Amid allegations of bribery, Russia to host 2018 World Cup, Qatar in 2022 — USA Soccer Stud

The politically, economically, securely, and infrastructurally sound England and USA were expected to win the respective bids. But that didn’t happen, amid widespread allegations that bribery played apart in the voting process.

Ironically, despite a total population of just 1.6 million, Qatar has the second highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the CIA.

Reaction to the announcement was subdued to say the least. FIFA.com visitors rated the Qatar announcement with 2 out of 5 stars, while the Russian announcement was greeted with 3 out of five stares. And although FIFA.com stories typically enable user comments, they were disabled for both announcement stories.