Alluding to the rise of extremist group ISIS and growing anti-Islamic sentiment in some parts of the world, the head of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organizing committee has said it is “now more necessary than ever” to hold the tournament in the Middle East.
The Supreme Committee of Delivery and Legacy’s (SCDL) Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi also said that criticism of Qatar as host of the upcoming games has been “particularly intense."
In a series of questions and answers published on the SCDL’s website, he said:
“We always expected criticism. There isn’t a single major sporting event in the world that doesn’t go through that journey, but I think ours has been particularly intense.
We became the victim of a campaign that singled out Qatar and our successful bid without any shred of evidence. We’ve had to live with that for five years but there has still been no evidence to suggest our Bid Committee did anything wrong,” Al Thawadi said.
In less than seven years’ time, Qatar will be the first Arab country and the first state in the Middle East to host a World Cup.
Referencing “the global political climate,” Al Thawadi said that holding a global football tournament in the Arab world offers a chance to break down barriers:
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