The FIFA World Cup 2022 is 38 months, three weeks and two days away and Qatar is cruising towards it at lightning speed. The countdown to the first-ever football World Cup in the Middle-East has well and truly begun.
Yesterday, Qatar reached yet another milestone by revealing the emblem of the 2022 World Cup with a worldwide reveal.
The logo revealed via projections on the facades of major buildings and landmarks in Qatar and 24 other countries across the world is seen as an important milestone for FIFA, the world governing body of football, and Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), which is tasked with the preparations for the event.
The SC has taken up the initiative to generate more interest among football fans worldwide which can be seen from the fact that the logo was displayed on giant screens in New York, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Santiago, Mexico City, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Berlin, as well as in Milan, Madrid, Moscow, Mumbai, Seoul, and in various regions of Turkey, Kuwait, Oman, Beirut, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Iraq.
The SC said it has completed more than 75 percent of the preparations for the tournament, including two stadiums; Khalifa International Stadium and most recent one being the Al Janoub Stadium.
A third and fourth stadium, Al Bait and Al Rayyan, are to follow suit in December.
From 2010, the year it was awarded hosting rights of the FIFA showpiece event and a wave of infrastructure development has followed. Highways have been constructed, a swanky metro rail connecting ends of the city with 3 lines and 37 stations has come up.
The arrival of the World Cup has largely helped speed up the rate of development and it jells well with the ‘National Vision 2030’ plan that aims to transform Qatar into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development by 2030.
The tournament in Qatar is going to be the second edition of the quadrennial flagship tournament hosted by an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member association, the first one was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan in 2002.
In December this year Qatar will be hosting the FIFA Club World Cup, which will serve as a test event for the 2022 event. The likes of Champions League winner Liverpool will be among the teams competing for this year’s title.
Qatar is leaving no stone unturned in making it a memorable World Cup which is scheduled between November 21, 2022, and December 18, 2022, instead of the conventional International FIFA window during June-July, thus making it the first-ever winter World Cup.
