Qatar: First Arab country to host FIFA World Cup

Western Asia is where you'll find Qatar. Qatar's lone land neighbor is Saudi Arabia; on the other three sides is the Persian Gulf.

Qatar: First Arab country to host FIFA World Cup
Qatar is the first Arab nation to host the FIFA World Cup. Photo: FIFA

Qatar is only 103 meters high at its highest point, making it the second flattest country in the world. Qatar is almost as flat as the Maldives. The Maldives has a point that is 1.8 meters high. Qatar is now two meters taller than it was 400 years ago. Geological uplift has caused the country to slowly rise.

The name of the country dates back to the middle of the 1st century when the Roman writer Pliny the Elder referred to the present inhabitants of Qatar as "Catharrei". The name Qatar itself was used until the 18th century. Alongside this more common spelling, several variations existed, including Katr, Kattar, and Guttur. Until Qatar was officially adopted as the name of the country.

Qatar, which has a population of 2.5 million, is a popular place for people to move to because of its great weather, laid-back way of life, and tax-free salaries. Qatar is open to people from more than 90 countries without a visa. Qatar is so appealing that more than two million people from 180 different countries live there now. Only about 15% of the people in Qatar are Qataris. This makes Qataris a minority, and a pretty small one at that.

Another fact that not many people know is that Qatar has the most men per woman than any other country in the world. For every 100 women, there are about 299 men. The number of women is only 25%, while the number of men is almost 75%. This means that in Qatar, there are 1.46 million more men than women. This ratio is mostly caused by the fact that there are a lot of immigrants in Qatar, most of whom are men who are only there for a short time.

More specifically on how the government works. Qatar is a semi-constitutional monarchy, with the Emir as Head of State and Chief Executive and the Prime Minister as Head of Government. The Qatari constitution gives the semi-elected Consultative Assembly only a small amount of power to block laws and fire ministers.

Even though Qatar is a semi-constitutional monarchy, the monarchy still has a lot of power and is close to being an absolute monarchy. In 2003, Qatar made a change to its constitution that allowed 30 of the 45 members of the Consultative Assembly to be chosen by the people. This was approved by almost 98% of the people who voted in a referendum.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is the Emir of Qatar. He is the only one who can choose the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers. Together, they make up the Council of Ministers, which is the highest executive authority in the country.

Since Qatar was founded, it has been ruled by the Al Thani family. In 1868, the Al Thani family signed a treaty with the British that recognized Qatar as a separate country and gave it the right to be independent. After Ottoman rule, Qatar, like many other countries in the area, became a British protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century and stayed that way until it got its independence in 1971.

The Consultative Assembly is made up of 30 people who were chosen by the people and 15 people who were chosen by the emir. It can stop laws from being passed with a simple majority vote and can fire ministers, including the Prime Minister, with a two-thirds vote. The first elections for the Assembly were held in October 2021, after being put off several times. This is a small sign of how free and different the country is. In 2003, the Consultative Assembly's rules were put into place. Qatari law says that political groups and trade unions cannot be formed.

And this is what causes another big problem: violations of human rights in the job market. This problem got worse because the World Cup is going to be held in Qatar. This also brought attention to the problem.

The FIFA World Cup will start in just a few days, and Qatar is the first Arab country to host it. Many people are looking forward to this event because it is thought to be one of the most exciting parts of the FIFA World Cup. Not only because Qatar is the smallest country to ever host the World Cup, but also because it is the only one to do so in the winter. It will also be the first World Cup with no carbon emissions since Qatar will build an 800 MW solar power plant to run the tournament.

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Credit: FIFA

About the World Cup 2022 in Qatar

The XXII edition of the World Cup is called to be special, as it will take place between November 21 and December 18 for the first time in history, a change forced by the temperatures that can reach 50 º C in June and July in Qatar. Thus, the Christmas gift will arrive early and will show the world how technology will allow fans and athletes, through innovative and sustainable solutions, to live a World Cup as never seen before.

Within this innovation are mainly the eight stadiums built mostly from scratch, mega infrastructure works that will transmit the culture of a country that floats in the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is the first world cup in a Middle Eastern country. Doha's Khalifa International Stadium became the first air-conditioned stadium and the first to be ready for the event, first opened in 1976 for the Gulf Cup but was redesigned and reopened on 17 May. Since then, Khalifa has become an icon of the city of Doha, which already hosted the recent IAAF World Athletics Championships in September and October 2019.

In Qatar 2022, the world will see Ras Abu Aboud, the world's first and only stadium capable of being dismantled for transport and used for other sporting events. Worthy of a layman's game. This stadium will be built with transport containers, removable seats, and building blocks that will be an example of environmental sustainability and reduced production costs.

The third, Al Thumama, will be located in front of the waters of the gulf and will represent on its façade the ghafiya, clothing used by men throughout the Arab world. This stadium will donate after the World Cup, 20 thousand of its seats to countries with deficiencies in their sports infrastructure.

The Education City Stadium, built around universities and innovation centers, will be home to the third-place match and the final. With the possibility of accessing the stadium by subway or subway, it will be inaugurated this December 18 with the 2019 Club World Cup.

This will be the third time that the World Cup will be held in Asia after the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan and Russia in 2018 (although the latter had only one venue on Asian soil).

Qatar 2022 will transform Doha and its surroundings to offer fans an unforgettable experience, so 79 kilometers of public transportation lines will be created, with trains connected to some stadiums and more than 30 new stops added to the metro system and railroad. The budget managed for the development of the World Cup is six billion dollars. The organization of the World Cup will mean Qatar a tourist, structural and urban growth, because the transport systems, stadiums, and training camps will be available for the next generations.

If 2018 Qatar's gross domestic product grew by 1.5% compared to 2017, it can be assumed that this country will have a significant rise in GDP in 2023, taking into account the data obtained in the World Cup in Russia in 2018, where the country had an economic impact of 15 billion dollars, about 1% of GDP. In Russia, 220 thousand jobs were created which meant an increase of almost 7 billion dollars, but beyond the money, at a cultural level, Qatar 2022 will be a Football World Cup that will educate the world in sustainability, development, and technology, surely like no other.

It will be the shortest World Cup since 1978, lasting only 28 days as opposed to the usual 32 days in recent tournaments.

The most benefited will not only be the Qatari, but also the football leagues, players, and entities that will be the protagonists of the biggest football party for the first time in an Arab country. To attend the event, the leagues and clubs, which feed the teams with 75% of the players, will be challenged to adapt to a schedule that will be modified but will bring multiple benefits with the FIFA Club Aid Scheme. As an example of this plan, after Russia in 2018, 209 million dollars were paid to 416 football clubs in 63 federations, a remarkable increase of almost 200% compared to Brazil in 2014.