(ATR) Qatar is the country that most deserves to host the 2022 World Cup, according to World Football Insider's latest poll.
An astonishing 14,659 people responded to the survey that closed on Monday.
The tiny Gulf state, which is bidding to bring the FIFA World Cup to the Middle East for the first time, received a staggering 4,650 (31.7%) of the votes.
Surprisingly, Australia and USA - two of the bids expected to provide a serious challenge to Qatar - did not feature in the top three places.
Japan was ranked second with 3,186 votes (21.7%), while South Korea collected 3,069 (20.9%).
Australia garnered only 2,660 votes (18.1%) and USA was in last place with just 1,094 (7.5%).
The results of the WFI Poll come less than 24 hours before World Football Insider launches its second World Cup Bid Power Index.
The analysis published on Wednesday will gauge the progress of the nine bidders in the race for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the bids as they enter the final months of campaigning.
FIFA's 24-man executive committee will select the hosts on Dec. 2.
The new index shows some changes in the top three places that were occupied by England, Russia and Australia in the the February edition.
FIFA is widely expected to award the 2018 World Cup to Europe, with England, Holland/Belgium, Russia or Spain/Portugal battling it out to stage the tournament. If 2018 headed to Europe, the race for the 2022 World Cup would be a fight between Australia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and USA.
The WFI Bid Power Index is the only regularly published review of World Cup bids that is based on expert analysis and first-hand contact with the bid nations, including interviews with bid leaders and information and figures from each of the bids.
WFI’s newest poll asks: Who will be the leading scorer at the World Cup?
Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Wayne Rooney (England)
Robin van Persie (The Netherlands)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
David Villa (Spain)
With reporting from WFI editor Mark Bisson (mark@worldfootballinsider.com)
Your best source of news about the global football business is World Football Insider
Get Free WFInews bulletins
Click Here
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
