<p>The 2022 FIFA World Cup is six years away but it has had more than its share of controversies and issues. But it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Qatar is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the country is ready to welcome the footballing world to the first-ever World Cup in West Asia.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Construction work is in full swing in every corner of this small yet wealthy country. Be it the much talked about metro rail project or the eight brand new stadiums, Qatar is keen to answer its critics with a World Cup that will not only cater to every need of the participating teams, but will also look to cater to the needs of the travelling fans.<br /><br />In an interaction with a select group of media, Nasser Al Khater, the Assistant Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy of the World Cup organising committee, threw light on the project’s progress, the criticism surrounding it and other issues. Excerpts:<br /><br />What has been the progress so far? <br />We have been very pleased with the progress. We have our plans and we’re working according to them. There are no significant delays anywhere — actually on some stadiums we are ahead of schedule.<br />In terms of our master programme, we are in very good shape. There’s construction everywhere – all the roads, causeways, bridges. There are some twenty-four major projects underway right now. We’re happy in terms of the tangible assets for the tournament. We’re on track.<br /><br />What are your thoughts on the perception of FIFA being too demanding of the host nations?<br />I think not just FIFA, but a lot of international bodies have recognised that the requirements put a lot of strain sometimes on a host country. I’ll give you Qatar as an example — when we bid, we had to bid for 12 to 16 stadiums, and FIFA would select. Now we are talking about eight, maybe nine. Even FIFA is agreeing to keep the number, to not burden the host country. <br /><br />There have been lot of criticism on the workers’ conditions in the media worldwide....<br />In 2010 we won (the bid) and in 2011 we instituted this organisation (the Supreme Council). We created a strategic plan – one of the things we looked in our plan is workers’ welfare. We knew we would have about 25,000 to 30,000 workers on our stadiums. It was very important for us to make sure that their environment, their living conditions are as comfortable as possible.<br />What the challenges that we weren’t aware of, that we’re seeing right now, is that the challenges begin in their (labourers’) home countries. There is a culture of agents that take advantage of workers that want to work abroad. False contracts, over-promising salaries, sometimes giving completely false job descriptions that results in a mismatch between what they expect and what the company offers them once they get here. So this is something that’s very hard to tackle. <br /><br />What are your comments on the negative publicity? Would you say that Qatar is going into this with a point to prove?<br />To be honest, that wasn’t the point in the first place, and I don’t think that was the point even after a lot of the criticism. Let’s not forget that the criticism was way beyond the conditions of the workers. There were criticisms on allegations of corruption, and all sorts of things. The critics will criticise. After this World Cup, they move on to the next event and then they will criticise again. I think we need to focus on the goals that we have had right from the beginning.<br /><br />The World Cups before Qatar were held in much larger countries. Is that a challenge?<br />I think one of the main attributes of the bid was that we wanted to show that countries of the size of Qatar – and there aren’t many countries the size of Qatar — can host a World Cup. By hosting it here, we are telling other countries that you can do it as well. <br /><br />What are your thoughts on the shifting of the World Cup to winter?<br />We were kind of disappointed. We wanted to show the air-cooling technology. But we’re still going ahead with the air-cooling technology and the stadiums will have it. The World Cup will finish, but the stadiums will stay. We need them for the league and it’s a technology that we had planned to have in the stadiums in any case. <br /><br />What would be the impact of the World Cup on the West Asian region?<br />We’re hoping that this World Cup will, at least to Qatar and to some of the countries nearby, have the same effect that the 2002 World Cup had on Japan. Before Japan had won the bid for the 2002 World Cup, they had never qualified for the World Cup. They qualified in 1998 after winning the bid. So it had a big push on Japanese football. We’re hoping for something similar. <br /><br />Would security be a challenge given the increasing incidents of fan violence at international events?<br />Security is going to be a big deal, and security will have to be at its best standard. Being a small nation has its advantages, but it also has the risks that you’ll have fans from different groups all in one area. We are working with international security agencies already, to make sure that in 2022, we have a robust system of vetting fans and ticket-holders.<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
<p>The 2022 FIFA World Cup is six years away but it has had more than its share of controversies and issues. But it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Qatar is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the country is ready to welcome the footballing world to the first-ever World Cup in West Asia.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Construction work is in full swing in every corner of this small yet wealthy country. Be it the much talked about metro rail project or the eight brand new stadiums, Qatar is keen to answer its critics with a World Cup that will not only cater to every need of the participating teams, but will also look to cater to the needs of the travelling fans.<br /><br />In an interaction with a select group of media, Nasser Al Khater, the Assistant Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy of the World Cup organising committee, threw light on the project’s progress, the criticism surrounding it and other issues. Excerpts:<br /><br />What has been the progress so far? <br />We have been very pleased with the progress. We have our plans and we’re working according to them. There are no significant delays anywhere — actually on some stadiums we are ahead of schedule.<br />In terms of our master programme, we are in very good shape. There’s construction everywhere – all the roads, causeways, bridges. There are some twenty-four major projects underway right now. We’re happy in terms of the tangible assets for the tournament. We’re on track.<br /><br />What are your thoughts on the perception of FIFA being too demanding of the host nations?<br />I think not just FIFA, but a lot of international bodies have recognised that the requirements put a lot of strain sometimes on a host country. I’ll give you Qatar as an example — when we bid, we had to bid for 12 to 16 stadiums, and FIFA would select. Now we are talking about eight, maybe nine. Even FIFA is agreeing to keep the number, to not burden the host country. <br /><br />There have been lot of criticism on the workers’ conditions in the media worldwide....<br />In 2010 we won (the bid) and in 2011 we instituted this organisation (the Supreme Council). We created a strategic plan – one of the things we looked in our plan is workers’ welfare. We knew we would have about 25,000 to 30,000 workers on our stadiums. It was very important for us to make sure that their environment, their living conditions are as comfortable as possible.<br />What the challenges that we weren’t aware of, that we’re seeing right now, is that the challenges begin in their (labourers’) home countries. There is a culture of agents that take advantage of workers that want to work abroad. False contracts, over-promising salaries, sometimes giving completely false job descriptions that results in a mismatch between what they expect and what the company offers them once they get here. So this is something that’s very hard to tackle. <br /><br />What are your comments on the negative publicity? Would you say that Qatar is going into this with a point to prove?<br />To be honest, that wasn’t the point in the first place, and I don’t think that was the point even after a lot of the criticism. Let’s not forget that the criticism was way beyond the conditions of the workers. There were criticisms on allegations of corruption, and all sorts of things. The critics will criticise. After this World Cup, they move on to the next event and then they will criticise again. I think we need to focus on the goals that we have had right from the beginning.<br /><br />The World Cups before Qatar were held in much larger countries. Is that a challenge?<br />I think one of the main attributes of the bid was that we wanted to show that countries of the size of Qatar – and there aren’t many countries the size of Qatar — can host a World Cup. By hosting it here, we are telling other countries that you can do it as well. <br /><br />What are your thoughts on the shifting of the World Cup to winter?<br />We were kind of disappointed. We wanted to show the air-cooling technology. But we’re still going ahead with the air-cooling technology and the stadiums will have it. The World Cup will finish, but the stadiums will stay. We need them for the league and it’s a technology that we had planned to have in the stadiums in any case. <br /><br />What would be the impact of the World Cup on the West Asian region?<br />We’re hoping that this World Cup will, at least to Qatar and to some of the countries nearby, have the same effect that the 2002 World Cup had on Japan. Before Japan had won the bid for the 2002 World Cup, they had never qualified for the World Cup. They qualified in 1998 after winning the bid. So it had a big push on Japanese football. We’re hoping for something similar. <br /><br />Would security be a challenge given the increasing incidents of fan violence at international events?<br />Security is going to be a big deal, and security will have to be at its best standard. Being a small nation has its advantages, but it also has the risks that you’ll have fans from different groups all in one area. We are working with international security agencies already, to make sure that in 2022, we have a robust system of vetting fans and ticket-holders.<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
