Let’s talk about the biggest football tournament in the world, FIFA 2022 World Cup, and its right happening here
More than 1 million football fans are expected to travel to this tiny Gulf Nation For what’s going to be a world cup of many firsts, Including a first to be hosted in the Middle East.
1. Hosting Announcement
The bird has started in 2009 very much seen as an outsider bid, there were so many things against it, the size of the country, the weather, and the perceived absence of a football culture here.
Finally, Sepp Blatter pulled out “Qatar” from the envelope, The whole footballing world was just in a state of shock, while over in Qatar, people went wild. Since then a lot has happened
Qatar’s History & Heritage
Doha, Qatar is the capital and its only major city, Qatar is a desert Peninsula in the Gulf. It has only one land border. That is with Saudi Arabia Dubai and Iran are also nearby, they are just across the water. Moreover, Qatar is tiny It takes roughly two hours to drive from top to bottom. Nearly 3 million people live here, but only 3, 80,000 Qatari nationals. Everyone else has come here from all over the world to work in all sorts of jobs. However, much of what you see in Qatar today, like most of these buildings, was not here even 20 years ago.
If we go back even further, around a hundred years, Qatar’s most significant industry was pearl diving. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, they struck oil, and then in the 70s, they discovered natural gas. Today Qatar has the third biggest gas reserves in the world. In addition, that enormous wealth has been used to transform the country there is a huge change, a massive difference between 40 years ago and now, today.
Criticism
Qatar citizens are so excited that people are coming to Qatar to actually experience it.
Qatar has built so much new stuff to make it all happen Which includes seven stadiums, a new airport, more than 100 hotels, new highways, and a new metro line.
The total bill is coming in at something like $200 billion Making this the most expensive World Cup ever buy a long way We have basically seen an international city emerge out of the desert.
But it’s also a world cup that’s come in for a lot of Criticism especially over Human Rights issues, And cause treatment of migrant workers who’ve built everything.
Host country Qatar is placed under growing criticism over its treatment of women, Migrant workers, and the LGBTQ+ community
The team from Australia is out with a video today that contains the country’s Human Rights record. However, Qatar clarifies that Qatar is a welcoming and hospitable country; there’s nothing that fans should be worried about. All we have to do right now is just to show the world what an amazing world cup this will be.
Facilities across cities
Most World Cup tournaments are spread across several cities but this one is super compact. All eight stadiums are either in Doha or within an hour’s drive, so if you wanted to, you can go to more than one match in a day. All the plans are concentrated in the small area it is going to be a youth operation to make it all run smoothly.
Then there is all the new entertainment they have prepared, two newly built Islands, with rides and restaurants and a huge water park, they are bringing in big names for three music festivals and there will be lot of fan zones. Featuring more than 150 DJs and Artists across 3 different stages.
Will there be enough accommodation? Will the traffic be gridlocked? Will the new Metro be able to handle the crowds?
Fan zones
Fan zones will be among the designated areas where people can buy and drink alcohol, Alcohol will be sold within the stadium parameters before and after matches, but it won’t be allowed in the stands. All this is a change from Qatar’s usual rules around alcohol. Normally, e visitors can only buy it in some hotel bars and restaurants. It is also illegal to be drunk in public. As long as people are behaving in a way that does not cause harm to themselves, do cause harm to others, there is no destruction of property, whether private or public, and people are generally in good form then there should not be an issue at all.
Welcome to local laws in Qatar, It seems that things are going to be a little more relaxed during the world cup, But that still leaves so many questions about exactly which laws are going to be enforced and how. That is the thing about this world cup – no one quite knows how it’s going to unfold, And a lot of different people have a lot of different takes on it. Nevertheless, perhaps what has sometimes been lost in all the discussions around Qatar as hosts is another discussion about the significance of the world cup being held in the Middle East for the first time.
For Qatar, This tournament is about displaying itself to the world, and they are hoping the world likes what it sees.