When Sepp Blatter opened the envelope on December 2, 2010 to reveal that tiny Qatar had just won the right to stage the FIFA 2022 World Cup, the general feeling around the globe was of shock and bemusement.

Insults were hurled at FIFA, particularly Qatari-born Executive Board member Mohamed Bin Hammam, for allowing the biggest footballing event on the planet to go to a location hidden away in the Middle East.

It was alleged that Qatar's multitude of dollars, earned from its abundant gas and oil, along with FIFA's corruption bought the World Cup to the country.

Worse than that, we were told that drinking alcohol in Qatar was a serious crime, that fans displaying any sign of public intimacy are beaten on site before being locked up in jail and that the heat is so intense that you could fry an egg on the pavement.

Well it is hot in Qatar, but I quickly realised during my stay here that every other myth stated above is completely unfounded.

Qatar admittedly has a fair few dollars at its disposal and no one except the participants really knows what went on between the 22-man FIFA Executive Board members when they voted at the end of last year.

But to Qatar's credit, a lot of their money appears to have been used to create an unbelievable capital city that must be seen to be believed.

I arrived in Doha late at night and found myself standing in a beautifully clean and air-conditioned international terminal.

The terminal is incidentally adjacent to the brand new international airport which will be opened in around seven months and allow over 50 million people a year to pass through.

It was not long before I was taken to the city centre which is full of glittering skyscrapers, outrageously luxurious hotels and fascinating statues that appear to defy gravity.

Considering that alcohol is supposedly illegal in Qatar, I was rather surprised to find myself at a bar on my first night in the city and seated outside on a comfortable deck chair.

At night, the temperature in the country could not be more pleasant.

I found out the next day that it doesn't even matter how hot the country gets during sports events because in Doha, where money is no object, the revolutionary air-cooling technology simply comes into play.

The air-cooling technology was invented during the country's bid to stage the 2022 World Cup and can reduce the heat in a stadium down to 10 degrees regardless to temperature outside.

This technology is being made environmentally friendly and during the World Cup, will also be used at fan zones and at training venues.

It does not need to be used in any of the building in Doha because air-conditioning permanently runs in all of them.

It would be misleading to say that the heat at midday isn't uncomfortable or that there are pubs on every street corner because there are not.

But I ask having been here; why not give the World Cup to a country that can counter any environmental problem thrown at them and a country that is building at such a rate that by 2022, this city will be a futuristic utopia that those from foreign countries believed they would never see?

It is true that there is currently a limited amount to do in Doha, but Qatar is developing and developing fast.

Give it ten years and Doha could well make London look boring and out-dated.

Perhaps the most outstanding feature I saw during my stay in Qatar was the Doha Aspire Sports City complex which boasts the magnificent 50,000 capacity Khalifa International Stadium; a venue set to host a number of 2022 World Cup matches including a semi-final.


The stadium itself is perhaps the clearest example of the difference between Doha and my beloved home city of London.

The comparison starts because both London and Doha are bidding for the 2017 World Athletics Championships - London with the Olympic Stadium in Stratford and Doha through the Khalifa International Stadium.

Both venues are looking to stage athletics and football together but that is where the similarities end.

London's Olympic Stadium has attracted controversy from the moment the first batch of concrete for the stadium foundations was laid.

The huge row over who would get the stadium was long and bitter and it was perhaps telling to see that Tottenham, who lost out to West Ham in their bid to move into the venue, claim that athletics and football don't go together.

Fans, they said, will be too far away from the action and their plan for the stadium involved ripping up the athletics track that London promised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) they would keep.

Meanwhile in Doha, the not so difficult Khalifa Stadium problem will be solved by simply installing expensive retractable seating to allow the stands to slide forward for football matches and backwards for athletics meets.

In Doha, impossible is nothing.

So here were have a city doing the apparently unimaginable with a click of a finger.

So why shouldn't this country that will be able to build magnificent stadiums and create an outstanding legacy for sport in Qatar be able to host a World Cup?

Why shouldn't they be considered exceptionally serious candidates for the 2017 Athletics World Championships?

And when the imminent Doha bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games comes in either 2020 or 2024, why wouldn't you put your money firmly on Qatar?

Listen to false reports and you may disagree but any IOC Evaluation Committee that actually visits the place in person will very quickly be won over just as the FIFA Inspection Committee were.

So when that Olympic bid does come, I think I know who the next IOC President will pull out of the envelope.

After all, when you can air condition any stadium and create retractable seating at the drop of a hat, there isn't a lot that can stop you.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames who has been covering the 9th World Conference on Sport and the Environment in Doha