So what’s the deal with Qatar hosting the World Cup?

Nate Silver takes on the confounding—and downright questionable—selection of Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup:

In contrast to the decision to award the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro ahead of Chicago, Madrid, and Tokyo — the four cities were scored similarly on technical merits, and South America had never hosted either the summer or winter Olympics before — this one is much harder to explain.

Of the countries in the running for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, Qatar was the only one designated as high-risk by FIFA, which expressed concern about its weather (summer temperatures can reach 110 there, although Qatar says it has developed technology to air-condition its stadiums), and its logistics (all 12 of its stadiums, none of which are fully constructed, are in a 20-mile radius encompassing its capital, Doha).

And if the downside to the Qatari bid was high, its upside is also questionable. The country has only 1.5 million people, according to the World Bank, but most are expatriates or migrant workers: the citizen population is closer to 200,000. Although Qatar might be thought of as staging the tournament on behalf of the Middle East in general, the region itself also has a fairly small population — about 350 million as the area is traditionally defined. And much of the infrastructure that Qatar develops for the tournament will be superfluous: all 12 of the stadiums that it constructs will be partially dismantled after the tournament (their spare parts, Qatar says, will be shipped off to developing countries after the World Cup).

So what explains the decision?

That is hard to say. A number of explanations have been suggested, and none of them seem to be entirely satisfactory.

He goes on with very detailed list of the variety of things that might have brought the future World Cup to Qatar. It’s good reading if you, like me, were entirely confused how this tiny country, with no infrastructure and no yet-built stadiums, could  possibly win the hosting duty.

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