2022

The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the 22nd FIFA World Cup, an international football tournament that is scheduled to take place in Qatar in 2022. It will be the first Arab country to host the World Cup and the first time it is held in the Middle East region. The tournament will involve 32 national teams, including that of the host nation, and will consist of a total of 64 games, assuming the current format of the finals is maintained. The scheduling of the event remains uncertain; however, Sports Illustrated reported on 18 February 2015 that the event will be staged from mid-November to mid-December. Owing to the climate in Qatar, concerns have been expressed since the bid was made about holding the event during the traditional months for the World Cup finals of June and July. In October 2013, a task force was commissioned to consider alternative dates and report after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. On 24 February 2015, the FIFA Task Force proposed that the tournament be played from late November to late December 2022, to avoid the summer heat between May and September, or clashing with the 2022 Winter Olympics in February and Ramadan in April. Commentators have noted the clash with the Christmas season is likely to cause disruption, whilst there is concern for how short the tournament is intended to be. Accusations of corruption have been made relating to how Qatar won the right to host the event. FIFA completed a lengthy investigation into these allegations and a report cleared Qatar of any wrongdoing, but the chief investigator Michael Garcia has since described FIFA’s report on his inquiry as “materially incomplete and erroneous.”