Qatar and Russia World Cups make sense

who is this author? Does he think Qatar make s sense if you are gay or lesbian.....would be interested to hear reply......

Briberi.. is all i can say.. Australia should of had this.. if it wasn't for money exchanging hands under the table..

I've been to Qatar for a business trip.

Everyday, on my hosts' advice, I took the taxi from my hotel to the company. It took precisely 2 minutes.

One day I thought I'd be adventurous and walk.

It only took about 10 minutes but was the most uncomfortable walk I had every had.

I arrived at work drenched in sweat, gasping for breath and almost unable to move for 30 minutes.

Ridiculous climate!

Air-con stadiums? It's an outrage on all levels... environmental, sporting, cost...

Quatar will be an interesting World Cup. Being a Muslim country, alcohol is banned. Where are the hooligans going to get their daily dose of "courage" from?

I'm English so was naturally hoping that football would go home, but I can just about live with Russia - biggest country in the world, proper football culture, never hosted it before. A case can be made.

Qatar is a bad joke. It's FAR too small to host a world cup, it's too hot, you can't get a beer, they don't have anywhere near enough hotel rooms nor any sensible plan to build them - how does a country of 1.6 million plan to accommodate 400,000 visitors? There is simply no justification for this, and the only conclusion for this is that a lot of Fifa delegates made a lot of money on this. Shameful.

American Bud is the McD of Beers, not much of a sponsor.

Lets see how Quatar & Russia will do, some very nice cities in Russia.

"leads to more young Russians playing and watching football, steering them away from vodka," Psst. Hey. Budweiser Beer is a 2014 FIFA World Cup™ Sponsor. Nuff said.

rubbish. Both not the best choices, specially Qatar.

Russia is fine, but there are many other places in the gulf region that make more sense than Qatar. It's hard to imagine a place that makes less sense than Qatar. Why not give the world cup to Singapore?

"Qatar and Russia World Cups make [non]sense"

Don't you think that FIFA should instead be sending a message to Russia and Qatar that they will not award them with a World Cup until get their houses in order ? And that FIFA should be awarding the World Cup to countries who do have democracy and human rights as a message to the others ?

Now why would they do that? These guys are as morally and ethically bankrupt as the IOC. These guys at FIFA seem to be following their lead in everyway - open to bribes and giving tournaments to crooked regimes - Beijing 2008, Moscow 1980 and going back even further Berlin 1936 spring to mind as examples there.

Does anyone else get the feeling that this article is a waste of time ? If any news site needs a page filler, then here it is. How can a tournament for a sport famous for it's greed and lopsided riches, make Russia and Qatar better places to live ? Explain to me Mr. Leicester, exactly how the World Cup tournament will stop mafia activity in Russia and improve womens rights in Qatar ? Don't you think that FIFA should instead be sending a message to Russia and Qatar that they will not award them with a World Cup until get their houses in order ? And that FIFA should be awarding the World Cup to countries who do have democracy and human rights as a message to the others ?

Oh, and hold on a minute. Yes, there it is. The anti-muslim/ anti-Islam rhetoric rears it's ugly head yet again. Just when you think this journalist is writing a serious piece about the smaller footballing nations being awarded the World Cup, he breaks into a religious rant.

The choices were certainly intriguing, but bonkers too - Russia is totally corrupt from end to end and will need massive infrastructure development seeing as the games may be thousands of miles apart - sounds like a logistical nightmare. Qatar doesn't even have enough space for the stadiums - is the whole country as big as Tokyo? And the 50-degree summer heat? They say they'll build huge air conditioning systems for the stadiums, which sounds environmentally ruinous. I think at least one of 2018 or 2022 should've gone to Spain - they won it!