A staggering 63 events - international, national and regional - have been scheduled for the next 12 months by the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC).
With most countries around the world struggling to resume or run their annual sports events because of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, the QOC has announced that the hosts of the 2022 FIFA World Cup will plan and deliver sports events the fans are waiting to see around different venues in the country.
One of the biggest events on the QOC calendar for 2021 is the FIFA Club World Cup to be held in Qatar from Feb 1 to 11. This will be the second time the massively popular football event for world’s premier clubs is staged by Qatar. In December 2019, the same event made its debut and English football giants Liverpool clinched the title after a pulsating final held at the iconic Khalifa International Stadium, one of eight venues of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Two weeks of tennis spectacle on the ATP and the WTA tours will be held in March when Doha hosts the Qatar Total Open (March 1 to 7) and the Qatar ExxonMobil (March 8 to 14). The 14 days of tennis action will be held at the Khalifa Tennis Complex in back-to-back weeks. It is important to remind the readers that the Australian Open qualifiers will be held from Jan 10-13 at the same venue.
Other key international sports events on Qatari soil include FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour (Feb 22 to 26), CHI Al Shaqab (Feb 25 to 27), Longines Global Champions Tour (Mar 4 to 6), FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour- Katara Beach Volleyball Cup (Mar 8 to 12) and Table Tennis final qualifiers and qualifying for Tokyo Olympics (Mar 15 to 20). The Qatar Masters golf (Mar 11 to 14), FINA Marathon Swim World Series (10Km) on Mar 12 and FIBA Basketball Ball 3x3 World Tour (Mar 26 -27) will be the events to be wrapped up in the month of March.
The months after the Olympic Games - to be held in July-August this year - will be just as busy for QOC when annual events like Qatar Classic squash event, the QOC Beach Games, FIBA basketball tournaments and ITF tennis championships are staged from September to December this year.
Doha, the hosts of the 2030 Asian Games, clearly deserves to be applauded for bringing back action at the sports facilities around the country. The last four months have been extremely busy with sports pages in English and Arabic newspapers routinely filled with positive news seven days of the week. Long may it continue.
