By Samindra Kunti
July 7 – Qatar has been visiting and inspecting venues and facilities at Euro 2016 as it seeks to build its expertise in time for the 2022 World Cup.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy and Nasser Al-Khater, the assistant secretary general for tournament operations, were at various venues across France attending the matches, in particular gaining an understanding of how UEFA, Europe’s governing body, organizes its flagship tournament. Euro 2016, in an expanded version of 24 teams, has been UEFA’s biggest tournament to date.
“For many years, UEFA has been sharing its expertise with future tournament organisers from other confederations, as part of our aim of promoting and developing football,” said UEFA in a statement.
“UEFA also sends small delegations to events staged by other organisers, to keep up with the latest trends and ideas that could also be implemented in our competitions. During UEFA EURO 2016, a total of 177 observers of 32 different nationalities attended matches. The majority of these observers came from the Qatar Supreme Committee 2022, the LOC Russia 2018, FIFA and UEFA’s national associations.”
The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy was not available for comment though they would likely have witnessed first hand some of the issues of fan violence that plagued the early group matches in France.
At the end of June, the last segment of the arch of the Khalifa International Stadium was completed in Doha’s Aspire Zone. The stadium will be upgraded and renovated by 2022 into a 40,000 all-seater. The Khalifa International Stadium will host matches up to the quarter-final stage.
Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup in December 2022.
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