The choice of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup has been greeted with predictable shrieks of horror. It's all down to Qatar's oil dollars and Fifa's corruption, according to some of the comments posted in a Guardian discussion thread.

Worse still for soccer fans, drinking alcohol in Qatar is supposedly a crime, and any gay fans will be beaten up and flogged. That's before we come to readers' phobias about Islam and the terrorism threat: according to one commenter, "the Taliban probably can't believe their luck".

Most of this is nonsense, but let's start with a bit of background. Qatar is actually quite a nice place to visit: it's clean with lots of modern buildings, including a faked-ancient souk. It's also rather boring. Don't go and live there unless you happen to be a workaholic and/or a golfaholic.

Qatar is ludicrously wealthy. Apart from substantial amounts of oil, it's the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas and has the world's third-largest natural gas reserves – all for a population of only 1.5 million.

Since money is no problem, one thing we can be reasonably sure of is that when 2022 arrives, Qatar's World Cup infrastructure will meet the highest standards and there won't be a last-minute cliffhanger over facilities as happened with the Commonwealth Games in India.

Among the nouveaux riches Gulf states, Qatar has used its wealth more wisely than most. Not by constructing ski slopes in the desert or man-made islands in fancy shapes (a la Dubai), but by investing in its people. Any Qatari citizen who wishes to study abroad can do so at the state's expense and Education City, established by the Qatar Foundation on the outskirts of Doha, is an impressive place. With tie-ups to various American universities, it aims to provide world-class teaching and "bring knowledge to the people of Qatar and the region".

This is not to suggest there aren't things wrong with Qatar. It isn't a democracy and it doesn't allow political parties. Women have more rights and opportunities than in Saudi Arabia but the society as a whole is still deeply conservative. If you're going to fall foul of the authorities, though, there are far worse places. It's now nine years since anyone was executed in Qatar.

Since seizing power from his father in a bloodless coup in 1995, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (the current ruler) has made strenuous efforts to put his tiny country on the map – most notably by founding al-Jazeera, the Middle East's most-watched TV network. He also turned Qatar into an international conference centre – often by paying the expenses of the people attending them.

Qatar also punches above its weight in international diplomacy. It hosted Centcom during the US-led invasion of Iraq and had diplomatic relations with Israel (thinly disguised as a "trade mission") until they were suspended in 2008 over the Gaza war. Meanwhile, it has few qualms about talking to Hezbollah and Hamas, and it is currently mediating in Yemen between the government and the Houthi rebels.

Whether it was through diplomacy or bribery that Qatar got to host the World Cup, I have no idea. But it's worth pointing out that Qatar is regarded as the least corrupt Arab state and in Transparency International's latest Corruption Perceptions Index it was ranked 19th worldwide – one place ahead of the UK and four places ahead of the US.

Alcohol is not actually illegal in Qatar, though it's an offence to drink or be drunk in public. The bigger hotels sell alcohol and foreigners living in Qatar can buy it under a permit system. I'm baffled as to why some people think this should disqualify Qatar from hosting the World Cup. Considering the problems that can arise with drunken fans, Qatar's restrictions don't seem unreasonable.

Gay sex is illegal in Qatar, though the authorities don't normally go out of their way to track gay people down. The speculation about gay soccer fans being flogged seems to be based on a case in 1995 when a US citizen received 90 lashes for homosexual activity. The authorities had offered to expel him so as to avoid a trial, but he decided to stay.

Apart from that, and the deportation of 36 allegedly gay Filipinos working in fashion and hairdressing in 1997, very few gay-related cases have been reported in Qatar. Expulsion rather than punishment seems to be the authorities' preferred option when foreigners get into trouble.

That said, I once found a copy of Annie Proulx's story, Brokeback Mountain, on sale at a bookstall in Doha airport and teachers at a college in Education City told me (on the basis of checking browser history in the internet area) that gay websites were among their students' favourites. The odd thing there was that it was a women-only college, and it seemed the female students had discovered gay websites were the best place to look for pictures of naked or scantily-clad men.

Finally, I think it will be some time – longer, even, than 2022 – before the Taliban hordes arrive in Qatar. Compared with some parts of the Middle East, the country has had very little trouble with jihadist militants.

But Qatar does have a few worrying religious connections, apart from Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the controversial Islamic scholar who is based there. Under the guise of inter-faith dialogue and promoting "family values" it has occasionally made common cause with Mormons and the more extreme elements in the Roman Catholic church.