32-nation World Cup begins today; Infantino says, ‘today I feel Qatari’
Seven new stadiums have been built in and around Doha to host the 64 matches. Know all the FIFA World Cup 2022 venues
DOHA: Qatar will finally get their home World Cup under way on Sunday, 12 years ater the nation’s successful bid put into motion wide-ranging preparations which cost billions of dollars.
It is widely accepted the Gulf state has spent $200 billion on hosting football’s biggest event and Qatar will get its first glimpse at the final product at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor when the hosts take on Ecuador.
Organisers say that 2.9 million of the 3.1 million tickets have been sold and they will be expecting a 60,000 sell-out on Sunday.
The home team’s players have also been preparing tirelessly, spending months outside Qatar in isolated training camps, in an atempt to reach the knockout phase on their 32-nation World Cup debut.
It is the first World Cup to be organised in the Arab world, the first to be held in winter and the second one in Asia ater the 2002 edition jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan. The Qatar 2022 World Cup starts on Nov.20 and will end on Dec.18.
Meanwhile, FIFA president Gianni Infantino blasted the “hypocrisy” of Western critics of Qatar’s human rights record on Saturday, making a passionate defence of the World Cup in the Gulf state on the eve of the kick-off.
Infantino, speaking at his opening press conference of the tournament in Doha, had harsh words for critics of Qatar.
“This moral lesson-giving - one-sided - is just hypocrisy,” said the global football supremo.
“I don’t want to give you any lessons of life, but what is going on here is profoundly, profoundly unjust.”
Organisers on Friday performed a dramatic U-turn, banning beer sales around stadiums just 48 hours before kickoff. Infantino made light of the last-minute change on Saturday.
“I think personally if for three hours a day you cannot drink a beer, you will survive,” he said.
The FIFA president delivered a one-hour tirade on the eve of the World Cup’s opening match, and then spent about 45 minutes answering questions from media about the Qatari government’s actions and a wide range of other topics.
“Today I feel Qatari,” Infantino said at the start of his first news conference of the World Cup. “Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”
Infantino later shot back at one reporter who noticed he let women out of his unusual declaration.
“I feel like a woman,” the FIFA president responded.
Infantino defended the country’s immigration policy, and praised the government for bringing in migrants to work.
“We in Europe, we close our borders and we don’t allow practically any worker from those countries, who earn obviously very low income, to work legally in our countries,” Infantino said. “If Europe would really care about the destiny of these people, these young people, then Europe could also do as Qatar did.
“But give them some work. Give them some future. Give them some hope. But this moral-lesson giving, one-sided, it is just hypocrisy.”
“What we Europeans have been doing for the past 3,000 years we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before we start giving moral lessons to people,” said Infantino, who moved last year from Switzerland to live in Doha ahead of the World Cup.
Separately, in a great celebration of the first World Cup in the Arab world, bein MEDIA GROUP (“bein”) announced today that it will broadcast 22 matches of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on its free-to-air bein SPORTS channel in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
The free-to-air coverage will kick off with the opening match on Sunday, Nov.20, 2022, at the Al Bayt Stadium as Qatar takes on Ecuador.
The announcement means millions of fans and families across the 24-country MENA region can celebrate and experience the magic of the
World Cup, held for the first time in their home region. The free-to-air bein SPORTS channel will be the home of these 22 free broadcasts, which will sit alongside the full 64 match and wider coverage of the tournament on the bein SPORTS MAX channels.
Cristiano Ronaldo jeted into Qatar late on Friday, desperate to focus on football ater an explosive tirade against his club, manchester united.
The Portugal forward, who has dominated global football for the past 15 years alongside Argentina’s Lionel Messi, will be playing in his fith and likely final World Cup.
The 37-year-old, who has a world-record 117 international goals, is aiming to become the first man to score in five World Cups.
Ronaldo appears to be headed for the exit door at Old Trafford but earlier this week pledged “total and absolute focus on the work of the national team” in a social media post.
Ronaldo’s Portugal team-mate Bernardo Silva insisted the controversy surrounding the veteran would not distract from preparations for the tournament.
“The news from England has nothing to do with the national team,” said Silva, denying there were any tensions in the Portuguese camp.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held in Qatar from November 20 to December 18.
Set to be the 22nd edition of the world football championships, the FIFA World Cup 2022 is set to be a special one considering it will be the first time that a Middle Eastern country will host a football World Cup.
This will also be the second time that the FIFA World Cup will be hosted in Asia. The 2002 FIFA World Cup was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.
A total of eight stadiums spread across five different Qatari cities will host 32 teams in 64 matches during the FIFA World Cup 2022.
The designated venues for the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar are Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium and Education
City Stadium in Al Rayyan and Stadium 974 and Al Thumama Stadium in Doha.
All the venues are located within a 55-km radius of Qatar’s capital city of Doha.
Barring the Khalifa International Stadium, which has been operational since 1976, all the other stadiums have been constructed over the past three years with the FIFA World Cup in mind. The Khalifa Stadium will host the thirdplace playoff match.
Lusail Iconic Stadium has the highest capacity (80,000) among the eight venues. It will also be the busiest stadium of the lot, hosting a total of 10 matches, including the final and closing ceremonies.
The Al Bayt Stadium, set to host nine matches, will be the stage for the opening ceremony and FIFA World Cup 2022 opener between hosts Qatar and Ecuador on November 20.
The group matches have been divided among the stadiums as follows:
Groups A, B, E and F: Al Bayt Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium, Ahmad bin Ali Stadium
Groups C, D, G and H: Lusail Iconic Stadium, Stadium 974, Education City Stadium, Al Janoub Stadium
The upcoming edition will be the first FIFA World Cup, which will not be played between May to July because of the intense heat in Qatar during non-winter months.
The stadiums have also been equipped with state-of-the-art climate control facilities to manage instadia temperature.
The eight stadiums — seven of which have state-of-the-art air conditioning systems, with vents both under seats as well as pitch-side — were built with sustainability in mind, using energy-efficient practices and recycled water and materials.
And to avoid the sad fate of World Cup venues that have become white elephants in places such as Brazil, most of Qatar’s stadiums will be downsized ater the tournament, with more than 170,000 total seats to be removed from several venues and shipped to developing countries in need of sports infrastructure.
This World Cup, which will open on the edge of the desert at Al Bayt Stadium, 22 miles north of the Qatari capital, will also be the most accessible in history. The longest distance between any two venues is 35 miles, and some are within sight of one another, meaning it would have been possible to atend four games a day during group play had FIFA not limited fans and journalists to half that many.