“Over the years, Qatar told the world to expect amazing, and looking around the country now, we can see that Qatar has delivered amazing,” he said, in recorded remarks played at a news conference in Doha on Monday.
With a month to go until the first match, though, preparations are still a work in progress. The backbone of the tournament infrastructure — eight stadiums and an extensive metro system that will deliver fans to the matches — is ready, officials insist. But many other parts of Qatar remain under construction, draped with scaffolding or hidden behind screens, while some facilities critical to the visitor experience, including fan zones and apartment blocks, are still being built.
Questions persist about whether the accommodations are enough. Qatari officials have offered an assortment of unusual housing options, including steel cabins that look like storefronts and traditional wooden boats known as dhows, and they recently announced the addition of 30,000 rooms to meet surging demand. Nearly 3 million tickets to the tournament have been sold, FIFA said, with top purchasing countries including Qatar itself, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Human and labor rights groups say they continue to be concerned about the welfare of the foreign workers who transformed Qatar during a spate of zealous construction over the past 12 years using a system that advocates has been deadly for workers and rife with abuse. Despite Qatar’s adoption of labor reforms, the risks to workers remain, including those recruited to staff the tournament, observers say.
And for the World Cup soccer players, especially those who also participate in club leagues, the tournament’s unusual timing means they have little opportunity to practice with their national teams.
Qatar’s great virtue as host — its small size, which allows for speedy travel between stadiums for fans and teams alike — also is a potential liability, with infrastructure used by a population of 3 million people having to serve more than a million additional visitors. Qatari officials have acknowledged some of the challenges, including traffic congestion, but insisting they have plans to meet any difficulties.
Chaotic scenes after a match in one of the new World Cup stadiums last month, including long lines at a metro station, added to the concern. At the news conference this week, FIFA chief operating officer Colin Smith said that was a “test event,” and he likened the problems to “teething.”
“There’s a lot of issues that keep anyone awake at night,” Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy — Qatar’s World Cup organization — said during an interview Wednesday. Organizers are working with a “standard checklist” for such an event, including operational and transportation logistics, movement in and out of stadiums, and ensuring “people are having a great time,” he said.
“I’m not saying everything’s fine. But what I’m saying is, if there is anything that gives some comfort, it’s that our team has proved a number of times their resourcefulness and resilience in the face of issues that come up — some expected, some completely from left field,” Thawadi said.
Residents have approached the question of whether the country is ready with a mixture of enthusiasm, apprehension and resignation. “We’re about to find out,” said J.M. Diaz, 38, a respiratory therapist, as he took a sunset stroll last week on the seafront road known as the Corniche. This key traffic artery that will…
Read More: The World Cup starts in a month. Will Qatar be ready?
