The Peninsula
The CEO of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Nasser Al Khater has said that there are political goals behind some of the criticism on hosting Qatar the World Cup, calling for not to turn the sporting event into a platform for political statements.
Al Khater was speaking yesterday in a programme of Al Jazeera Channel ‘Lil Qissate Baqiya’ (For the Rest of the Story) on the topic ‘What is behind the attack on Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup?’.
“Some European countries believe that hosting FIFA World Cup is their monopoly as they hosted 11 tournaments out of total 22,” said Al Khater adding that Qatar welcomes everyone but they should respect our culture.
He said that Qatar faced fierce campaigns since the wining of the right for hosting the mega sporting event. “The campaigns had begun criticizing the size of Qatar, climate issue, legacy of football etc.”
Regarding the success of the World Cup, he said: “We are expecting about 1.2 million fans so the arrangements are being made accordingly.
“As many as 40 millions applications for match tickets were received. Three million tickets have been sold. These figures suggest that Qatar will host the most successful tournament in the history of FIFA World Cup.” Speaking about the response of Qatar to the critics, he said: “Our top priority is to make the tournament a great success. We responded to criticism in a very clear way through media but some did not deserve to be responded. We are expecting from media outlets to exercise professionalism.”
Responding to reports exaggerating deaths of workers while building the stadiums, he said only three workers had died. He said international standards of occupational health and safety measures have been implemented.
“The media outlets were focusing on highlighting the negativity. This figure was provided to them many times but unfortunately they did not publish this.”
He said the campaigns behind Qatar World Cup have political goals and are highly racist as they thought that how Qatar as a small Arab and Islamic country can compete with big countries which according to them deserved more to host the tournament.
“Our strategy focused on hosting the first FIFA World Cup in Arab countries, and the most successful one in the history of the tournament,” said Al Khater.
He said the World Cup will change the perspective of the West about the Arab region as a conflict zone.
“About one million people who will attend the World Cup, upon returning to their countries they will provide first hand information about Qatar and its people,” said Al Khater.