A general view of the Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiya Arena at Al Saad Club, which is one of three venues for the Qatar 2015 Handball World Ch’ships. (EPA)


AFP/Doha

Most countries hosting sporting events build several new stadiums and refurbish a few old ones, but such an approach was never likely for uber-ambitious Qatar.
The super-rich Gulf state has gone considerably further by beginning work on building an entire new city from scratch in the desert—Lusail—that will eventually host the football World Cup final in 2022.
This week the $45 billion (38 billion euro) project, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of the capital Doha, faces its first high-profile test when it plays host to the World Handball Championships.  
Twenty-four teams will contest for a cup made of pure gold. France, Denmark and Spain are among the favourites and Qatar’s national team is predicted to make the quarter-finals.
But it is what happens off the handball court that is arguably far more important for Qatar’s sporting ambitions.
The tournament provides a chance for Qatar not only to show that it can successfully host a World Cup, but also begin to reverse the negative press which has surrounded its sporting ambitions, especially in the West, feels Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business strategy at Coventry University.  
“The established perception needs to be changed and reversed,” he says. “What Qatar needs is tangible proof that its strategy (of investing in sport events) is working.”
The Handball World Championships provide an opportunity for people to “get to know Qatar for running high-profile sports events rather than being a country in the desert with lots of money and accused over FIFA scandals,” Chadwick adds.
It is the Lusail Multipurpose Hall which will provide that litmus test for Qatar’s aspirations. The opening ceremony, opening game, final and many of the major games that take place, beginning today till February 1, will all be played at the hall, a dome-like $300 million structure that rises improbably out of the Qatari sands.
A somewhat bizarre sight, it is surrounded at present—like a small airport—by little more than vast car parks, and tended to by hundreds of workers making last-minute preparations for the start of the tournament.
Beyond the very modern structure lays the desert. But in a few years’ time the stadium, which can hold more than 15,000 fans, will be just one tiny part of a gigantic urban development.
The scale of the project, even in a country where building works take place 24 hours a day, is unmatched.
It is the largest single development ever undertaken in Qatar and one of the largest underway anywhere in the world. When finished in 2019, more than 200,000 people will call Lusail home.
It will be the first green city in Qatar, a 38 square-kilometre (15 square-mile) metropolis that will be home to 22 hotels, 36 schools, luxury waterfront homes, a blue lagoon, two golf courses, an underground metro link, tunnels carrying chilled water pipes to cool buildings and shopping malls.
At its heart will be the 86,250-seat Lusail Iconic Stadium that will host football’s 2022 World Cup final.  
Work at the hall has continued until the very last moment, with hundreds of labourers and security guards fanned out across the site, including on the hall’s gleaming and distinctive white and blue roof. As the finishing touches were being carried out, Chadwick said the Handball Worlds provided Qatar with an important chance to start winning over its many doubters.
“Such events as the handball are important for Qatar to demonstrate it can manage high-profile events,” he says.

France sought security guarantee
Olympic handball champions France sought security guarantees from Qatar before leaving for the World Championships following the Paris attacks, a team official said yesterday.
“The players needed to be reassured,” said French technical director Philippe Bana. “We reassured them. We had very precise details on the measures and that reassured them.”
The Handball World Championships start in Doha today and the French team are feeling vulnerable due to fears caused by the militant attacks in Paris last week that left 17 dead.
“In security terms, we have had all the assurances, from the foreign affairs ministry, the embassies, the Qataris themselves,” said Bana.
“The (security) level is very high, Olympic standard. So from this point of view we are very reassured,” the director added.
Coach Claude Onesta said he has “no fears” about the competition and that he was sure the organisation would be “high level”, but added that not all the French men, who have won the last two Olympic finals, are happy to be playing in Doha.
“We will have to do our job in a place where sometimes you wonder if everything is alright. It is not a place where you would like to live,” added Onesta who said he was speaking in a strictly personal capacity.
The 24-nation competition for a pure gold trophy donated by Qatar runs until February 1.


Interior view of Ali Bin Hamad al-Attiya Arena at Al Saad Club, one of three venues of Handball Worlds. (EPA)