Jonathan Clegg

Why?

Why was Qatar such an outsider?

Because the proposal was to host a World Cup in the summer in a desert country with no football infrastructure or history of playing the game.

Yep.

Hot, no stadiums.

Hot, no stadiums.

A country that had never been to the World Cup before.

No football history, no soccer history to speak of.

And like wild ideas about air conditioning the stadiums.

And it was just seen as completely fanciful, which is why it was sort of dismissed as a contender.

But in the months beforehand, there had been a sort of drumbeat of stories about how Qatar was trying to buy the World Cup.

And what they had done is they had secured a large number of soccer stars to endorse their bid and say, this sounds crazy, but it actually works.

perfectly reasonable to host a World Cup in the desert in the summer.

I think everyone knows how much I love food, and the food culture is very exciting in Qatar.

I'm going to meet Chef Noor.

All these guys were coming out and throwing their weight behind Qatar.

Each per player?

Yes.

Wow.

But even after all that, it was still not considered a serious contender.