FIFA World Cup 2022: Final Dress Rehearsal Done, Qatar Ready To Welcome Global Football Fraternity

This country has been harbouring a dream for more than a decade, which is to charm a global audience when it hosts the FIFA World Cup in the last two months of 2022.

"In dreams begin responsibilities," wrote the famous Irish poet WB Yeats. Literary works, just like music and other forms of art, are immortal. They remain relevant for decades and centuries. I was reminded of these lines when I recently visited Doha, the capital of the Arab nation Qatar. This country has been harbouring a dream for more than a decade, which is to charm a global audience when it hosts the FIFA World Cup in the last two months of 2022. It truly is an onerous responsibility and the small peninsular nation is putting its best foot forward to make this sporting extravaganza a success.

The Dress Rehearsal

The occasion for our visit was the Lusail Super Cup, in many ways a final dress rehearsal to check Qatar's readiness to host the World Cup. The match between the reigning league champions of Saudi Arabia (Al Hilal) and Egypt (Zamalek) was held at the Lusail Stadium, the venue for the final of the World Cup on December 18. The stadium, which can host 80,000 spectators, was choc-a-bloc as fans drove in from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and other middle-eastern countries, along with international journalists and top delegates of football's governing body.

The event helped the organisers test not just the facilities at the stadium but also their transport system, which includes a newly built state-of-the-art metro rail, that is expected to bear the burden of facilitating communication when more than two million fans visit the country in around ten weeks' time.

The stadium in itself is a work of art. Its design is inspired by the interplay of light and shadow that characterises the 'fanar' lantern. Its shape and facade echo the intricate decorative motifs on bowls and other vessels characteristic of the golden age of art and craftsmanship in the Arab and Islamic world.