In just a little over a week’s time, five teams set to appear in the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup will arrive at the Hamad International Airport to be part of a six-side tournament that also includes Qatari team Al Duhail. This will be the third major football tournament to be hosted by Qatar since September last year.
In Sept-Oct, Qatar - under strict health and safety guidelines from the Ministry Of Public Health (MOPH) - hosted the AFC Champions League matches involving teams from the West Zone. Then in November and December, the same set of organisers hosted the East Zone matches of the same event to help the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) complete its stalled league in a bubble-to-bubble environment.
On December 19, the AFC Champions League title clash - featuring Korean giants Ulsan Hyundai and Iran’s Persepolis - was also staged in Doha. Ulsan Hyundai’s 2-1 win followed a day after the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) inaugurated the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, the fourth venue to be used during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The inauguration of Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium was conducted with an Amir Cup final between Al Sadd and Al Arabi in front of 12,000 carefully vetted fans. FIFA President Gianni Infantino and a delegation from the world governing body were at hand to see the ‘top’ arrangements made for fans to watch live action at the 40,000-seater stadium.
On Saturday, it was officially announced that the Feb 4-11 event will allow 30 percent fan attendance at each of the two venues - Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium and the Education City Stadium - both 2022 FIFA World Cup venues. On Saturday, Jassim Al Jassim, Director of Venue Operations and Overlays, LOC of FIFA Club World Cup, said during the Amir Cup final, FIFA expressed its satisfaction that Ahmed bin Ali Stadium can host matches at 30 percent capacity now and 100 percent when the pandemic situation improves.
Lessons learned from hosting these three top football tournaments in the last five months have helped Qatar in getting ready to host the second edition of the FIFA Club World Cup in Doha (after the first one successfully delivered in December 2019). As Qatar stages these popular football events in trying circumstances, the hosts of the next FIFA World Cup also get the chance to test its facilities and readiness ahead of the game’s showpiece event to be held in Nov-Dec 2022. Clearly a win-win situation for the hosts of the first-ever FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and the Arab world.e
