Qatar made a bid for only the 2022 World Cup. Qatar was attempting to become the first Arab country to host the World Cup. Failed bids from other Arab countries include Morocco (1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010), Egypt and a Libya-Tunisia joint bid withdrew in the 2010 World Cup bidding process.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, son of the former Emir of Qatar , was the chairman of the bid committee.Qatar planned to promote the bid as an Arab unity bid and hoped to draw on support from the entire Arab world and were positioning this as an opportunity to bridge the gap between the Arab and Western worlds.
The bid launched an advertising campaign across the nation in November 2009.
Some concerns with Qatar’s bid deal with the extreme temperatures.The World Cup is always held in the European off-season in June and July and during this period the average daytime high in most of Qatar is in excess of 40 °C (104 °F), with the average daily low temperatures not dropping below 30 °C (86 °F).
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the 2022 Qatar bid chairman, responded saying “the event has to be organised in June or July. We will have to take the help of technology to counter the harsh weather.
We have already set in motion the process. A stadium with controlled temperature is the answer to the problem. We have other plans up our sleeves as well.”The first five proposed stadiums are planned to employ cooling technology capable of reducing temperatures within the stadium by up to 20 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the upper tiers of the stadiums will be dis-assembled after the World Cup and donated to countries with less developed sports infrastructure.
President of FIFA Sepp Blatter endorsed the idea of having a World Cup in the Middle East, saying in April 2010, “The Arabic world deserves a World Cup. They have 22 countries and have not had any opportunity to organise the tournament.” Blatter also praised Qatar’s progress, “When I was first in Qatar there were 400,000 people here and now there are 1.6 million.
In terms of infrastructure, when you are able to organise the Asian Games (in 2006) with more than 30 events for men and women, then that is not in question.”Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup received a huge boost on 28 July 2010 when Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Mohammed Bin Hammam threw his weight behind his country’s campaign.
Speaking in Singapore, Bin Hammam said: “I have one vote and, frankly speaking, I will vote for Qatar but if Qatar is not in the running I will vote for another Asian country.”Qatar has already hosted the AFC Asian Cup in 1988, FIFA U-20 World Cup 1995 and the 2011 AFC Asian Cup .