Doha, October 21 (QNA) – The State of Qatar changed sports from just competitions on the field and cheering in the stands to lofty meanings that serve communities, people, and countries, elevating the value of sport to achieve peace and rapprochement between people, when it submitted its file to host the World Cup in 2022, amid astonishment and wonder from all athletes of the great ambition that the State of Qatar enjoys.
In 2009, it was only a dream to succeed when Qatar announced its bid to organize the largest sporting event in the world, the World Cup. Wishful thinking is what appeared to everyone through the hosting file when it was announced at the Khalifa International Stadium in HH the Amir’s Football Cup Final, but in reality, Qatar was carrying high-end concepts in football and hosting tournaments, which appeared in crucial moments.
Qatar presented a comprehensive file with strong competition from countries experienced in appearing in the World Cup, some of which mastered its organization in decades past, and others have a history of World Cup participation and professional leagues and stars worth tens of millions of dollars.
Qatar surrounded its file with calls to millions of Arabs, the hopes of changing the concepts of football in establishing peace and rapprochement between peoples, and taking football as an easy way to divert the worlds attention to the Middle East, recognizing it as a region with deep-rooted traditions and culture based on peace, affection and harmony and not a region of disputes and conflicts.
The Qatari file came with a message for the hosting request titled peace from the Middle East to the whole world. The message was an invitation to the world to change its view of the region as being able to live in peace and prove that concept to its visitors.
Qatar painted the walls of the Middle East with the colors of ambition carried by future generations who love football, know their competitive value, emulate their passion for sports the best countries in the world related to football, and even surpass them by culture and knowledge of the game, through meeting the file’s technical conditions backed by the development vision in the State of Qatar and the belief in its ability to organize distinctive edition, with a special touch from the Arab region in general and Qatar, in particular.
Qatar entered the race to organize with its file, competing with strong files such as Spain and Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands, and England for the European continent, and the US and Mexico for the North and Central American continent, among other files that entered the race in the first stage. Regardless, Qatar has convinced the world that its file was unique.
The State of Qatar did not leave room for chance and included in its file the aspirations of all the people in the Arab region and the high-end concepts in organizing tournaments and raising the value of competitive sports by providing everything that supports the principles and foundations of the FIFA in spreading the culture of the game.
Qatar excelled in presenting an amazing and convincing presentation to the FIFA’s Executive Office members, adding touches of knowledge that indicate the culture and far-sightedness of the people of Qatar and how to contribute to a unique version that remains in memory, based on young and conscious minds aware of the value of Sports and aim to deliver the tournament to the Middle East region, which suffered from the view that it is a region of strife and that must be changed in the minds of the world.
Qatar presented a special committee for the hosting file with a group of young Qataris responsible for the file at the presentation stage to the Executive Committee and organization stage, as a kind of commitment and bring promises to reality, implementing in 2022 using young cadres.
The Qatari presentation impressed everyone who saw it because of its new understanding and a new concept of organizing tournaments, backed by a strict and clear government commitment to support the file.
The State of Qatar was not satisfied with a file that only fulfilled the conditions as the previous files submitted to FIFA, but rather supported it with the vision of the state and addressed the world through it in all languages, affirming Qatars intellectual readiness, belief in its organizational capabilities and distinguished minds that manage the file. Qatar presented the bid file in Spanish, French, and English, with pride in Arabic, the language of the people of the region and its people, with the promise of a special imprint for the tournament, which will be of a Qatari character.
Qatar succeeded in overcoming the nature of the tournament, which coincides with the hot summer period in the region, with the cooling technology in the stadiums, an environmentally friendly technology that added a sign of astonishment to the extent of the capabilities that Qatar possesses.
Qatar convinced the FIFA Executive Committee that organizing the World Cup meets the aspirations of the people of the region and pushes everyone to one destination, peace. It also enhances the rapprochement between people and provides an opportunity for the world to learn about the State of Qatar and the Arab region, with its diversity of cultures and traditions.
This is a valuable opportunity for the world to change the images of the Arab region, in general, and the Middle East, in particular.
When the moment of deciding moment came in December 2010, Qatar overcame America’s file by six votes winning (14-8), in a brilliant victory for the Arab-Qatari minds that defied time and kept pace with development and charted a path confirming that the region has brilliant minds and intellectual capabilities supported by the state, showing the world the extent of the cognitive and cultural development of Arab youth.
Qatar did not neglect its promises and presented pictures of stadium models that carry special meanings documenting Qatar, its traditions, and the culture of the region through eight stadiums. Each stadium carried its own meaning in terms of shape and design.
The Khalifa International Stadium, Al Thumama, Al Bayt, Education City, Al Rayyan, Al Janoub, Lusail, and 974 stadiums are an amazing reality as it was an impressive promise and determination when the hosting file was presented in 2009. The last stadium, and largest, Lusail Stadium was completed six months before the tournament.
Qatar’s file bet on a new idea that has never been done in the history of the World Cup, which is the legacy of the World Cup and the full use of Qatari facilities and stadiums for countries that do not have a sports infrastructure. After the World Cup, Qatar will provide valuable support to these countries from the legacy of the Qatari file, a precedent that history has written in favor of Qatar, and it is a new gain that enhances the concept of the culture of spreading the game, which is one of FIFA’s principles.
The Qatari file kept pace with the technological development in all its details. The organization processes were powered by the latest technology, from the cooling of stadiums to the process of receiving fans and their entry and exit from the stadiums. Qatar also employed all energies and capabilities to achieve a major shift in the organization of tournaments by providing all technical aids to benefit from them in the major event, the latest of which is the fight against racism and cyberbullying of players by setting up a special system that protects players from racist abuse on social media, a unique feature to the Qatari edition.
Despite moving the tournament from summer to winter, Qatar fulfilled its promises regarding the stadiums with the same details as it submitted the hosting file, which means quality in organizing the event while keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in hosting to leave a mark in the history of the World Cup.
Qatar has turned the dream into a tangible reality that the masses of the world will experience by watching more than one match in one day, only available in Qatar’s edition. The Qatar version is characterized as the only one that will be held in a complete rapprochement between the teams, the fans, and the stadiums in spaces, where communication and access to the stadiums are easy.
The tournament also comes in an Arab Gulf region that has never organized the World Cup, which allows all the people of the Arab world to follow the event from inside the stadium as a historic opportunity provided by Qatar to all the people of the region.
The journey of the Qatari file was outstanding since it was paper until it turned into a reality that meets the aspirations of the global masses by coming to a new region and following a unique event with a purely Arab character, where the distances and stadiums are close and all the cheerleading aids in football are provided and is supported by technologies in a version that is safer for the fans than all previous versions.
To improve the quality of the organization, Qatar tested its stadiums in the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 and the process of organizing and operating the facilities and has achieved the required success, adding a unique version of the Arab championships that were held on World Cup stadiums for the first time in the history of Arab competition in football.
Qatar has completed its preparation for an exceptional edition by all standards. All of its matches will be held within a radius of limited kilometers. This will be the 22nd edition of the World Cup, which was launched in 1930, and a special charm makes it distinctive in the number 2022, as its special logo was launched at eight and 22 minutes in all countries of the world, and the number of voters in the meeting of the Executive Committee that announced the victory Qatar in the organization were 22 members, with Qatar’s victory of 14 votes against the 8 votes for the US file at the time, making it a distinguished championship in the year ’22.
The tournament, through which FIFA adopted the Arabic language, a new addition that Qatar is achieving for the Arabs by introducing the world to the Arabic language and culture, will be launched on Nov. 20 until Dec. 18, with a high degree of health and safety, a copy of its logo with deep meanings, La’eeb as the official mascot, Al Rihla as the Official Match Ball, the Hayya card, the song “Hayya Hayya”, its message of peace, and team are on a date with a unique challenge with an Arab flavor. (QNA)