Japan Football Association president Kuniya Daini has stated that the country is ready to step in and host the FIFA World Cup 2022 in place of Qatar if the organising committee runs into trouble in terms of hosting the tournament at this location. Qatar was initially awarded to the World Cup, but since the future of the tournament at this location has run into several doubts. It has meant primarily because of the extreme temperatures experienced by Qatar, while the operations behind constructing the necessary infrastructure also appears to be taking a huge toll on people’s lives.
It has been reported that as much as 20 Indians lose their lives every month in the construction activities. So far, there have been 450 reported deaths of the migrant workers. Qatar has refused to comment on this aspect, but several organisations around the world have demanded FIFA to cancel the rights and stage it at another location. Japan will be a potential contender after losing out in the original selection process. Daini says that Japan has found the infrastructure needed to host a tournament of this magnitude on its own.
He also says that the upcoming Olympics 2020 has required the country to construct numerous stadiums, which can be used for the World Cup as well.
“If FIFA look for an alternative country, we already have the stadiums that would meet the criteria to host it. We have the Olympics in 2020. If there is a chance, we’d like to do it, although I don’t know how likely that would be. We are looking to perform better than we did the last time. In South Africa we got to the last 16 so that means this time we want to reach the quarter-finals. It’s a difficult group, so that’s the first aim,” said Daini.