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China unlikely to pinch football’s World Cup 2022 from crisis-hit Qatar – but it can’t be ruled out after Xi Jinping’s meeting with Fifa chief

Sources at Qatar’s organising committee insist it’s ‘business as usual’, but if the crisis in the Gulf escalates, China would surely be willing and able to step in at short notice

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Xi Jinping welcomes Gianni Infantino to the Great Hall of the People. Photo: Reuters

James Porteous has been a sports journalist for more than 15 years, covering events all over the world, from Olympics and Champions League finals right down to local amateur action.

Published: 4:45pm, 16 Jun 2017Updated: 7:36pm, 17 Jun 2017

Fifa president Gianni Infantino was greeted in China this week with the pomp and circumstance of an official state visit, even afforded the honour of being allowed to lean uncomfortably towards president Xi Jinping in the overstuffed chairs of Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

China’s state media gave the meeting massive prominence – although to be fair, any time Xi opens his mouth it dominates their headlines.

Official reports parroted “avid football fan” Xi’s bland remarks about “promoting the philosophy of football among the whole society”.

But Fifa’s announcement carried a notable paragraph unreported by state media: “the Chinese president expressed his hope, and the dream of many Chinese people, that the country would have the opportunity to host a World Cup.”

Given Xi’s famous proclamation that China must qualify for, host and eventually win the tournament, it would have been odd indeed had he not mentioned it.

It seems inevitable that the World Cup is on its way to China, either in 2030 or 2034; 2026 is in theory off limits because Qatar will host in 2022, and Fifa doesn’t want the same confederation – in this case Asia – to host successive tournaments.