Almost nine years still separate Qatar from “its” Football World Cup. But the event is already at the heart of all the controversies. On the occasion of Doha Goals (December 9-11), the Secretary General of the 2022 World Cup organizing committee, Hassan Al-Thawadi, answered the most sensitive questions.
FIFA is currently conducting an investigation, entrusted to Michael Garcia, to shed light on accusations of corruption by some of its members for the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Do you fear the results?
Hasan Al-Thawadi : No. These accusations have come up regularly for three years, since we obtained the organization of the 2022 World Cup. They are always the same. But they are not based on anything. I can assure you that we conducted our bid campaign respecting FIFA rules at every stage of the process. Everything was transparent. The investigation can be carried out, we await the conclusions without the slightest concern.
How do you explain these accusations?
Qatar is not part of the history of football and FIFA. We were outside. Our journey to obtain the World Cup was short but quickly completed. He is intriguing. But people forget that we took it through all the stages. Before applying for the World Cup, and getting it organized, we won all the intermediate events. We have worked a lot to get here.
What were the advantages of Qatar 2022?
There were four of them. The first to our concept of a compact Mondial. For the first time, players, media and fans will not have to travel long distances from one game to the next. The second lies in our geographical position. Qatar is located in the center of the world. It is easy to come to Doha from any place on the planet. Third advantage: no less than three billion viewers around the world will be able to follow the World Cup matches in prime time. Finally, we explained to FIFA our project to build stadiums which, once the World Cup is over, will have their capacity reduced in order to be given to countries that need them.
FIFA has yet to decide whether the World Cup will be played in summer or winter. Will his final decision affect your preparation for the event?
We have planned everything to organize the World Cup in the summer. And we have never hidden the fact that we wanted, with this World Cup, to demonstrate that it was possible to organize such an event in our climate. This notion of heritage, for the following organizers, is important to us. But if FIFA decides to move the date of the World Cup, we will do it without any problem.
After the 2022 World Cup, will Qatar enter the race for the 2024 Summer Games?
I don't know. I work on the World Cup, I do not belong to the Qatar National Olympic Committee. But what has already been built in Doha, and what will be built for the World Cup, could be used for an Olympic bid. For Qatar, of course, or even for another Middle Eastern country.
