Analyst Suggests Qatar 'Give' World Cup 2022 to Gaza

A few weeks ago, British journalist Tom Gross penned an intriguing article for The Guardian where he suggested that Qatar, the Gulf Arab emirate who, somehow, is still hosting the 2022 World Cup Games - despite the endless controversy that's surrounded their bid - instead "give" the hosting opportunities to the Gaza Strip.

As Gaza is a poor territory, he suggested that Qatar fund the tournament as well.

Gross is a journalist and commentator with much experience in Israel and Middle Eastern affairs. In his article, he suggests, "Here’s one idea: Qatar should take the high ground by announcing that it will heed calls by an outgoing FIFA official for the tournament to be moved to other Arab lands. It should give the World Cup to Gaza. And Qatar should pay for it too."

Gross also cites the controversy surrounding Qatar's hosting of the tournament, not to mention the overwhelming heat during the summer - over 40 degrees Celsius - that would have quite the effect on both the players and the millions of fans from around the world that will surely attend.

Also, of course, the whole Qatar being accused of bribing members of FIFA in order to win the bid thing. Mind you, it doesn't seem that FIFA Chariman Sepp Blatter is interesting in hearing about it, after confirming that he would not reopen the bids for the 2018 (in Russia) or 2022 World Cups.

He sure does know how to pick em.

Now, in an interview with The Algemeiner, Gross elaborated on his notion and how it would benefit both the Palestinians and Qatar, claiming that having the tournament there would greatly advance the status quo, and create thousands of jobs.

“The regime in Qatar may eventually regret holding the World Cup,” Gross said. “They are able to get away with all sorts of human rights abuses, for example against the migrant workers they’ve brought in to build the World Cup stadiums and other infrastructure, more than 2,000 of whom have died while laboring in slave-like conditions, because unfortunately the world doesn’t care that much. But the world does care about soccer, and the World Cup is such a popular event across the globe that a much wider section of humanity is going to learn about the abuses in Qatar.”

While Gross admitted that simply offering the tournament to Gaza seems a "bit ridiculous and far-fetched" (it does), he concluded that it would be advantageous for Qatar and seen as a "goodwill gesture."

"It could also work for supporters of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because Hamas will lose a great deal of power in Gaza if it has to work with the whole world to do something positive, instead of building terror tunnels and launching rockets,” he added, saying that the terrorist organization would finally be forced to work alongside Israel, and that the two would need to cooperate while stadiums for the World Cup were being built.

“We’ve got to find a force that is bigger than Hamas, or more popular than Hamas, and soccer may just be it,” Gross concluded. The idea does seem a bit out there, but we're all for trying anything that will bring peace. Now all we have to do is convince Qatar to give it up.