Alkass Digital
Qatar SC and former Qatar midfielder Ibrahim Majid affirmed that hosting the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 is a new opportunity to demonstrate the major organisational abilities of Qatar vindicated by the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament that had strikingly achieved a great success at all levels.
In an interview with the Qatar News Agency (QNA), Majid said he is confident that Qatar is going to organise a premium edition considering the efforts underway to host the best tournament.
He pointed out that Qatar has become renowned for organising major sports events globally following the tremendous success achieved during the Qatar 2022, the first world cup held in the Middle East and culminated in a dazzling and impressive image that broadly garnered the world’s attention.
All nations and entities have lauded the organization of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and Majid emphasised that the forthcoming AFC Asian Cup is anticipated to mirror the success and impressiveness of its predecessor.
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Furthermore, Majid asserted that the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 is poised to achieve even greater success, attributing this to Qatar's heightened organizational expertise garnered from the acclaimed execution of the previous World Cup.
He added that Qatar has, so far, organized two AFC editions and he personally participated in 2011 edition with the national team held in Qatar.
Recalling his fabulous memories about the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011, Majid said Qatar had offered a good level during the group league and succeeded in the qualification for the round of 16, indicating that the ambitions were high, albeit the difficult conditions the Qatari team encountered during the match with Japan in the quarter finals which obviously impeded the Qatari team to continue the competition.
Commenting on the ability to maintain the title the team won for the first time in history during the previous edition held in the United Arab Emirates in 2019, Majid said the competition will indubitably be challenging as the team will be overwhelmed because they will be demanded to maintain that title as well.
The components of the pitch and fans must be exploited for the team to be crowned anew with the Asian title, he added, emphasizing that the Asian teams remained more powerful and advanced, especially the Japanese team as the strongest competitor for the title considering the distinguished level the Japanese maintained during the recent tournament.
He hoped the Qatari team would be on time to achieve further successes during the tournament, calling on the Qatari fans to stand with the national team during the upcoming saga to be pushed further towards gaining the title for the second time.