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FIFA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022 THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS Gill Sherry
Excitement is building ahead of the FIFA World Cup which kicks off in Qatar later this year. If the draw for the tournament is anything to go by, Doha will be giddy with anticipation by the time the first ball is kicked in the city’s brand new Al Thumama Stadium on Monday 21st November. The world’s press converged on the capital for the draw that saw Qatar placed in Group A alongside Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands. Football fans also flocked to Doha on April 1st to bear witness to the star-studded event and catch a glimpse of their sporting heroes including Germany’s Lothar Matthaus and Brazilian legend, Cafu. Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomed guests to the Final Draw ceremony before handing over to those with the envied responsibility of conducting the draw.
But despite the hype around both the draw and the tournament itself, there is still much controversy surrounding Qatar’s successful Word Cup bid.
The state has been criticized for its treatment of the thousands of migrant labourers employed to work on stadia and infrastructure with accusations of withheld wages, confiscated passports and squalid living conditions.
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Allegations of bribery, whilst unfounded, continue to blight the project as people speculate how Qatar, with no record of ever qualifying for the World Cup and with little footballing history, managed to beat competition from South Korea, Australia, Japan and the United States. Qatar is also the smallest nation (by area) ever to have been awarded a FIFA World Cup giving cynics another reason to doubt the integrity of the bid.
