Fans offered cabins on cruise ships for Qatar 2022 World Cup

By Óscar Maya BelchIí

Madrid, Jan 28 (EFE).- As some 1.2 million spectators get ready to attend the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, organizers have come up with an innovative plan to host the visiting fans.

Instead of going into a building frenzy, Fatma Al-Nuaimi, communications chief for the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Qatar 2022, told Efe that a number of cruise ships would be docking in Doha and offering 4,000 cabins.

Described by Al-Nuaimi as a world cup of ‘firsts’, this will be the first tournament to take place in the winter, and will also be the first time fans will be able to go to more than one match a day due to the proximity between stadiums.

Question: How much did it cost to build the stadiums?

Answer: It cost around 6.5 billion dollars, which includes everything relating to the infrastructure of the World Cup, stadiums, training facilities etc. One of the stadiums is being built in a very efficient way and is going to be a fully demountable stadium which is made out of shipping containers.

When we build these stadiums, some of them do have a legacy purpose and that is why we were lucky to be awarded the tournament 12 years ago, so (that) we can make sure the stadium can benefit the community surrounding it (…) We will be donating the upper tiers to a country that is lacking in sporting infrastructure and we will make sure to have components within the stadium that will support the community surrounding it, with schools, medical services, commercial units, boutique hotels… whatever that community would require we will make sure this is what complements the city that the stadium is built in.

Q: People always say that the next World Cup will be the best, what will make this World Cup special?

A: It is the first World Cup in the Middle East, it’s the first time in the Arab world, it is actually the first compact World Cup in the modern world where we have a proximity between two stadiums of 5 kilometers; the furthest stadium is around 75 kilometers. So it will be the first time that people can attend more than one match a day, and people will be able to stay in the same place without the need to travel.

If you were following the Arab Cup (held last year), you can see the passion for football that this region has. This is an opportunity for a lot of fans across the globe to come and experience that and to meet people of different backgrounds and nationalities and celebrate their common passion for football. EFE

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