WORLD CUP 2018/ 2022 BIDDING:"EXPECT AMAZING" Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid motto promised. Yesterday in Zurich amazement registered high on the emotional scale when Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, announced that the tournament would be hosted in the Middle East for the first time.

After amazement came bemusement at how a bid criticised in the Fifa technical report for its blistering 50 degrees heat and the potential logistical problems of having 12 stadiums in a 30km radius had roundly beaten the apparent favourite, the United States, 14-8 in the final round of voting by the 22-member executive committee.

For football fans and supporters of cultural and political pluralism the questions also now start. Items high on this agenda are just how enjoyable and expensive the fan experience will be during a month in Qatar’s blistering heat, where the drinking of alcohol in public is a criminal offence. And how a strict Muslim state will negotiate western mores – homosexual behaviour is illegal there, as is kissing in public – and the welcome it will afford Israel, should they qualify. Israel’s citizens, along with most gulf states, are banned from Qatar.

Hassan Al-Thawadi, the chief executive of the Qatar bid, offers the following stance: “We can allow history to be made while opening up the gates of communication between east and west.”

Of the historical decision that now means a total bill in construction and renovation costs of €2.25 billion he said: “We acknowledge there is a lot of work to do and we stand by our promise and we will honour the sacred trust given to us today.”

Yet if Russia in 2018 will be a trial of long, gruelling hours spent on aeroplanes – both to reach and navigate a country nearly twice as big as the United States – whether fans will be happy four years later to contemplate another faraway destination (the fourth since Germany 2006, after South Africa, Brazil and Russia) is moot.

With a land mass smaller than the combined area of Cork and Tipperary and with a population of 1.9 million people, the temperatures reach beyond 50 degrees in June and July, when the tournament is scheduled, making playing and watching impossible during the day, before the thermometer “plummets” to between 31 and 36 degrees at night.

Fifa’s technical report noted: “The fact that the competition is planned in June/July, the two hottest months of the year in this region, has to be considered as a potential health risk for players, officials, the Fifa family and spectators, and requires precautions to be taken.”

Unsurprisingly, Al-Thawadi has no concerns. “The precautions referred to in the report have already been put in place with our proposed air-cooled solutions for stadiums, training sites, fans zones and other outdoor areas.”

• Guardian Service