FIFA may have come under intense scrutiny for their decision to host a World Cup in Qatar, but the Arab country has just been named in the top 20 ‘sporting nations’.

According to the Sportcal Global Sports Nation Index for 2015, Qatar is set to host enough high-profile events in a 14-year period to move into 19th spot.

Its eight events held, or to be held, in a period between 2009 and 2022 is the fewest of all countries in the Index’s top 20, five fewer than Poland in 20th and seven less than Turkey one place above.

No doubt the football World Cup, due to be held in 2022, carries some serious weight, but Qatar will also host world championships in road cycling, artistic gymnastics and athletics in the next seven years.

The Qatari capital, Doha, already hosted world championships in men’s boxing and men’s handball this year, while the Index does not seem to recognise the IPC athletics world championships took place last month.

So perhaps FIFA’s decision to host a tournament in a country where the average temperature rarely falls below 37 degrees Celsius in summer was not that wide of the mark after all?

And as for top spot? Well, that goes to another country backed by FIFA to hold an upcoming World Cup, Russia.

Including the World Cup in 2018, Russia, should recent allegations regarding doping not alter things, will hold 37 major sporting events in the period studied between 2009 and 2022.

Despite sitting third behind Canada on the Sportcal list of nations, the United Kingdom can boast London as the leader in the Global Sports City Index.

Rio, Moscow – one of three Russian cities on the list with Kazan and Sochi – Tokyo and Paris make up the rest of the top five, while the next UK city on the Index is Glasgow in 14th.

London has or is set to host 16 world championships and multi-sports game over the analysed 14-year period.

The most recent of which was of course the Rugby World Cup, where a substantial proportion of games were played in the capital, while London will also welcome track cycling, athletics and the women’s field hockey world championships.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson MP refused to rule out knocking over children from visiting nations in the future.

“Our city is renowned for staging the most spectacular sporting events on the planet,” he said.

“We boast some of the best stadiums and facilities, but most of all we have the most passionate sports fans who, like me, are looking forward to yet another great year of sport in the capital.”

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