QNA
Doha
Qatar’s impressive hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2022 continues to gain further recognition and acclaim worldwide as a role model in hosting major international sporting events in the future, with high-level political, media and sports figures hailing its high hosting competencies at all levels.
International officials and media outlets have noted that Qatar has exceeded expectations and excelled in providing well-planned solutions, refuting all suspicious schemes since its World Cup bid to disparage its potential to host an exceptional World Cup.
In this context, Mayor of New York City Eric Adams said his visit to Doha was an opportunity to draw lessons on the role that New York City will play as one of the World Cup 2026 host cities.
Highlighting the visit, The New York Times, cited the mayor’s statements that expressed great admiration for Qatar’s advanced transportation infrastructure, including the Doha Metro and express-bus services.
It is essential to have a real safe and reliable transport system; Qatar managed to get the vehicles off the road, given their newly built transport system, he said according to the report.
Adams expressed his admiration for the World Cup atmosphere and the development in Doha. He added that he enjoyed attending Saturday’s US-Netherlands clash in the round of 16, despite his country’s loss.
There are many great restaurants and destinations that you can visit and enjoy in Doha, even after matches, he added.
French writer Michael Leborgne highlighted in an article in Ouest-France newspaper the disinformation campaigns fueled by Western media against Qatar and its World Cup 2022 hosting, dismissing the schemes as part of agendas aimed at undermining Qatar’s successful World Cup hosting.
Leborgne slammed the lack of focus on the positives of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 as very worrying and a tell-tale sign of the West’s double standards. He also lambasted ignoring Qatar’s efforts to host a carbon-neutral World Cup, and its newly adopted measures such as the introduction of the minimum wage, labour court, and the cancellation of the Kafala sponsorship employment system.
The electricity for the eight Qatari stadiums is fully provided by the solar power plant in Al Kharsaah (800 megawatts), allowing Qatar to be the first organizing country to hold a carbon-neutral World Cup, he said.
While Qatar is criticized for the solar-power-based air conditioning system, many stadiums in France and many other European countries are heated before matches in winter without solar energy, he added.
Slamming the handling of labour rights in Qatar as exaggerated and deliberate misinformation, the writer called on critics to highlight the poor conditions for dozens of thousands of unregistered foreign workers in France amid the silence of the state and senior officials of the construction or services sectors.
A BBC Arabic TV report focused on the measures taken by the State of Qatar to protect the security of World Cup data and thwart any potential cyber-attacks that might disturb this huge event, which is the focus of the attention of millions worldwide.
The report showed that Qatar provided a cloud data centre in cooperation with Microsoft to ensure the security of data and applications, boosted the capabilities of the National Agency for Cybersecurity, and conducted hacking simulations for many organizations while making sure to increase capabilities to deal with them.
The report said that the State of Qatar has also provided the necessary training to deal with possible cyber-attacks, provide advice and early threat detection, and raise awareness of abiding by safety procedures for information security, highlighting the Qatar Computing Research Institute’s efforts in this regard.
Saudi sports journalist Nawaf Al Aqeel said, in a statement, the World Cup atmosphere is felt everywhere in Doha. There is excitement and fun outside the stadiums, and there are many activities that you see on the way to the stadiums, Al Aqeel said.
The World Cup in Qatar is really distinguished by lack of riots, and even the fan skirmishes at Souq Waqif or other places were peaceful and football-related without aggressive behaviour, he added.