Attorney General Eric Holder’s trip to Zurich to support the United States’ effort to host the 2022 World Cup appears to have been a fruitless endeavor, as Qatar will host the soccer games.

President Barack Obama asked Holder to attend the USA Bid Committee’s final presentation to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, known as FIFA, to “show the high-level commitment of our government to secure the World Cup and to make clear that the United States has the capacity to host a World Cup that is both secure and welcoming to the people of the world,” Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement.

Holder is scheduled to return to the United States on Tuesday, so the question remains: What’s he doing until then?

The United States is pulling out all the stops to win its bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup – even sending the country’s top law enforcement officer to assure organizers that the country will be safe from terrorist attacks.

Attorney General Eric Holder is en route to Zurich today to support the U.S. bid, the Justice Department announced.

“The president asked the attorney general to attend to show the high-level commitment of our government to secure the World Cup and to make clear that the United States has the capacity to host a World Cup that is both secure and welcoming to the people of the world,” Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement.

The trip will take place during the USA Bid Committee’s final presentation to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, known as FIFA. Holder will return to the U.S. on Thursday. Other trip participants include former President Bill Clinton, actor Morgan Freeman, U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati and U.S. national team member Landon Donovan.

The other countries vying to host the 2022 World Cup are Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.

The U.S. hosted the World Cup was in 1994, but since then soccer’s popularity has increased greatly among the U.S. population. The U.S. has its own Major League Soccer organization now, and its national team reached the round of 16 in this year’s World Cup in South Africa before being eliminated by Ghana.

Soccer enthusiasts say having the U.S. host the 2022 World Cup will help FIFA cultivate a lucrative market of more than 300 million people that is waking up to the world’s most popular sport. The U.S. is touting its many high-capacity stadiums around the country and emphasizing that unlike other countries, it won’t need to built the infrastructure to accommodate the World Cup.