| Russia | Qatar | |
| Rivals | Two of the 4 favourites to win the last World Cup | Two countries holding the tournament in the last 20 years and one who can't pay people to go to club matches |
| Temperature | Warm but mild in summer | Hot enough to make a Brazilian baulk |
| Population | 141m | 1.4m ~3x the amount of people who will attend English professional football each week |
| National Team will... | Play impressive football but lose bravely in the semis | hopefully still exist by then but even in 10 years will be worse than Austria were |
| Fans will... | Hopefully turn out in numbers pending FIFA ticket policy, European fans will help numbers | Presumably be shipped in for games where they can, maybe decide that even watching in 40 degrees is ridiculous |
| Stadiums | Long history of football means 5 will be ready by 2013 and the remainder to be built | No natural league to support it, everything to be built |
| Stadium Legacy | Potential shot in the arm for Russian football | Shipping them out somewhere else, apparently |
| Token inclusion so that your region can claim to have hosted a World Cup | Yes | |
| Competition will be remembered as | The first behind the iron curtain and one of the fastest paced ever | a waste of time that will give curious interest to kids making sticker albums in 2050 |
As for England, even after the event, I'm pretty unmoved. Russia will be a new territory and probably long overdue. What a colossal waste of everyone's time and money for the other bidders though.