Qatar 'considering bid' to host football World Cup finals

Bangkok: Qatar is considering an ambitious bid to become the first Arab country to host the World Cup finals, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Saud Al Mohannadi, secretary-general of the Qatar Football Association, said the oil and gas rich state had "the means and the ability" to host the finals, either in 2018 or 2022 and would make a decision early next year.

He said, "We are interested and we believe we can successfully host such a prestigious event as the World Cup finals."

He added, "We have the stadiums and we have experience hosting top sports events. We don't want to rush into anything, we need to find out what the full requirements are, but we are interested."

Fifa president Sepp Blatter recently said the host cities for the 2018 and 2022 finals would be announced at the same time, with the bidding process for both to be launched in January and decided by December 2010.

Qatar is likely to face stiff opposition from England, Netherlands and Australia, as well as Spain and Portugal, who last week said they would bid to jointly host the finals.