Opinion | Editorials
Qatar's focus on planning pays dividends
The 2022 World Cup is sure to create a positive ripple effect across the Arab world.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 December 4, 2010
- Image Credit: AFP
- Qataris and expatriates celebrate in Doha after Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup. The compact games plan in Qatar is expected to save fans travel time and money as well as reduce the impact on the environment.
Naked ambition and an unbridled audacity to realise a dream saw Qatar shrugging off strong challenges from some of the world's top footballing nations to win the bid to host the 2022 football World Cup.
By virtue of this triumph, which has made the sporting world sit up and rub their eyes, Qatar has ensured that it is the first Arab, Middle Eastern or Muslim country to be awarded the right to stage football's biggest showpiece event.
Qatar's success story and capacity for forward thinking, especially in the field of sport, is not new. Their foray into hosting world class sporting events received the ultimate certification when they won the rights to host the 2006 Asian Games — Asia's biggest multi-discipline sporting event. Since then they have methodically worked on trying to realise future plans.
Qatar had evinced an interest in hosting the Olympic Games — they failed to make the IOC shortlist for the 2016 Games but learnt valuable lessons. By hosting a successful 2022 World Cup they will ensure that the apex bodies in world sport will, in future, view their credentials seriously.
The world is now looking forward to a glitzy, compact and carbon-neutral World Cup which will be staged in solar-powered stadiums where searing desert temperatures will be contained with the help of modern cooling technology. In this, Fifa has been granted a historic opportunity to expand the frontiers of the game.
More essentially, the 2022 World Cup is guaranteed to create a positive ripple effect across the Arab world in terms of delivering a boost to economies through tourism and commerce; opening up new markets; favourable viewing times for the fans and countries; a colossal impact on the game across the region; leaving a legacy for future generations and creating an understanding of the Middle East for the rest of the world.
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