The State of Qatar yesterday welcomed the statement issued by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) that FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will remain as originally planned with 32 teams. On Wednesday, FIFA scrapped plans to expand the 2022 Qatar World Cup to 48 nations and decided to stick with 32 teams plan, assuring that no proposal will be submitted at the next FIFA Congress on 5 June.
The date of December 2, 2010 was the date, the State of Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup for the first time in the Middle East, and will remain a milestone in the history of Gulf, Arab region and Islamic world. Therefore Qatar will host Middle East’s first football world cup during the period from 21 November to 18 December 2022.
In a statement, Qatar pointed out that it will remains as committed as ever in ensuring the 32-team FIFA World Cup in 2022 is one of the best tournaments ever and one that makes the entire Arab world proud.
Following the conclusion of the joint feasibility study, Qatar and FIFA have reached the decision that the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will remain as a 32-team tournament, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) said in a statement.
The statement added Qatar had always been open to the idea of an expanded tournament with 48-team edition was in the best interest of football and Qatar as the host nation.
A joint Qatar and FIFA analysis has come to conclusion that due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact on Qatar, more time would be required and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June. It was therefore decided not to further pursue this option.
For its part FIFA stressed that “In line with the conclusions of the feasibility study approved by the FIFA Council at its last meeting, FIFA and Qatar have jointly explored all possibilities to increase the number of participant teams from 32 to 48 teams by involving neighboring countries at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” Taking into account the time needed for preparations since the Qatar awarded the right to host the tournament, has made FIFA conclude that there is no enough time to prepare a country to host the extra games.
Another factor hindered the implementation of the proposal is the current Gulf crisis which has put the hosting country under siege by its closed neighbours since June 5, 2017 creating unprecedented political circumstances in the region taking several measures against citizens, economic and logistical disruptions which eventually made enforcement of this initiative impossible now as FIFA has noted.
Qatar remained open for the proposal and explored with FIFA the feasibility of Qatar hosting a 48-team tournament by, in particular, lowering certain key FIFA requirements, but this need lifting the siege imposed on Qatar and ending restriction on Gulf citizens movement and moving from normalisation of ties into the actual cooperation between the sisterly Gulf States.
