The best thing for FIFA to do after last week’s fairly incredible (uncredible?) votes to send the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively, would be to pipe down. Because when FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke says things like the Qatar heat in June, when temperatures average between 105-115 degrees will “never be at the detriment of the players or fans, or anybody,” it all sounds a bit like the description of Kim Jong-Un’s birth on a sacred mountain under a double rainbow.
Anybody who’s visited Las Vegas during summer and tried to do anything but gamble or sit in the shade by the pool can attest that sand and sun aren’t usually the recipe for athletic feats.
Rather than defending technologies and stadiums that don’t yet exist, why not consider playing the tournament in winter? It is 12 years away, after all. FIFA might want to think about trying to prove that their unusual votes weren’t corruptly influenced.
That would be a story worth listening to.
– Craig Stouffer
