Qatar’s 12-year journey as FIFA World Cup host just 1 month away
Global News
On Nov. 20, the biggest tournament in soccer will finally get started a couple hours after sunset at the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium - a new venue north of Doha.
The first World Cup in the Middle East is one month away, nearing the conclusion of an often bumpy 12-year journey for Qatar that has transformed the nation.
Qatar has faced skepticism about how it persuaded FIFA to vote for the country in 2010; criticism of how migrant workers were treated building stadiums and tournament infrastructure; and derision from the soccer world for changing the dates from the traditional June-July period to November-December.
The small Arab country jutting out into the Persian Gulf has overcome all of that, as well as hostility from neighboring states who imposed a three-year economic and diplomatic boycott that ended in January 2021.
On Nov. 20, the biggest tournament in soccer will finally get started a couple hours after sunset at the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium – a new venue north of Doha built for the World Cup. The maroon-and-white clad national team from the host country will open a tournament that has come to define the gas-rich emirate’s image against the team from Ecuador – probably.
All 64 games over the course of 29 days involving 32 teams will be held in the Doha area, with many more shows and cultural events planned for a soccer-led party in the conservative Muslim society.
For one month, Qatar will relax its strict limits on where alcohol can be bought, including serving beer from World Cup sponsor Budweiser at the eight stadiums and at the official big-screen viewing site in Al Bidda Park.
Promises of “the best World Cup ever, on and off the field” were made Monday by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who said the same in Moscow four years ago when Russia hosted the tournament.
However, since the decisions in 2010 to pick Russia and Qatar as future World Cup hosts, 21 of the 24 men on the FIFA executive committee were variously convicted in criminal or ethics cases, indicted, acquitted at trial or implicated in wrongdoing.
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