
"For summer temperatures, we can completely eradicate the inhibition of hosting the World Cup because of weather," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the son of the emir and who heads the bid committee. "What we have created now is for large open space to be cooled and for a large number of people to enjoy their time as they would any other month."
There are nine bidders for the 2022 tournament. Seven of those -- including England and the United States -- are bidding for either the 2018 or 2022 event, while Qatar and South Korea are only vying for the latter.
The small but wealthy Gulf nation has used sport to try to boost its international profile, staging the Asian Games and becoming a stop for several major tennis tournaments. Qatar will host the 2011 Asian Cup football tournament.

It also will have to contend with perceptions that a conservative emirate where drinking is limited to hotels would be unable to provide a festive atmosphere for fans from Europe and elsewhere.

"For the first time, all fans can experience a compact World Cup," Mohammed said.
"Every stadium will be within one hour of every other stadium and each stadium interconnected with a state of art metro system that will be completed in the next nine years," he said. "They can attend two to three matches on a daily basis if they want."
And when the World Cup is over, Mohammed said many of the stadiums would be downsized and some 170,000 seats taken out and given to developing nations as part of a scheme to build football fields in refugee camps, schools and other locals.