First the Olympics, now the World Cup. When it comes to landing sports’ biggest events, the United States can’t win.

Still smarting from Chicago’s snub in the 2016 Olympics race last year, the U.S. was passed over for the 2022 World Cup on Thursday.

While the U.S. had the best financial bid, according to FIFA’s analysis, and ready-built stadiums to host the tournament, the tiny desert nation of Qatar won 14-8 in the final round of secret voting by the executive committee of soccer’s governing body.

“I don’t know that the sports community looks at the process for the 2016 Chicago bid as being carefully planned and well executed. I don’t believe that anyone would really look back at this process and believe that we did anything wrong,” Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from the FIFA vote in Zurich.

“It could just be there’s not enough support for bringing these kinds of events to our shores as there might have been decades ago,” he said.

“I think it’s a big setback,” said Walter Bahr, a member of the 1950 U.S. World Cup team that upset England. “Financially, I think it’s a big blow, and soccer-wise, it’s a tremendous blow.”

Russia will host the 2018 tournament, beating joint bids by Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands in a vote also announced Thursday. England, soccer’s motherland, received just two votes and was knocked out in the first round.