It was a tense night in December 2010 when Qatar was announced as the new host of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Since that landmark decision, politicians, journalists and leading entrepreneurs have publicly criticized the decision and, in fact, had every reason to do so. Nevertheless, the first-ever World Cup to be hosted in the Arab World has the potential to be a great success; not only for the game of soccer, but possibly for the establishment and development of human rights in the whole Arabian Peninsula and beyond. This essay aims to present five major advantages of the football mega-event and will, contrary to popular belief, support the FIFA committee´s decision by highlighting the benefits of a change to the football calendar, the region´s potential, the possible development of human rights, the expected atmosphere and, finally, Qatar´s financial power. Firstly, the most obvious point of criticism is in regard to the searing heat in Qatar. With average summer temperatures ranging from 30 to 45 degrees centigrade and monsoons as likely to occur as not, the country was widely labelled as not being suitable to stage a large-scale sporting event. In the application process Qatar did not attempt to conceal this issue - and indeed they presented multiple solutions to solve the temperature problem. Architects developed ideas to bring the temperatures in the stadiums to a tolerable minimum. The FIFA executive committee was aware of the difficulties and they still opted for the most controversial country from the pool of candidates. As of today, the committee, however, appears to have cast doubt on its own decision. Joseph Blatter stated recently, "if this World Cup is to become a party for the people, you can't play football in the summer. You can cool down the stadiums but you can't cool down the whole country." The FIFA president has voiced his intention to move the tournament to the winter. Although, at first glance, this proposal presents numerous issues, the advantages of a change to the European’s traditional football winter fixtures calendar could be far-reaching. If the World Cup is to take stage during the winter instead of the traditional summer period not only would the players benefit but the travelling entourage of following supporters too, as both are not accustomed to such extreme heat. The schedule of most European and “western” league seasons would need to be changed by six months. The regular club season would, thus take place from late February to early November, allowing more late-summer soccer matches. Stadiums would be sold out and those unable to purchase a ticket could watch their favourite team in local beer gardens, which stands in sharp contrast to often poorly attended stadiums during