In the light of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, 2022 the host country, Qatar has come under menacing controversy. In its long list of policies, the Gulf country came under worldwide criticism for forbidding revealing clothing for women and banning beer drinks from the stadium. Qatar is one of the dry countries that strictly restrict alcohol. These bans have raged over the feminist community and disappointed many fans who like to celebrate the games with booze. The World cup started on 20 November with the first match between Qatar and Ecuador.
FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest and most awaited games in the world. Usually held in the summer, the World Cup is scheduled for November-December to avoid the scorching Gulf heat. To be the host of this coveted Cup, the country has to be an example of excellent hospitality and diplomacy. Has Qatar equipped itself for the task? Latest reports inform that the Arab country spent $200 billion to prepare for the 2022 World Cup, a shockingly more significant amount. Let us learn where Qatar has incurred these heavy expenditures.
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How Did Qatar Spend $200 Billion?
In 2018, Qatar spend $11.6 billion to prepare for the World Cup. According to The Sun Qatar left Russia way behind by using up 20 times what was spent last year. So what developments did the Gulf country undertake that resulted in such a fat price? A large chunk of the sum was dedicated to developing the underground Doha metro station that started operating in 2019.
With the aim of providing a cheap and smooth medium of transportation around the city, $36 billion was spent on it. Hamad National Airport was also renovated for $16 billion. The government of Qatar has built seven brand new stadiums and redeveloped the Khalifa International Stadium to hold the matches. A fairly small amount of $6.5 billion was spent on these stadiums and amenities for the teams and fans.
Despite these all these expenses, fans have raised genuine complaints about scarce accommodation across the country. According to Give Me Sports, there are mere 30,000 hotel rooms in Qatar to house an expected crowd of more than one million.
Meanwhile, most of them are pre-booked for teams and sponsors. Neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and Oman are expected to profit from Qatar’s inadequacy. Dubai claims to attract the majority of the one million spectators as they provide 50 shuttle planes making rounds from Doha to Dubai daily.
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Fatma Al Nuaimi’s Statement
Up until this year, Brazil was the host country to have had an elephantine expenditure of $15 billion to prepare for the Cup in 2014. However, Qatar’s expenses make Brazil’s cost look humorously dwarf. Even South Africa spent $3.5 billion as the host country.
If we speculate the expenditures mentioned above they don’t even make up a substantial portion of the $200 billion. So where was the rest of the budget accounted for? Communication Executive Director, Fatma Al Nuaimi released a statement that answers the question.
The Executive Director claims, “Meanwhile, the World Cup is a part of the Qatar National Vision 2030, a broader government strategy promoting the intensive development of urban and national facilities and industry, in addition to education and healthcare” A good sum of the $200 billion was committed to remodeling a village Lusail, where the final set will be held, to an urbanized city.
Executive Fatma further added, “The $200bn figure, often associated with the World Cup, is actually part of this ambitious strategy for Qatar’s national development and modernisation.” Fatma asserts that the infrastructure recently built or developed will be utilized by none other than the guest of the country. She further hopes, “We are sure that everyone who visits Qatar in 2022 will be delighted.”
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