“Young team” credited for Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

The file for Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup bid was prepared by young people who were capable of innovation and creativity that surpassed the experiences of their senior competitors in Europe, renowned Qatari mediaperson Dr Elham al-Bar has pointed out.

She was speaking during a TV program on Kuwaiti channel Al-Youm. The program was in response to the campaign launched by the UK and Australian media against Qatar winning the rights to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

She said Qatar learnt from the unsuccessful attempts made by Arab countries such as Morocco (four attempts) and Egypt (one attempt). “Though they were not successful, they were of great consequence in inspiring young people to do something great for the Arab world. Further, Qatar holds successful records in hosting several regional and international sport events.”

Dr al-Bar said the efforts of Qatar in preparing for the 2022 World Cup would reflect on all countries in the region, whether in terms of technical innovation or economic success.

“For instance, the cooling technology that will be environment-friendly can be applied to other areas and countries with similar climate patterns. Some people ask what benefit the people would get by spending something like $200bn on a sport project that would be used for a short period. The answer is that the strategy adopted by the country goes beyond that,” she said.

“Some of the stadiums and sport facilities will be turned into various service and commercial projects, such as social and sport clubs, hotels, shopping malls and others, which would certainly improve the lives of the residents.”

Regarding the negative reports on the status of Nepalese men working on FIFA 2022 projects, she said these were fabricated as, at that time, the work on these projects had not commenced. “Besides, Nepalese officials and diplomats in Qatar have denied such reports by presenting true stories from the workers themselves.

“Anyway, such reports, though completely baseless, gave us clues and incentives to improve our legislation and upgrade the living standards of the expatriate labor force.”

Dr al-Bar said Qatar enjoys a prime location in the region, which can give easy access to visitors to the neighboring countries that have a rich historical and cultural heritage.

“Most of the countries in the region are located at a distance of one hour to three hours by air from Qatar. This will improve the economic situation of the whole region. Besides, it will go beyond 2022 and the event itself as visitors will promote the region among their acquaintances and friends,” she said.

Regarding the fears that the Middle East was a region full of political instability, she said Qatar ranked first at the Arab level on the Global Peace Index and 19th worldwide (2013), while UK ranked 44, Brazil 81 and South Africa 121.

“This is an international report and our security records are better than excellent. When it comes to the UK, reports of the UN and the European Commission indicate that it has the highest crime rate in the whole of Europe,” she said.

The TV host interviewing Dr al-Badr said while other bidders for the 2022 FIFA World Cup presented their files having 600-700 pages prepared by experienced professionals, the Qatari bid – prepared by young people – was submitted in an innovative way. “The oldest of them was at that time aged 33 years.”

Qatari sports commentator Yousef Seif, speaking from Brazil, told the program that Qatar 2022 was the pride of all Arabs and representatives of international media at the 2014 Brazil World Cup agreed that Qatar had offered an amazing bid, while the countries that did not win were now launching an unjust media campaign to make up for their weaknesses.

He pointed out that the World Cup was successfully held in Uruguay in 1930 when its population was just about 1.3mn. “So, size does not matter; the most important thing is the ability to organize an international event in an innovative way,” he added.

Kuwait-based Al-Youm TV is specialized in news production and telecasts four newscasts daily, besides debates and talk shows.