A year from now, on November 21, 2022, Qatar expects hundreds of thousands of people to be in Lusail, the city the royal family wants to see as a symbol of the country’s changing image. Inside the Lusail Iconic Stadium there are expected to be 86,250 fans for the opening game of the World Cup.
This Sunday (21), the same Lusail will receive the first F1 GP in the country, at 11 am (GMT – Band and Bandsports broadcast). Although the numbers have not been revealed, the estimate is that the government will pay US$ 65 million (R$ 361 million at the current price) per year for the right to receive proof.
Qatar will have its GP in 2021, but not in 2022, when the World Cup will be held. The race will resume from 2023, when the ten-year contract with F1 will come into force. The total value, already computed this year’s amount, will reach US$ 715 million (R$ 4 billion).
The race will be disputed at the Lusail International Circuit which, after renovations, will be able to receive 25 thousand people. Built in 2004, it has hosted MotoGP every season.
The arrival of F1 kept alive the debate about the lack of democracy in Qatar, human rights and the conditions of workers in the works throughout the country – of the population of around 2.7 million people, only 320,000 are Qataris.
“We are aware that there are problems in these places [Qatar e Arábia Saudita, dois paÃses árabes que vão receber provas] where are we going. But of course [o Qatar] seems to be considered one of the worst in this part of the world. When athletes go to these places, they have a duty to focus on these problems. These places need scrutiny. Equal rights are a serious issue,” said seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton.
He wasn’t the first to speak up. In October, four-time winner Sebastian Vettel said he was worried about the direction the sport was taking.
Human rights entities complain about working conditions analogous to the slavery of workers. There was also the kafala, the name given to the work system reserved for migrant workers. Among other things, it provided that the boss could withhold an employee’s passport. After international and FIFA pressure, some reforms began to be made in recent years.
Two years ago, when Qatar hosted the Club World Cup, it deepened its public relations offensive to change its image. Holding sporting events is one of the cornerstones of the strategy.
“There is no problem with freedom of expression in Qatar. F1 drivers are free to say what they like. Qatar is open to criticism and in recent years has worked hard to improve the situation for its workers,” said Abdelrahman al -Mannai, president of the Qatar auto-speed federation, in an interview with AFP agency.
According to the British daily Guardian, from December 2010 to March 2021, around 6,500 workers died during the construction of stadiums or infrastructure works for the 2022 World Cup. The organizers of the tournament dispute this data.
The construction of the stadium in Lusail alone, which started in 2017, involves 40,000 workers divided into day and night shifts seven days a week. The only exceptions are religious holidays.
The city is part of a much bigger plan for Qatar than just sporting competitions. The works were accelerated from the moment the country received the right to host the World Cup, in 2010.
Lusail was conceived by former Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani to house 200,000 inhabitants. The works, estimated at US$45 billion in 2005 (R$250 billion) were delivered to Qatari Dier, a state-owned construction company. The idea is not just to unburden Doha, the country’s commercial, economic and population center, but also to spearhead a project of geopolitical transformation.
Qatar wants to break free from its dependence on oil and natural gas extraction and become an international tourism hub by 2030. It must therefore find a way to improve its complicated diplomatic relationship with its neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both accuse the Qatari royal family of financing terrorist acts, which the country denies.
Trade and border blockades imposed by Saudis and Emirates were dropped this year, thanks in part to FIFA’s efforts. The organization sees the freedom of tourists to move between the three nations as fundamental to the economic success of the World Cup.
The Lusail construction project, which is expected to receive Qatari residents and immigrant elite from European countries and North America, employees of tourism or oil companies, encompasses 175 km of pipes. These will form a refrigeration system throughout the region during the summer, when temperatures can exceed 50º C.
It won’t be a problem for the F1 GP or the World Cup, which for the first time will not be played between June and July, will take place in the Middle East. To avoid the heat, it was transferred to November/December, when temperatures usually do not exceed 30º C.
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