Can you hear it? You can probably hear it best if you are in Monte Carlo right now, in a hotel perhaps, and momentarily mistaking it for something playing in the lift. But no. Get past the muzak. Attune your ears to one of Lord Sebastian Coe's favourite phenomena: mood music.

As the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) prepares to choose between London and Doha as host of the 2017 World Championships, they do so amid a crescendo of noise from both sides. But the noise has to be tempered, has to be disciplined. It is so easy at this moment to hit a wrong note, to create a jarring dischord.

Thus London can't be too heavy-handed about the fact that their opponents want people to run in conditions which will be uncomfortably hot for many of them, especially if they are competing in events on the roads. It may be cooler at night in Qatar but that can still mean temperatures bordering on 30 degrees.

Having visited Doha three times in the last couple of years I found it dizzyingly hot even walking around outside my hotel, albeit that my visits were in May rather than late September, the proposed time for the 2017 championships.

And, at the risk of sounding crass, I did spend a fair amount of time blithering about in the evenings looking for a place to buy an alcoholic drink before repairing to the bar in the gardens at the back of my hotel – and finding it shut. Last time I went out in Doha I visited the Souq Waqif, a lovingly reconstructed version of a souq that originally stood on or near that spot in the city.

The Souq itself was a warren of fascinating alleys and brightly lit shops selling clothing, rugs, antiques, ornamental swords, jars and candlesticks, while traditional food was also available from a range of street sellers. It was great. My two friends and I had a good wander before a really nice meal at a rooftop restaurant, surrounded by family groups. It was lovely food, and a lovely atmosphere. It's just that at one point – well, at several points to be honest – I heard a strange lip-smacking sound emerging from one of my compadres and as our eyes met over our cola drinks we were momentarily as one. Desperate for a beer.

But that probably can't be mentioned. And the question marks which have been raised over the efficacy of the air conditioning technology at the heart of the Doha bid also cannot be mentioned by London if they want to maintain decorum.

For their part, those representing Doha might love to stick a well-aimed boot at London's lamentable attempts at keeping its word to the IAAF in the space of the last decade as they have promised and then failed to deliver on the subject of the World Championships not once, but three times. Fourth time lucky, as they don't say...

Doha's announcement this week that they will cover the £5 million prize fund for the Championships, with the added suggestion that this might enable the IAAF to plough funds they might otherwise have had to spend into youth development, looks like a pretty keen thrust.

London are responding with decorous, but subtly coded messages. Their announcement that they have had support from 100 athletes around the world, including the likes of Tyson Gay, Fabiana Murer, Tirunesh Dibaba, Steven Hooker, Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie, Carmelita Jeter and Tatyana Chernova – as well as the three shortlisted women for IAAF Athlete of the Year, Valerie Adams, Vivian Cheruiyot and Sally Pearson – adds powerfully to their insistence that theirs would be "an athlete-centred" championships (as opposed to – what? Non athlete-centred championships? Nobody is saying that of course).

The quote offered by the bid's chairman, Ed Warner, linking the 100 athletes to 100 years of history also nods towards one of London's greatest virtues. This, after all, is a city which was hosting athletics as part of the Olympic Games more than a century ago.

Coe, the Bid President, chimes another bell with his comment on the supporting athletes: "They are clearly so excited and enthused by the idea of competing in a championships where their needs have been addressed and where they will compete in front of a full passionate crowd."

So two things there, then. Another prompt that this will be a venue and atmosphere in which athletes will feel relaxed. And a reminder of more of London's undeniable strengths – the historical support it has offered for athletics, and the depth of knowledge about the sport which most spectators would have.

So who's going to get the vote? Well, 18 years ago in Monte Carlo, as the International Olympic Committee made its final deliberations as to who would be awarded the 2000 Olympics, I asked that same question of an athletics writer who probably understood the politics involved as well, if not better, than anyone – the late John Rodda of The Guardian. He said it was too close to call. If all that knowledge is not enough to provide a secure prediction, then I think I will just have to attune my ears to the mood music myself and await the final bar. As it were.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.