Qatar? Really?

Over the last few months, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), has been looking around the world for countries that could host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

Fox Sports even ran a convincing article on the USA 2022 bid, showing how hard it would be to vote against it.

George Mason University was one location looked at as a possible practice facility if the United States won the 2022 bid. The university's student media newspaper, Broadside, ran an article about it that can be seen here.

While England appeared to be a frontrunner, with the United States close behind for 2022, FIFA announced that Russia would host the 2018 Cup and Qatar would host the 2022 Cup:



While the announcement of Russia was a bit surprising, listen to the audience reaction and the reaction of the BBC commentator when Qatar was announced.

With the western world shunned by the committee, western countries have cried out that something is wrong with the governing body itself.

BBC Sport showed concern with the fact that England, Australia and the United States received a total of six votes between them in the first round even though they appeared to have the strongest bids. England was eliminated in the first round of 2018 bidding, Australia was eliminated in the first round of 2022 bidding, and the United States fell to Qatar in the final, fourth round of 2022 bidding.

England's 2018 bid chief executive has even called for the country to stop bidding until the process is reformed.

In a sporting event that brings the citizens of a country together and boosts nationality worldwide, the voting and bidding is taken as seriously as economic summits, like the one held in South Korea and executive elections.

Reform of the process might come, but it will definitely not come before Qatar, the smallest country to ever win a bid, works the bid in 2022.

Even Bill Clinton, the leader of the free world for eight years, could not convince the voters. But he has some thoughts on why our country lost.

Maybe Qatar really did give FIFA a way to say "here’s a good non-terrorist, non-bigoted way of embracing the modernization attempt of the Middle East," so he thinks.

But do we really have to go through the new TSA screening process in 2022 just to see a soccer game or two?