The controversies surrounding Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup may continue unabated, but so too do the country’s preparations for the tournament itself.
“I can say we are on schedule,” tournament head Hassan al-Thawadi said earlier this month.
This week, the man who oversaw Brazil’s preparations for last year’s World Cup, Ricardo Trade, visited Qatar and announced himself “impressed with the amount of detailed planning and stadium progress,” achieved by the Qataris seven years away from the start of the tournament.
Confidence in the progress of Qatar’s preparation comes at the same time as the howls of protest at the country’s proposed hosting of the World Cup grow ever louder.
Yet inside Qatar, all this appears to be making little difference to the Gulf country’s timetable for the 2022 tournament.
Thawadi, a fervent Liverpool fan who talks dreamily of his idol, “King Kenny” Dalglish, bullishly dismisses criticism and says: “We have always said we have been confident in the integrity of our bid.”
On the ground, Qatar’s preparations already mean that work has begun on potentially more than half of the stadiums that will be used by the world’s best soccer players in seven years’ time.
Qatar has unveiled the designs for or already begun reconstruction on five of the grounds to be used.
As few as eight stadiums — or as many as 12 — might be used for the first World Cup ever to be held in the Middle East. Last month, Thawadi was on hand to oversee the launch of the latest stadium design for the 40,000-seater al-Rayyan stadium, Doha, which will be used to host matches up until the quarter-final stage. Renovations have begun on the Khalifa International Stadium, which will also host the 2019 World Athletics Championship. In the north of Qatar, the main construction on the 60,000 al-Bayt Stadium, which will be the site for one of the World Cup semi-finals, will start later this summer.
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