Qatar gets its just deserts in 2022 bid

• Aspire to greatness: The stadiums for the 2022 World Cup will be spectacular, like Doha's Aspire Dome

Among them were a group of Scots who organised a fixture against their English counterparts on an oiled-sand pitch. The locals who sat around the touchline in their Arabian head-dress could not have imagined where it would all lead.

Sixty-two years later, the Scotland-England game is still going strong, and Qatar has won the right to stage the greatest show on earth. When news of the result filtered through from Zurich on Thursday night, traffic came to a standstill on the Corniche, an 8km stretch of Doha seafront, and Graeme Pattison had a wee smile to himself. "They were driving round peeping their horns, blowing their vuvuzelas and waving flags from their cars," he says. "A lot of people are in a state of disbelief that it's actually happened."

Pattison would love nothing more than to see competitive football take off in Qatar. He has played for the Scottish expats in their last four matches against England. He is also chairman of its organising committee, and was chairman of the country's expat league until it folded this year. Many of its teams can no longer afford to hire the country's ever-improving facilities.

There are no such problems for the Scotland-England game, which is quite a date on Qatar's sporting calendar. So much so that they are given FIFA-registered match officials and a prestigious venue to play in. The last one, held in April at the 20,000-capacity Al-Waqra Stadium, was attended by 3,500 people. They had event sponsorship, media coverage and even a match programme that carried a message of support from Craig Levein.

In years gone by, there were guest appearances by Tommy Gemmell, Frank Worthington and Alan Ball. "It's not world class, but it's not just a kickabout either," Pattison says. "A couple of years ago, we had a goalkeeper who used to play for Stirling Albion. And we've had a few from the Highland League. It's taken very seriously. And, on the day, it's majorly competitive."

Pattison, who runs a fitness centre in Doha, was brought up in Sunderland, but he is married to a Dundonian, and he "qualifies" to play for Scotland on account of a grandfather from Inverness. At 31, he is rather proud to be commanding his place in a team that is selected after all of the country's resident Scots are invited by e-mail to attend a series of training sessions. This year's match has been brought forward to 3 March so that it can be played in cooler conditions. "It was too hot to play football in April," he says. "You can't play in temperatures like that, certainly not at our level. We're not as fit as the professionals, and we don't have air-conditioned stadiums yet. Maybe in 12 years' time. That would be fantastic."

Which brings us nicely to the hottest potato in the Qatari World Cup debate. Pattison, whose role with the expat league meant that he was invited to work with officials on the 2022 bid, says that the summer temperatures are his only reservation. Although stadiums will have cooling systems restricting them to 28 degrees, drink-fuelled supporters will not be so easily ventilated. "You're talking about half a million of them in 55 degree heat. I've lived here for five years so I know what I'm talking about. You need to drink litres and litres of water every day, and if you're outside for any period of time, it's hard work, really sapping. If there are, say, 20,000 British fans out in the sun, bevvying for a couple of hours before the game, it could be quite dangerous."

Otherwise, says Pattison, the bid was stunning, with a range of the most futuristic stadiums, one on an island, another coated in a giant television screen, and all cooled by solar energy. Some $4bn will be spent on the venues, up to 100bn on the surrounding infrastructure. The smallest country ever to stage the finals plans to produce a compact, convenient tournament, and if the prospect of so many people in so tiny a country prompts security fears, teams have the option to base themselves elsewhere. Dubai and Bahrain, for example, are less than an hour's flight away. "I have no doubt whatsoever that they will pull it off," says Pattison. "It will be fantastic."

As for concerns about the cultural differences between Qatar and the western world, Pattison says that the onus is on visitors, rather than the host nation, to overcome them. The traditions that football is anxious to preserve are not exactly ones to be proud of. Alcohol will be available in stadiums, and in specially-designated fanzones, but the ban on drinking in public will not be lifted, and neither should it be. "People should respect the laws and customs of the country they're coming to," says Pattison. "Everybody that lives and works here has to do it, and we all get along fine. If we want to go out and have a few bevvies, we do it, but you have to understand that you can't stumble out into the road, lay down and fall asleep."

And what about fears that there will be no place in Qatar for scantily-clad Brazilians who bring only a bikini? "If they have to wear a T-shirt, they have to wear a T-shirt. It might not look good on Match of the Day, but you have to respect the country. If the organisers say well in advance that they don't want you falling around drunk, they don't want you hurling abuse left, right and centre, and they don't want you wearing next to nothing, is that too much to ask? It's only a problem if people want to make it a problem. I don't have much time for those who complain about stuff like that. I think it's just countries digging for things to show that they should have won the vote."

Qatar's human rights record will be under scrutiny in the years ahead. The stadiums will be built by impoverished immigrant labourers, many of whom are not paid what they were promised, but Pattison thinks a degree of perspective is in order. "They don't get what they should, but every immigrant is given food, accommodation, and most will tell you that they are getting a better salary than they were at home. Same as us."

Football, too, will be under pressure in Qatar to meet the challenge. Currently ranked 133 in the world, their national team has a way to go, but they won gold at the 2006 Asian Games, and the Aspire Academy in Doha is working wonders. Set up in 2004 to unearth talented youngsters at home and abroad, they are nurturing what is likely to be the country's World Cup team. "Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Ajax, they've all had youth teams here, and the Aspire players are holding their own. I'm pretty sure that, by 2022, they'll be ready. I don't think they'll embarrass themselves."

Pattison, who has just become a father, plans to bring up his family in Qatar. While his days as a player are numbered, his professional career could be taking off, with the sports industry ready for an explosion of interest. All being well, he will still be there in 2022, not playing in the Scotland-England match perhaps, but maybe, just maybe, watching the real thing. With Qatar's football history in mind, that really would be something.