The Gulf state of Qatar on Monday announced its intention to be one of the countries bidding to be the host nation for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, and if it fails in that it will fallback to the 2022 World Cup.

The General Secretary of the Qatar Football Federation; Saud Al Mohannadi said “I can confirm that the Qatar football federation has today sent a letter to FIFA in which it officially declared its candidacy for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. We have the stadiums and we have experience hosting top sports events. We don’t want to rush into anything, we need to find out what the full requirements are, but we are interested.”

FIFA the governing body of world football has started to accept bids on the 2018 and 2002 World Cups earlier this month and interested Football Associations have to make their bids by February 2nd 2009. The decision of who will be the hosts of both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be announced in December 2010.

FIFA started reception of bids for the right to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups earlier this month. All the interested national federations will have to make their bids before February 2, 2009.

If Qatar win the rights to host the prestigious event there is speculation as to how advertising rights particular in the gambling and alcohol arenas will be controlled by the strict gambling and drinking laws in Qatar.