DOHA, Qatar —
It was 115 degrees on the summer day I arrived in Qatar. That answered my first question: Why had FIFA, among the most hidebound and conservative of international sports bodies, agreed to buck nearly a century of tradition by playing the World Cup in the winter?
The second question was a bit more complicated: Why had Qatar, a tiny, conservative, Islamic emirate in the Persian Gulf worked so hard and spent so much to play host to the tournament?
