Agencies
Qatar remained confident it would host the 2022 soccer World Cup despite a FIFA Executive Committee member suggesting yesterday that the tournament would have to move because of its summer temperatures.
“The only question now is when, not if,” Nasser al-Khater, executive director of Communications and Marketing for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said in a statement. “Summer or winter, we will be ready.”
Theo Zwanziger, the former German football association (DFB) chief who now sits on the executive committee of world soccer’s governing body, had said earlier that he felt the tournament would have to be held elsewhere.
“Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, despite comments of FIFA Executive Committee member Dr Zwanziger, which reflect his personal opinion and not that of FIFA,” al-Khater said.
“We have proven that a FIFA World Cup in Qatar in the summer is possible with state-of-the-art cooling technology,” al-Khater pointed out.
“We have demonstrated that our cooling works in outdoor areas beyond stadiums. This summer we welcomed fans in Doha to an open-air Brazil 2014 Fan Zone with temperatures cooled to a comfortable 22 degrees Celsius.
“The evolution of environmentally-friendly cooling technologies is an important legacy for our nation, region and for countries with similar climates - promising to expand the reach of hosting major sporting events to countries where it was never thought possible before.”
FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010.
FIFA officials, contacted by Reuters, said Zwanziger was not giving the view of the all-powerful Executive Committee.
“He is expressing a personal opinion and he explicitly says so,” FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer said. “We will not comment on a personal opinion.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, has also declared himself “sure that the 2022 World Cup would take place in Qatar”.
“No, I’m not worried,” he said. “Firstly because there’s no basis to lose the World Cup.
“And secondly because it’s the first World Cup in the Middle East.
“When people think of this region, it’s rather in terms of conflict. The World Cup will be an occasion to unite peoples. It will leave a positive heritage.”
FIFA is looking at the option of shifting the tournament to January/February 2022 or November/December 2022. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah chaired a meeting to discuss the matter earlier this month.
Speaking to Sky Sports News recently, al-Khater had said construction work for the tournament was going well and that the cooling systems Qatar was planning to use in its stadiums had to be seen to be believed.
He said the construction process was “progressing very well” in Qatar.
