Qatar World Cup 2022: A Guide on What to Expect

This is not a sports story per se, rather, it is a collection of stories I am putting together over the next few months about a country preparing and developing with sports in mind. The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar, a country most people had not heard of—and maybe still haven’t—until FIFA awarded the Islamic nation the prestigious tournament in 2010.

Since then, I have relocated to the country, and over the next few months, would like to share my thoughts, feelings and observations of a country preparing and developing culturally, financially and athletically.

Sometimes, I feel I may not be able to say the things I feel should be said in these articles, however, I hope by the end of this series I will. 

It’s March, and the sun is high in the sky. It’s nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s barely midday. 

Welcome to Doha, Qatar—home of the 2022 World Cup. 

In December 2010, soccer’s governing body FIFA selected the tiny Gulf country to host the 22nd addition of the World Cup Finals.

Qatar, which is slightly smaller than the US state Connecticut, was able to outbid the USA, South Korea, Australia and Japan in order to host the tournament finals—a result that was met with immediate speculation of bribery and vote rigging. 

I arrived in the oil-rich nation in November 2011, knowing very little about it other than the obvious of weather, wealth and religion. What I have found is a country aspiring to become a dominate figure in the world, yet a country that will need all 10 years to prepare for the World Cup—and maybe even more time.

Besides the heat, the first thing I noticed in Qatar was the abundance of construction—buildings, roads and parks all being built at a steady pace by immigrant laborers. These workers come from poorer, developing nations such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Many of these skilled and unskilled workers are making only slightly more than they would in their home nations and can be viewed as indentured servants. 

The road construction regularly causes traffic congestion at all hours of the day—and not at your typical rush hours. In November 2011, Brazil and Egypt played an international friendly in the country. However, the Qatar FA’s organization of the game was so poor, placing the game at a small stadium on the outskirts of  the capital, most fans were stuck in traffic as the game kicked off.

It took me nearly three hours to go the 15 miles to the stadium—walking is prevented because there are no sidewalks, and there's little to no public transportation. Consequently, I missed the first 60 minutes of the match, and upon arriving at the stadium, it was evident there was no parking, and most patrons parked on the side of the highway. Not a great advertisement for the future.

How FIFA could have come to Qatar in 2009 during the World Cup bidding process and seen the Utopia that is planned for the country is beyond me. There is beauty, but an average of 106 degrees Fahrenheit during June and July is ridiculous, and simply, suicidal weather to put soccer players through.

Obviously, there are rumblings, to say the least, of corruption; however, I am not writing on the possibility of bribery or on those matters; that’s Declan Hill’s expertise. Rather, I simply want to present a country to those who haven’t experienced it or have little knowledge of the Gulf—except for what they see on the news. 

Qatar’s grand scheme is to rival their neighbor the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Over the past 10 years, Dubai in the UAE, has become a city of expatriates, foreign companies, and above all else, money. Doha is said to be 10 to 15 years behind Dubai, but as Doha has expanded outward and upward, Dubai has seen several problems develop. 

Dubai’s current crisis is a saturated real estate market. I expect the same problem to happen in Doha in the not too distant future. Office buildings and apartment blocks are erected at a steady pace, but the question remains who will fill these buildings?

The country’s population is just under 1.8 million people, according to Qatar Statistics Authority, and only around 360,000 of those people are ethnic Qatari. The offices, homes and apartments most likely won’t be filled by Qataris, rather, it will be expatriates who make up most of the occupants. However, getting people to emigrate to an Islamic country in the desert won’t be an easy task. 

Ten years is a long time, unless you have to build a city almost from scratch which is what Qatar is nearly doing. The stadiums will be the last thing to be built, but the city will need major advancements in its public transportation system if it is to accommodate the World Cup.

However, these things may need to be built much earlier than first thought. Qatar is bidding to hold the 2020 Summer Olympics, yet, they don’t want to hold the Summer Olympics in the summer. They have recently proposed an October date to hold the 2020 Olympic games. The country has earmarked $73 million for their Olympic bid and will find out in September 2013, according to Reuters, if they are the lucky hosts. 

If they are chosen to host the games, they will need to ramp up their construction even more as they prepare for two major tournaments within two years of each other.