FIFA W. Cup Qatar 2022 is here
Gday dear reader. The most adorned football trophy will be competed for by thirty-two national teams in Qatar. It’s the FIFA World Cup and its ‘Hayya Hayya’ (Better together) as per the official song of the competition performed by Trinidada Cardona, Davido and Aish which was released on April 1, this year.
It is Christmas before Christmas for the globe at large. A total of sixty-four matches to be played in eight venues as from tomorrow until December 18, 2022.
These venues are Lusail Iconic Stadium, Al Bayt Stadium, Stadium 1974, Al Thumama Stadium, Education City Stadium, Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Al Junoub Stadium and Khalifa International Stadium.
In May 2022, FIFA President Gianni Infantino projected that the 2022 FIFA World Cup could be the most-watched in history, with a global audience of at least five billion. The 2018 tournament was witnessed by 3.57 billion.
OOD Mascot
The tournament’s official mascot was unveiled on April 1, 2022 during the draw. Its name is La’eeb, which is an Arabic word meaning ‘super- skilled player’. The official website of FIFA says: “La’ebb will be known for his youthful spirit; spreading joy and confidence everywhere he goes” and the official backstory of the character, published there, claims that it comes from a parallel world where tournaments mascots live “a world where ideas and creativity form the basis of character that live in the mind of everyone.”
Match ball
The official match ball, the ‘Al Rihla’, was unveiled on March 30, 2022. In Arabic this word means ‘The journey’. The ball was designed with sustainability as a priority, making it the first match ball created with water-based glue and ink. As the game is getting faster and speed up, Adidas used some new features, allowing the ball to provide speed and improve accuracy.
Emblem
The official emblem was designed by Lisbon-based Brandia Central Agency and unveiled on September 3, 2019. It’s designed to resemble the tournament trophy and the number ‘8’ reflects the interconnected event and the eight host stadiums. It also evokes imagery of shawls to signify the tournament’s winter scheduling (northern hemisphere), and contains waves resembling desert dunes. The typography of the emblem’s word mark incorporates kashida (the practice of elongating certain parts of characters in Arabic script to provide typographical emphasis).
FIFA World Cup Players to #BringTheMoves and encourage children to exercise
Football is more than just a game. It’s part of our daily lives. With the tournament to kick-off tomorrow; FIFA, WHO and the Ministry of Public Health in Qatar have implemented a campaign to encourage children to be active. #BringTheMoves challenge and encourage youngsters to be #BeActive.
This challenge not only unites children with their heroes but utilises the most digital-ever World Cup, to send a message that we all need to be active and drive awareness also for parents that children need 60 minutes of physical exercise a day. At the moment, that is not the case for 80 per cent of adolescents around the world. Through this campaign, children worldwide are challenging players of participating national teams to celebrate goals with new moves simply by posting videos on the social media pages using the hashtag #BringTheMoves.
Till next week, football for all and safe life for all.