With less than three years to go for the 2022 World Cup, hosted by Qatar, the footballing world has turned its focus towards the middle-east nation. The 2022 event in many ways is set to be ground-breaking.
It will be the first World Cup to be held during the months of November and December. The event will also witness revolutionary technology such the Stadium Cooling Tech for the first time ever in a grand spectacle like the World Cup.
However, ever since the country won the bid to host the footballing world's grandest event, they were subject to penty criticism. Many felt that the weather in Qatar was not conducive to play football while others questioned the country's footballing heritage and wondered if the Qatar national team can ever qualify for the World Cup on merit. There were also eyebrows raised over the quyalify of infrastructure including stadiums and practice pitches.
As Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) set about building seven new state-of-the-art stadiums from scratch apart from putting together modern infrastructure for the global event, a new concern rose. Critics raised the issue of the labourers working on the World Cup projects, stating that they were being treated harshly and subjected to poor working conditions.
But the SC had an answer to all the concerns raised. The event was moved to November and December when the weather is cooler and all the stadiums were designed with a cooling technology in place. Qatar also focused on its national team and they went on to win the 2019 Asian Cup.
They introduced countless worker welfare measures as well, which were praised by the International Labour Organisation.
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CEO of the 2022 World Cup, Nasser Al Khater, was at pains to point out the way in which Qatar responded to the criticism. He took pride in the fashion Qatar has managed to silence most of their critics, if not all.
"Criticism is a part of hosting a tournament of this magnitude. And I do think that Qatar has had its fair share of criticism. It started off right from the time we submitted our bid. They said that this is a PR stunt and even termed it as a joke," he said.
"Towards the end of it, when they thought that we could really win it then the rumours and allegations started spreading. But over the years we have maintained confidence in our position, we had the best bid. We won it fair and square. We have won all the different trials by the public courts.
"Workers' welfare was one of the biggest challenges for us but also one of the biggest opportunities as well. We had identified it very early on. As a country, we are happy to progress on workers' welfare and in terms of revamping the standards of workers' rights, we have probably become the leading nation in the region.
"That's something we are very proud of. Now, we will see what criticism comes up next."
Al-Khater reiterates that Qatar's projects for the World Cup are going ahead in full steam and are on schedule. The country is set to host the Club World Cup next month and Al-Khater feels that the event will provide a short glimpse into how the World Cup will be.
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"Our preparations are going as per plan. The roads and infrastructural projects are almost 90 per cent done - they will be ready for 2022. Two stadiums (Khalifa & Al Janoub) are already completed and by the end of this year two more will be completed (Education City & Al Bayt). By the first quarter of 2020, we want to finish two more and a further two by the end of 2020. All the training facilities have been prepared and are ready. The metro will be fully operational by the start of the Club World Cup," he explained.
Such is the extensive way in which they are preparing, the SC are also looking to gauge fan sentiment during the Club World Cup (CWC) and the Gulf Cup (GCC), in order to ensure the fans have the best experience during the 2022 event.
"We are going to closely track the sentiment of the fans coming for the upcoming Club World Cup and GCC Cup. We want to make sure all fans here are going to have something that covers the cultural elements for them to see and make sure that it is really a comprehensive experience for them," revealed Al-Khater.
More than all that, Nasser Al Khater says the SC sees the 2022 World Cup as an event to share and celebrate the culture of Qatar with the footballing world. This, he says, is in line with Qatar's National Vision 2030 - the aim of which is to "transform Qatar into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development" by 2030.
"I think the vision (Vision 2030) articulates the fact that you cannot forget your roots. You can't forget where you came from but also you have to embrace modernity and future. We live in an interconnected world. People here are very well travelled. We take this as an opportunity to build bridges and share cultures - Our culture with the rest of the world. This is an event of celebration all countries embrace and use it an opportunity for better communication and celebration of football."
