As the dust begin
to find some semblance of calmness after what has been a month of sheer
rollercoasters, we reflect on what has been; and what will be at the back of
this.
Cue December 2nd
2010. The then FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, has just announced a hitherto
unknown footballing name as the host of the 2022 World Cup. The Zurich
conference hall was reeling with the news and the western media were readying
their inks for the diatribes that will follow. The circumstances surrounding
Qatar’s emergence as host will yet be fully unraveled; what was clear was that it
was a moment of footballing watershed; and even that might be putting it mildly.
Qatar spent
approximately $200 billion preparing for this World Cup. To put this into
perspective, Russia who hosted the event in 2018 and Brazil in 2014, had a
combined spend of approximately $25 billion. This staggering jump was certainly
Qatar saying to the rest of the world - “We shall give you a treat. Never mind
the money.” The infrastructures built were glaring. For the first time in a
football stadium, I was genuinely freezing with a jacket on. The metro was
refurbished. Massive housing emerged. The entire country wore the event as a
cloak. From Corniche to Lusail, from Al Bidda to Msheireb, you can tell that
there is a fiesta going on. Try as they did, the western media efforts to
discredit Qatar and make a ridicule of the spectacle fell on its knees. For
many months, it was sheer propaganda and a bucketload of virtue signaling. From
LGBTQ clamour to Human Rights concerns, the western media drummed the beats of
war loudly but falsely. Some of the commentaries were as hypocritical as they
come, and this is not even an attempt to go the whataboutism route. One of the
outlets even reported that men would not be allowed to ‘wear shorts’ in Qatar.
And oh, who knew that we could have fun without alcohol? While Qatar is not a
perfect country, it had asked for respect for its conservatism and culture. It
certainly wasn’t too much to ask for one would think.
Perhaps, the
biggest story of this World Cup was the footballing experience itself. It is
not a mark of senility that you would struggle to remember any World Cup with
so many giant slaying stories, upsets, late twists, firsts and fairy tale endings.
Qatar 2022 had it in abundance. If it wasn’t Saudi Arabia defeating Argentina,
it was Morocco giving us a Cinderella story. The drama was everywhere, and to
behold it live, was a true privilege.
And yes, this was
a World Cup with many firsts. This was the first FIFA World Cup to take place
in the Arab world. It was also the first time fans could attend multiple
tournament matches per day. I thought this was a ‘dead on arrival idea’ until I
arrived in Qatar to see that all eight stadiums are within 2 hours distance of one
another. Yet, this is not all. The stadium 974 is the first fully demountable
FIFA World Cup venue. Add to the fact that stadiums were fitted with air
conditioning to keep players and fans cool. For the first time too, the official
mascot of the FIFA World Cup could talk – La’eeb. And then we had an all-female
referee line-up officiate a match in the men’s tournament for the first time
What will be the
legacy of this tournament? Well, some of the statistics present us with some
pointers. 2,450,000 fans attended Group Stage matches with stadiums at 96%
capacity. 88,966 fans attended the Argentina v Mexico match at Lusail Stadium,
the highest attendance since the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final. 16,687,498
passengers have been transported by both the Metro and Lusail Tram. And how about this for a
cheeky stat - Fan noise recorded at Uruguay v Korea Republic – was 131
decibels. As loud as a plane taking off. It remains to be seen what this world
cup will mean for Qatar as a nation going forward. One is tempted to think that
for the country, it was more a repositioning opportunity, a chance to announce
itself loudly more than it was an economic motive. Time will tell if those
objectives have and will be fully met in the aftermath of the competition.
However, one thing will remain extant – Qatar served us with some remarkable
footballing experience, unforgettable side attractions, and a reminder that
this sport we all love so much is a global one that speaks all languages!
