Qatar Cuts Number of World Cup Soccer Stadiums as Costs Rise

Well, it seems they are going to have to rough it. Just 8 new stadiums instead of 12. I'm sure it'll be a hardship, but somehow.... They'll manage.

The country, which won the right to host the world’s most-watched sporting event in 2010, plans to build eight stadiums for the event, Ghanim Al Kuwari, the organizing committee’s senior manager for projects, said at a conference in Doha yesterday. The country originally announced plans for 12 stadiums, including nine new playing fields and three refurbishments.

It wasn't until I got a bit further in the article that I saw the scale of putting on one set of games.

Qatar, which holds the world’s third-largest natural-gas reserves, plans to spend more than $200 billion on new infrastructure before hosting the sporting event, including $34 billion on a rail and metro system, $7 billion on a port and $17 billion on an airport. The stadiums will cost $4 billion, according to the ministry of business and trade.

Source

Now that's what I call a World Cup ...of money!

Is this normal for World Cup events in terms of massive preparation, new building, and such? It like an Olympic Games in some ways by how they are describing it?

And they didn't get to lay their gas pipeline through Syria as part of the deal..

How sad for them.

Of course,

Money is the concern.

Never-mind this.

Since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar in 2010, it said, more than 1,200 men have died in preparations.

Staggeri ng number of workers said to die as Qatar prepares for World Cup


Perhaps, its better they save some money and build less.

The slave labor.. I mean indentured... Well contract foreign workers, will probably be grateful for not being the mortar in those extra stadiums...

1200 people...

FIFA is a disgrace. One of the most corrupt organisations on the planet. They had no right in giving the World Cup to Qatar. Just shows how greasing the palms of certain officials and their family members can get you.

Documents appear to show a senior Fifa official and his family were paid millions by a company controlled by a former Qatari football official shortly after the country won its bid for the 2022 World Cup

www.telegraph.co.uk... -millions.html

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

you cannot open this subject without mentioning the human trafficking and death of their slaves to build those circus stadium.

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found...

read it all : www.theguardian.com...

qtar royal family is bunch of megalomaniac new rich (lucky they are their land is full of oil) with delusions of grandeur; they must be friends with obl, sarkozy etc

I've seen a few documentaries about the UAE's expansion. Apparently they are aware their oil industry won't last forever, so Qatar and Dubai have spent most of the riches from the oil boom to create a tourist destination.

Although it seems they are spending a lot of money on maybe less practical things, but that's pretty much the route they plan to take. So yeah, in recent times this is normal.

a reply to: eXia7

UAE is not qatar but anyway, no it will last forever

A study published in Science Magazine today presents new evidence supporting the abiotic theory for the origin of oil, which asserts oil is a natural product the Earth generates constantly rather than a “fossil fuel” derived from decaying ancient forests and dead dinosaurs.

www.wnd.com...

a reply to: anHairInTheSoup

you cannot open this subject without mentioning the human trafficking and death of their slaves to build those circus stadium.

Actually, yes, I can do just that. I placed this in Below Top Secret and the Sports forum because it's a neat sports story. If you want to focus on the geopolitics and internal human rights situation within Qatar, I welcome you to start a brand new thread in the appropriate political area.

Sometimes a sports story...is just a neat sports story..and 1/4 of a trillion dollars for a soccer series is quite a story, indeed.

a reply to: eXia7

I've noticed that and talked to a few folks who have been over there for one thing or another in recent years. It sounds like the UAE and Smaller Gulf States are quite busy using their oil revenue to make future economies while they have the money to literally create an economy by design.

Smart moves, I suppose. They see what's coming and history loves boy scout thinking. Always prepared.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Have they decided at what time of year the are going to hold the World Cup? They normally start in the summer months. Early July, but you can't really play football in a desert nation at that time of year. They were talking about holding it in the winter, but this is usually the busiest time of year in Europe's footballing calendar. The most lucrative market in football.

I have heard that they plan on building huge air conditioners, but I still think playing football in the summer in Qatar is a crazy idea, one that could only have come about by the corruption I mentioned in my earlier post.

a reply to: woodwardjnr

Well, I found a bit more to look over, but it doesn't give months... Oh.. Dear..and they may never even get the chance to host them. The post above referred to a condition of labor and boycott/public calls against the games in Qatar, which isn't what I posted this for. However.. this other thing I'll link at the end isn't peripheral or merely public calls. It appears directly linked into the middle of Qatar's whole decision process for getting the games and individuals who awarded it.

First, the background to give more info, assuming that new scandal doesn't go anywhere.

2022 FIFA World Cup awarded to Qatar

Decision brings delight in Qatar

I imagine it's too far out for them to think of even months to mention? I'm not sure... The second one there does note this is the World Cup's first hosting in the Middle East. That's interesting and good to see sports retain international openness.



This is that other thing, and I'll just link for folks to look. It's recent (from last month) and again, goes right to the heart of the process that got the selection made with the people who did it.

World Cup 2022 investigation: demands to strip Qatar of World Cup

Personally, I'd be just as happy to hear the last one turned out to be nothing. The regular folks in that part of the world need some positive things to enjoy and this makes a great one, I'd say.