In a rare press conference, Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary general of the 2022 World Cup Execution and Legacy Committee, told Western journalists in late 2019 something that was obvious to Qataris but news to foreigners.
“This will be a World Cup like no other.”
With the groups drawn and the definition of the 32 teams, Qatar says it is ready for the kick-off. All eight stadiums are practically finished. The structure for the event has been built, which includes a district close to Doha, Lusail, to host the opening game and the final.
One of the new features of this year’s tournament will be the distances.
“It will be a kind of pocket World Cup. The courses will be fast, there is nothing too far”, said the Spaniard Felix Sánchez Bas, coach of the Qatari national team.
For the first time in history, it won’t exactly be a World Cup in one country, but basically concentrated in one city. Doha has four of the eight stadiums built or rebuilt for the event. And even those not in the capital are close. The longest distance between two arenas will be 75 kilometers. A journey of about an hour.
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg, two cities that hosted matches, were 2,488 kilometers apart. Almost enough to go from São Paulo to Manaus (2,693 kilometers). Whoever left Moscow after the group stage and went to Kazan to accompany Argentina x France, in the round of 16, traveled 17 hours by train.
Qatar will be the smallest country, by extension, to host the tournament. Its 11,571 square kilometers represent almost four times less than Switzerland (41,285 square kilometers), until today the smallest territory to host the World Cup, in 1954.
For the group stage matches in 2018, Brazil traveled around 1,500 kilometers (not counting the returns to Sochi, where it was concentrated) to play in Rostov-do-Don, Saint Petersburg and Moscow. This year, it will be 50 kilometers
In their three games at the 2014 tournament in Brazil, England covered 3,285 kilometers between Manaus, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. It will be 104 kilometers in 2022.
Fans can also have a rare experience at World Cups: the possibility of watching more than one match on the same day, depending on the interval between the two matches.
“This will bring us challenges, but we always believe that the World Cup is a force for transformation in society as well,” stated Hassan Al Thawadi.
This is a line of thought that has always been presented by the Qatari authorities and the organization of the Cup in every criticism and questioning. As in the question of the rights of the migrant labor force. Of the country’s population of about three million, only about 350,000 are Qataris.
It may also be for issues considered delicate in the relationship between the West and Islamic countries. Like the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. In the conversation with journalists three years ago, in which the SheetAl Thawadi urged visitors to be open to understanding and embracing the culture of Qatar, where public displays of affection are prohibited.
A World Cup that is so limited in terms of territory causes problems with accommodation and transportation. The government believes that it will receive around 1.2 million visitors during the tournament. FIFA’s unstated hope has always been that fans/tourists would not stay in Doha all the time, but travel around the region. The biggest attraction would be Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
Until January 2021 there was a boycott of Qatar by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In part, because of the belief that the country covers up and finances acts of terrorism, which has always been denied.
The Qatari government called this boycott an “illegal blockade”, but it was an act that closed borders and blocked air routes that FIFA has always considered critical to the success of the World Cup. Therefore, the entity acted behind the scenes to solve the problem.
The possibility of moving between different neighboring nations may alleviate, but it does not solve a potential accommodation problem to be found by fans going to the World Cup. According to the Associated Press, 90,000 hotel rooms will be available in Qatar.
Airlines have launched same-day round-trip tickets from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The tourist could board, see the departure and return hours later. The tournament’s official website offers options for apartments, private villas, hotels, camping cabins and stays on ships that will be moored in the port of Doha.
FIFA has requested that all hotels on the official list provided by the organization agree to a non-discrimination clause against guests, at the risk of being excluded from accreditation for the competition.
The measure was adopted after an investigation of Norwegian journalists barred from three FIFA-accredited hotels. They posed as a gay couple when trying to book a room and were denied access.
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