“Expect Amazing” Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid motto promised. Today 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 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 spent sweltering in Qatar, 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 it qualify. Israel’s citizens are banned from Qatar, as they are from most Gulf states. Hassan Al-Thawadi, the chief executive of the Qatar bid, offers the following stance: “We…