On a great day on December 10, the whole of Qatar, and perhaps the Atab world, was standing and applauding the award of the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
History will tell us that Qatar’s the first country in the Middle East to hold such a prestigious and generally profitable competition.
Not only that, if the rest of the world had little knowledge of the rich Middle Eastern kingdom, the World Cup will change that.
In a recent statement, its ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, says the country has faced unprecedented criticism since winning the bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
He says some of the criticism amounted to slander while some of the earlier criticism against Qatar were constructive.
“We initially dealt with the matter in good faith,” Sheikh Tamim said in a televised policy speech, but he feels a campaign was orchestrated against Qatar and it included ” fabrications and double standards that were so ferocious that it has unfortunately prompted many people to question the real reasons and motives behind the campaign”.
Though the Sheikh did not state that the country regrets the decision to accept the Fifa World Cup 2022, the undertones of his statement can be construed as saying the emirates could have been in a better place without the competition.
However, the country is still focussing on the organisation of the game and has planned sufficient beds for short stays and longer stays.
The event kicks off on Nov. 20 and they expect 1.2 million visitors during the tournament.
And Sheikh Tamim says the whole organisation of the World Cup was “a great test for a country the size of Qatar”.
Attacks against Qatar
Activists and human rights campaigners have in the past months attacked Qatar and threatened countries that will participate in the event that they will be supporting the alleged crimes against foreign workers.
Qatar is also facing the potential outburst of ‘gay right’ activists and soccer players who want to wear a pro-gay arm band to show support to the LGBT community.
Here are more stories related to the FIFA 2022 World Cup.