This explanation [anti-American sentiment] is not on firm footing: the group of voters were from a set of countries that are ordinarily relatively friendly to the United States. Of the 22 nations represented, 7 are members of NATO, and 5 others — Argentina, Egypt, Japan, South Korea and Thailand — are designated as major allies by the Department of Defense. This list does not include other countries like Brazil and Switzerland that have also traditionally enjoyed strong relations with the United States.

Certainly, the 22 individuals representing these countries may not have held the United States in the same high regard as their governments officially do. But they were not from countries, by and large, that would seem to hold a grudge against the country. ~Nate Silver

Why Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup beat the U.S. bid is not really very important, but when I came across this passage from Silver’s post on the subject I was a bit puzzled. There may have been much more straightforward reasons for Qatar’s success related to the internal politics of FIFA, but it makes sense that a U.S. bid would run into significant resistance from FIFA representatives from Europe and “Argentina, Egypt, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.” With the possible exception of Thailand (and arguably not even there), all of those nations have mixed or hostile attitudes about America and American influence, and those attitudes probably become more negative when it comes to soccer. Resentment towards the U.S. in Egypt, Japan, and South Korea is fairly easy to explain, and in Argentina many people associate the collapse of their economy ten years ago with the neoliberalism associated with America. Depending on the political leanings of the individual representatives, these resentments might be weaker or stronger, but what would be strange is if they were not present.

Missing from Silver’s discussion is the statement from FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter earlier this year that “The Arabic world deserves a World Cup. They have 22 countries and have not had any opportunity to organise the tournament.” Incidentally, Blatter also serves as Switzerland’s delegate, so that would explain Switzerland’s vote. Blatter also praised Qatar’s earlier hosting of the Asian Games, and the head of the Asian Football Confederation (who is Qatari) endorsed Qatar’s bid earlier in the year. It doesn’t seem so odd that other Asian countries would back Qatar’s bid, especially when other Asian competitors, South Korea and Japan, have both hosted the Cup in the recent past. If there was an understanding that Qatar was the favorite Asian bid, and Qatar’s bid also provided an opportunity to give the tournament to an Arab country, which the head of FIFA told everyone months ago, we needn’t assume that Qatar won the final round to spite us. Neither should we find it surprising that representatives from the countries in question were unenthusiastic about a U.S. bid.

Finally, we shouldn’t assume that Qatar’s bid is some travesty of the sport (for those who care about the sport) or proof that FIFA has shown itself to be a ridiculous organization (for most Americans who pay attention to the World Cup and soccer mostly for the sake of mocking them). As one soccer blogger for ESPN noted in April of this year:

The Qataris already have much hosting experience, of course. This coming January, just six months after the finals in South Africa, they will host the best Asian football nations in the Asian Cup 2011.