IT’S time everyone stopped whingeing and just accepted that Qatar will be hosting the World Cup in 2022.

The clue is in the title. Isn’t it about time we played football’s biggest tournament in an Arab state? Doesn’t this area of the planet deserve it just as much as somewhere in Europe or South America?

I’m writing this column from Doha, and I can say hand on heart that it is a wonderful country with friendly people who will make the World Cup a success.

Holding the World Cup here will not be without its problems but I have seen first-hand that everything possible is being done to overcome them.

All the talk of corruption, none of it has proven. And if ever there was a case of people in glass houses throwing stones, I think some of the people making these accusations need to have a close look at their conduct too.

Very clearly Qatar will have to make concessions knowing that there will be a huge influx of fans from very different cultures. But I don’t think it is being reported very fairly that those concessions are being made.

I understand organisers are relaxing the strict alcohol laws to allow fans to drink at special fan zone tents around the stadia, and then laying on massive amounts of transport after games to make sure people get back safely to their accommodation. That also applies to sponsorship.

There is a lot of work needed on the country’s infrastructure and roads. Traffic is currently a problem – and when they are charging 10p for a litre of fuel, who wouldn’t want to drive a car?

All of the games will be played within a very confined area, so transportation is something they need to get spot on. And looking at the amount of work going in already, I’m backing them to get it right.

The organisers are a lot more relaxed about the potential culture clashes than you might expect, but any fans coming out here will still have to respect the fact there is a very different way of life here.

Fans won’t be able to take their shirts off – that’s a big no-no – and short skirts and bikinis are not allowed on the streets.

You won’t see people congregating in the streets and boozing like we have in previous World Cups either. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

The big argument against holding the tournament in Qatar boils down to the temperatures here. I did some television work for the last World Cup here and it was unbearable.

But as I sit here now it is overcast, quite pleasant at around 25 degrees, and it would be a lovely day for a game of football.

Other big leagues in Europe have a winter break and the Premier League is kidding itself if it thinks it will hold out without one for much longer.

It makes such a lot of sense for so many reasons, so why not bring it forward and introduce one in the next couple of years so fixture lists can be adapted in plenty of time?

Fitting in another couple of midweek fixtures later in the season isn’t such a big deal in my eyes, not that you’d know it by all the moaning going on.

We can’t spend the next eight years moaning about all the problems we might face, how about trying to solve a few? Qatar 2022 is happening; get over it.

***** REMEMBER that brilliant close-up of Sam Allardyce laughing at Swansea’s Chico Flores after he had hit the deck like a bag of spuds last season?

The smile had gone from his face when his side lost to Everton on Saturday but I hope he had James Tomkins in the office first thing Monday morning to give him a piece of his mind.

Big Sam is of an age where centre-halves didn’t go flouncing around and so he won’t have liked what he saw when Tomkins went down pole axed, feigning an injury, after a little push from Kevin Mirallas.

I thought Mark Clattenburg handled it superbly, giving both players a yellow, and he also deserved a pat on the back for an advantage played in the build-up to Leon Osman’s winning goal.

Unfortunately poor Craig Pawson didn’t get the same help in the Hull City v Tottenham game, where he sent off Gaston Ramirez for what amounted to a tangle of legs with Jan Vertonghen.

It might have been a bit petulant from the Hull striker but the way Vertonghen went down, you’d have thought there was a sniper in the main stand.

The incident happened well away from the ball, so Craig needed some help from his assistant Peter Kirkup. And I think when he sat down and looked at the DVD he will be very disappointed with the information passed on.

It was reminiscent of that David Beckham kick on Diego Simeone, only less blatant.

Craig is a good young referee but I think he missed a blatant dismissal later in the game when Jake Livermore went in on Ryan Mason. It was a clear case of endangering the player’s safety with excessive force.

Livermore was already on a caution and perhaps the fact Hull had already been reduced to 10 men by that stage was playing on the referee’s mind?

Taking charge of a game which is on live television adds extra pressure and I wonder whether it is wise to heap it on such young shoulders?

It took me two or three years of refereeing in the top flight before I was given a live game, and I think Craig would benefit from being taken out of the firing line.

***** PLAYERS were hitting the deck left, right and centre last weekend but Marouane Fellaini did Jack Wilshere a big favour by not over-reacting to a petulant nudge in the Arsenal v Manchester United game.

The law says headbutting or attempting to head-butt is violent conduct and should be a dismissal. Had Fellaini made more of it, Jack would have been walking back down the tunnel for sure.

In my view, it should never have got that far.

Mike Dean had a good game but went to sleep a few moments before the two players came together, allowing tempers to flare. As soon as Jack showed dissent by action after the award of the free kick Mike should have been in there, taking control, and should have issued a caution. It would have diffused the whole thing.

Instead things carried on and Jack did something daft.

In the heat of the battle I still think what Jack did was adopting an aggressive attitude towards an opponent rather than an act of violent conduct. It was a caution rather than a red card.

In the Chelsea v West Brom game I think Claudio Yacob was really unlucky to be sent off.

Lee Mason got slaughtered for missing a couple of dismissals in the Sunderland v Everton game a few weeks ago. Was that playing on his mind when he produced a red card to the Baggies man for what he felt was excessive force endangering a player’s safety.

I can understand in real time why Lee reached for red. But when you slowed it down, the challenge did not look anything like as serious. It didn’t meet the criteria for a dismissal, quite unlike say the challenge from Hull City’s Jake Livermore on Tottenham’s Ryan Mason in Sunday’s live televised game.

It was another one in the win column for video replays, which would have helped Lee out a lot in this case.

***** SOMETIMES you need to trust your assistant’s judgement implicitly – and it sounds like Nigel Miller had to do that in the Bolton game at Blackpool on Saturday.

Without access to replays – and given the Football League Show didn’t deem it worthy to show it again in about 30 seconds of coverage – it is hard to say exactly whether Joe Lewis should have been sent off for tripping Craig Davies just before half time at Bloomfield Road.

Referees have to take into consideration a number of things.

Where has the offence taken place? How far from goal is it? In this case it is the edge of the area.

You have to assess the direction on play and the ball. In this case it appeared to be heading out towards the corner flag.

You have to decide whether the player would have regained control of the ball and still had a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity. I think there is some doubt here.

And then you have to look at other players in the vicinity when the challenge was made, in this case defender Peter Clarke.

It doesn’t surprise me that Lewis only got a caution. This situation does not appear to tick enough of the boxes to warrant a dismissal.

The referee, who was catching up with play, needed his assistant to bail him out of a hole because he was better placed to see the whole thing.

You stay in constant touch over your headset, assuming it was working, and so by the time Nigel went over to speak with his assistant on the touchline he would have only been seeking clarification on those key points.

Even though the Bolton fans were screaming for him to be sent off, you have to try and keep your head and make sure you make judgements based solely on the laws of the game.