World Cup: Qatar saboteurs will go scot-free

Soccer fans must face a hard truth: When it comes to world football, Australia is a sardine in an ocean of sharks.

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Sheika Mozah bint Nasser al-Misned after it was announced Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup. Picture: AP

Let’s get one thing straight — FIFA will not be taking the 2022 World Cup off Qatar.

Sure, the latest revelations about the involvement of “black ops” to undermine the bids from Australia and the United States back in 2010 are shocking and need to be dealt with.

As whistle-blower Bonita Mersiades, who is the former head of corporate affairs for Football Federation Australia and was an Australian World Cup bid team member, has suggested, it is incumbent of the the world governing body to investigate the extraordinary claims made in the Sunday Times in which it was revealed the Qatari bid team ran a secret propaganda campaign to undermine the bids from their main rivals — a clear violation of the World Cup bidding rules.

But, that is where it will stop because there is a snowflake’s chance in hell of FIFA either conducting an investigation into the allegations or stripping Qatar of the rights to stage the World Cup in four years time.

There is too much to lose.

Simply, the horse has bolted and it is now way too far down the track to go back, not to mention the fact it would be a political and diplomatic minefield.

There are still some in Australia who harbour thoughts of the country staging a World Cup and they are usually fired up when revelations pop up every now and then about the legitimacy of Qatar’s bid, as is the case at the moment.

But, we need to get our heads out of the sand and understand that, no matter what FIFA says or does, the business of World Cup bids is something ordinary fans will never understand or comprehend. It is not a level playing field and never will be. When it comes to world football, Australia is a sardine in an ocean of sharks.

However, depending on which way you look at it, there could be some good to come out of the latest drama.

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, could use the controversy to put pressure on Qatar to agree to expanding the 2022 World Cup finals tournament from 32 to 48 teams and sharing some of the matches with their Gulf neighbours.

Qatar are open to the idea and, probably with good reason as they would not want to rock the boat with Infantino.

While the Socceroos have qualified for the past four World Cups, an expanded tournament to 48 teams would all but guarantee continued automatic qualification.