A moral desert

With the revelations of The Sunday Times, it seems beyond reasonable doubt that the choice of Qatar as the venue for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was as corrupt as one of those heads stuck on poles outside the Tower of London after five days in Tudor times.  Everyone had their suspicions, but the tranche of emails obtained by the Sabbath quality is rather incontrovertible evidence, evidence which might have been concealed from the current FIFA investigation.
Hercules was not available and so the Augean Stables in Zurich remain filthy but some of the most disreputable houseguests have departed, Jack Warner of the North and Central American federation and Ricardo Teixeira of the South American federation.  The exit of the allegedly corrupt (there are secrets in Swiss faults), Anglophobic Teixeira is particularly sweet in terms of comeuppance as he was head of the Brazilian Football Confederation until his abrupt resignation (to keep those vaults sealed as he was now out of football) in 2012 and was due to be the major-domo at this year's World Cup.  More than half of the executive committee of FIFA left their posts in the two years following the vote (two were already suspended before voting began as a result of vigorous British journalism, the kind FIFA despises).
Of course, there is a certain visceral pleasure in poking at FIFA's self-inflicted wounds within these shores.  The ballot on the 2022 World Cup occurred immediately after the choosing of the 2018 World Cup, where England were humiliated, with two votes.  Russia won the 2018 rights, despite being the second highest-risk proposition after Qatar amid the whole panoply of bidding countries.  To delve into Russia's actions would reek of sour grapes, which FIFA could brush off with a contemptuous flick.  By hammering Qatar though, the British press inoculate themselves from the charge of sore losers while still being able to pile the pressure on FIFA.  There are a lot of important European leagues not happy about a Winter World Cup in 2022 and will latch on to any hard proof to at least extract their pound of flesh.
Ultimately, however, I think FIFA will stick to their guns and made Qatar work, come hook or by crook.  Too much money has changed hands to make the fall-out in Colombia after Andrés Escobar's own goal eliminated the country from the 1994 World Cup (and provoked his subsequent assassination) look like loose change.  After the vote-buying scandal that saw the IOC award the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, there was wholesale reform of the bidding process but the Utah state capital still hosted the event.  FIFA have still to implement any meaningful changes to their structure and so the sandy wildernesses in Qatar are a fitting metaphor for the probity of association football's world governing body.