Exactly one year from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar will look to give a sneak preview of its preparedness to host the game’s showpiece event when it stages the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 in December. On Friday, FIFA Council officially approved that Qatar will stage the 16-team event with matches set to take place at venues to be used for games at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, said the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 will be used by Qatar to test its World Cup training and match facilities and general readiness to host the World Cup in 2022.
Infantino, a regular visitor to Qatar since taking over as FIFA President, said the Arab world’s love of football will be on display during the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 to be held from Dec 1 to 18 this year. Infantino praised Qatar’s World Cup preparations up until now during which the 2022 hosts have already unveiled and used four venues - the iconic Khalifa International Stadium, Al Janoub Stadium, Education Stadium and Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in the last four years.
During the Council Meeting on Friday, FIFA President was quick to praise Qatar’s ‘vision in planning the implementation of projects and stadiums for the 2022 World Cup’, saying the 2022 hosts would ‘provide great facilities for the fans of the World Cup, as they can move internally and reach the stadiums in several different ways taking into account security and safety’.
The Arab Cup 2021 clearly will grab the region’s spotlight and that of the football world when the event opens on December 1. During a visit to Lusail Stadium - the venue of the 2022 FIFA World Cup final - Infantino said he expected that ‘the regional tournament in 2021 to unite millions of football fans from across the Middle East and Arab world’.
Infantino said in November: “We are delighted that teams from across the Arab world have agreed to take part in the FIFA Arab Cup 2021. We are looking forward to seeing the region’s best teams battle it out to see which nation will become champion.
Through football, this tournament will unite over 450 million people from across the region, and we are confident that the FIFA Arab Cup will help to build excitement across the region as we edge ever nearer to hosting the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and Arab world in 2022.”
