FIFA announced today that Russia will host the football world cup in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
Sepp Blatter, FIFA president announced: “We go to new lands. Never has the World Cup been in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world have been waiting for a long time so I’m a happy president when we talk about the development of football.”
The election of Russia and Qatar continue with the development theme after South Africa became the first African nation to host the cup earlier this year.
Russia won the 2018 cup after overcoming challenges from England and joint bids from Netherlands/Belgium and Spain/Portugal. Some observers worried that Prime Minister Putin’s non attendance in Zurich as well as WikiLeaks revealing US claims that is sees Russia as a “corrupt autocracy” may have damaged Russia’s hopes of winning the cup.
The 2022 world cup winners Qatar had to overcome challenges from Japan, Australia, South Korea and the United States to win the cup.
The decision to award two world cups at once was a first for FIFA.