Fifa World Cup 2022: Qatar's 12-year journey as host nation has 1 month to go

The first World Cup in the Middle East is one month away, nearing the conclusion of a12-year journey for Qatar that has transformed the nation. The small Arab country jutting out into the Arabian Gulf has overcome all skepticism to host the biggest football tournament.

On Nov 20, the tournament will finally get started a couple hours after sunset at the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium — a new venue north of Doha built for the World Cup. The maroon-and-white clad national team from the host country will open a tournament that has come to define the gas-rich emirate’s image against the team from Ecuador — probably.

All 64 games over the course of 29 days involving 32 teams will be held in the Doha area, with many more shows and cultural events planned for a soccer-led party in the country.

For one month, Qatar will relax its strict limits on where alcohol can be bought.

Promises of “the best World Cup ever, on and off the field” were made Monday by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who said the same in Moscow four years ago when Russia hosted the tournament.

About 1.2 million visitors are expected in Qatar for the first World Cup to be played in the middle of the traditional European soccer season, a move made to avoid the desert heat in the Middle East.

This year's tournament will be among the most expensive World Cups for fans to follow and certainly the most political in modern times. Currently, players from Brazil are being used as political weapons in an election campaign and players from Iran have been supporting protests at home following the death of a 22-year-old woman after being detained by the morality police.

“As you look around the country today, at the state-of-the-art stadiums, the training pitches, the metro, the wider infrastructure, everything is ready and everyone is welcome,” said Infantino, who moved from Zurich to live in Doha for the final year of preparations.

The infrastructure is there. The challenges for Qatar are on the human scale for a country of only 350,000 citizens in a population swelled to 2.6 million by migrants working in construction, domestic and service sectors, as well as in white-collar jobs.

For security, Qatar will rely on expertise and hardware from allies, including sniffer dogs, an anti-drone system and a surveillance airplane from France, and a warship and riot police from Turkey. The U.S. military’s Central Command has its forward headquarters at Al Udeid Air Base. Turkey is sending about 3,000 riot police for a tournament.

This year's World Cup will be hosted on the smallest territory since Switzerland in 1954 and will uniquely have most of the fans living together in one city.

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