Honestly, I think the royal family did this because the Wahabbi clerics threatened them. They can withstand the western countries getting a little perturbed at them, but having the clerics turn on them wouldn't be a good idea. The second thing is if you've never been to Qatar the weather there is fucking brutal. It's like Houston on steroids. I could see a lot of alcohol poisoning and hospitalizations. You get a bunch of dudes from mild climates try to party there for two weeks and you're gonna have a lot of deaths. That's also not a good PR outlook. It should never have been hosted there in the first place. Man, it would be like having Texas play in a night game. Then Alabama kicking off right afterwards in the same location. You'd get some Germans waking up at 6 in the morning and drinking until 2AM when the last match starts. I don't like it but now that I think about it. It's probably a smart move.