Mohammed SH. Hassan (Author & Publisher Toronto)
Historically, the first World Cup, was held in 1930, as Jules Rimet proposed it. The founder’s intention was limited to building a new environment for an international soccer (football) competition between men’s football teams. Since then, the Football World Cup game has been held in a pre-elected and pre-destined country every four years. It is mainly dominated by the European National teams, followed lately by South and Latin America. The best and the most popular teams are in those two continents. However, Africa is becoming a significant hub for the young football talents from its continent. Today, more and more football professionals from Africa are playing for the leading European and famous Clubs. Some of the best talented players from Africa could be named Mohammed Salah ( Liverpool), Sadio Mane ( Bayern Munich, Koulibaly (Al-Hilal) & Ashraf Hakim from Paris St. Germaine, and many others in many different clubs.
The 2022 World Cup conducted in Qatar, had undoubtedly left an everlasting legacy that encouraged the developing and less populated states. Qatar, a tiny country in the Middle East, has spearheaded hosting the World Cup of 2022. Many observers and spectators pose relative questions. Among these questions are how such a tiny nation succeeded in the election, organized the event, accomplished such a modern electronic-based venue, and attracted unprecedented participants, including world leaders and celebrities. Indeed, they put together several tremendous items by preparing and organizing the best and the most sophisticated tournament ever presented in the entire History of the World.
As the first Arab Country to host the prestigious international football tournament, Qatar faced many logistical challenges in staging such a historic event. Before the event, many countries and soccer commentators needed to be more accurate in the ability and capacity of small-sized nations with no prior experience in international sports. Despite all these challenges, Qatar proved the opposite. It presented the best tournament that the World had ever watched. The achievement made by the Qatari government has heavily invested billions of Dollars in the stadium site’s infrastructure, tourism sites, transportation, security, electricity, internet, and many other facilities.
There, Qatar has improved the sports industry and will make an everlasting contribution to the world of sports games. It attracted the eyes of the world population regardless of their color, faith, location, language, and hobby orientation. Particularly in the Gulf Arabian region, Qatar demonstrated unrelenting power and mind is a victory for all Muslims, Arabs, and Gulf Arabians. One of the most important memories of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the vast infrastructure development that the country underwent in preparation for the tournament, which was in line with the 2030 national vision. As a part of this project, seven new state-of-the-art stadiums were built and are:
Althumama Stadium
King Khalif Stadium
AlBayt Stadium
Education City Stadium
Aljanoub Staduim
Stadium 974
Ahmed Ben Ali Stadium
Lusail Stadium -Qatar
The venues were designed to host the World Cup as its matches and serve as sports and entertainment centers for the local community for decades after the tournament. The mighty Khalifa International Stadium was built before the bid was awarded. It was completely renovated and efficiently practical as the stadium counts up to eight giant stadiums.
Qatar intended that the stadiums should reflect its history and culture and for the designs to meet the following terms of reference: legacy, comfort, accessibility, and sustainability. The stadiums were equipped with cooling systems that aim to reduce temperatures within the stadium by up to 20 °C (36 °F).
Their marketing statements included describing the stadiums as zero waste and stating that the upper tiers of the stadiums would be disassembled after the World Cup and donated to countries with less developed sports infrastructure. Indeed, that was an outstanding achievement and a solid investment. Apart from the friendship in sports, there were significant economic incentives for the qualified national teams. In April 2022, FIFA announced the prizes for all participating nations. Each qualified team received $1.5 million before the competition to cover preparation costs, with each team receiving at least $9 million in money prize. The total prize of $440 million, $40 million is greater than the prize pool of the previous tournament. (See the below chart).
It is essential to mention that some new rules were also introduced in Qatar in 2022. The tournament featured new substitution rules whereby teams could make up to five substitutions in normal time and an additional substitution in extra time. In addition to all those miraculous establishments and progress, it was the first World Cup to feature concussion substitutions, whereby each team was permitted to use a maximum of one concussion substitute during a match. A concussion substitution did not count towards a team’s quota of regular substitutions; it was considered a particular case introduced in 2022. It is worth noting that the Qatari government employed about 50,000 security personnel, including police departments and military forces from at least thirteen different countries in Europe, Asia, and the US. The Turkish government provided about 3000 riot personnel, while Pakistan provided about 4500 Army Troops to protect the event.
In May 2022, FIFA announced that 36 referees, 69 assistant referees, and 24 video assistant referees for the tournament were among the event’s deployed staff. FIFA included two of the 36 referees were from Argentina, Brazil, England, and France. Surprisingly, the tournament singled out gender balance and women’s participation. It was the first time that women referees successfully officiated games at a major men’s tournament. France’s Stéphanie Frappart, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda, and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan became the first female referees to be appointed to a men’s World Cup in Qatar 2022. That is a massive step forward for women’s empowerment to elevate in the sports domain. The opening ceremony took place on Sunday, 20 November 2022, at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor,
prior to the opening match of the tournament between hosts Qatar and Ecuador. The final game was played on 18 December between Argentina and France. Both teams had previously won the event twice. The event occurred in Lusail Stadium, the largest and most sophisticated stadium in Qatar.
With the score tied at 3–3, the match was determined via a penalty shootout. Argentina won the final game after scoring all of their penalties, winning 4–2. This marked their third World Cup to win and their first time since 1986. Argentina and their captain, Lionel Messi, were the World Champions in 2022.
.
One of the lessons learned and accepted as a takeaway with respect to the FIFA World Cup hosted by the government of Qatar, which was held in 2022, was the cultural engagement program. That phenomenon was the first of its type to occur during a FIFA World Cup competition. Qatar has asked musicians to join the entertainment offerings throughout the tournament as part of the program in order to provide an outstanding fan experience.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for everyone to be a part of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Through the FIFA Globe Cup Qatar 2022, artists of all genders, nations, backgrounds, ages, and abilities were encouraged to share their art, performances, creativity, and culture with the World. Indeed, the World has a lot to learn from Qatar- the tiny Arab Nation that hosted the biggest football event and presented the best performance to be remembered forever. Therefore, indisputably, we are indebted to extending the warmest congratulations and praise to the government of Qatar.
Mohammed SH. Hassan (Author & Publisher Toronto)
Ref. FIFA World Cup Football articles, a lot of mixed articles in the internet,
Qatar Media Updating,
Courtesy: Getty Images, Wikipedia, FIFA, and many other independent images
