2024-01-22T16:41:34+00:00
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/ The head of the organizing committee for the Asian Football Cup, Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, was surprised on Monday by the public attendance at the tournament, stressing that it exceeded all expectations, according to his expression.
“Honestly, the attendance exceeded all expectations and it is something we did not imagine,” said Sheikh Hamad, the former president of the Qatar Football Association, who was appointed Minister of Sports in his country this month during a meeting with journalists, revealing that ticket sales exceeded “one million and two hundred thousand tickets, and 620 thousand spectators have watched the matches so far.”
He considered that the huge public turnout was due to “several factors, most notably the large number of communities of the participating teams, especially the Arab ones, and the modernity of the stadiums that hosted the Qatar World Cup matches made the audience eager to follow the competitions in elegant stadiums,” revealing that all tickets for the Qatar and Palestine matches were completely sold out.
He added, “Another factor that also contributed was the ease of transportation with the metro, which can transport thousands of people very quickly to the event location.”
Regarding the difference between organising the 2022 World Cup and the Asian Cup, he said, “We set the same high standards, and most of the people who supervised the World Cup operations are the same ones present in the continental tournament, so we did not differentiate at all between the two tournaments.”
Qatar will host the World Cup from November 21 to December 18, 2022, becoming the first Arab country to have this honour.
He revealed that the Arab Cup will continue and will be organised again in a new form in cooperation between the International Federation (FIFA) and the Arab Federation for the game.
He considered that after the successes achieved by Qatar through hosting many international and continental championships, the biggest dream remains hosting the Olympic Games. He said, “We have previously nominated to host the Games in recent years and we have the intention to apply again.”
He added, “There is no doubt that the successes we have achieved in organising more than one world championship and in more than one sport in recent years have made us aim to organise the Olympic Games in the future.”
The next Olympic Games will be held in Paris in the summer of 2024, followed by Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia in 2032.
He considered that the Gulf region as a whole has proven that it has the potential to host the largest sporting events, and he praised Saudi Arabia, which will host the Asian Cup in 2027 and will most likely organize the 2034 World Cup.
Regarding the possibility of some Gulf countries hosting the 2034 World Cup matches, he said, “Those who have the right have the right to decide whether this is possible or not according to the legal regulations of the World Cup.”
Three countries will organize the 2026 World Cup: the United States, Canada and Mexico, then three countries will organize the 2030 World Cup: Spain, Portugal and Morocco, in addition to some matches in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Saudi Arabia is the only candidate to host the 2034 World Cup.