AlKass Digital
Zürich, Switzerland- FIFA Secretary-General, Fatma Samoura, said last week that the world football’s governing is looking forward towards an “incredibly creative and remarkable” World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Our aim was to ensure that everything – achievements and challenges – is translated into constructive learnings for the future, knowing that not every single aspect from Russia 2018 will be applicable to Qatar 2022,” Samoura was quoted as saying by www.fifa.com, yesterday.
She spoke during a meeting of the key members of the recently concluded World Cup in Russia and those from Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) for a debriefing session in Zürich. The two-day meet that took place on October 11 and 12 saw 30 participants from Moscow share their experience with 26 experts from Qatar.
“There are many ways to organise a fantastic FIFA World Cup: with Russia, we found one; and I have no doubt that Qatar will be an incredibly creative and remarkable host,” she said.
Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary -General of SC, said that Qatar was moving ahead with this preparations for the World Cup in 2022.
“The debrief session shed further light on what made the 2018 FIFA World Cup such a fantastic event,” said Al Thawadi.
“The lessons we learned from this session and from our participation in observation programmes during the tournament will play an important role in our preparation for 2022. Russia set a very high standard for us to follow and their success serves as inspiration for us as we prepare for and look forward to hosting the Middle East’s first FIFA World Cup in four years’ time,” he added.
“The debriefing was a great opportunity for key colleagues from the Russian LOC and FIFA to reunite and, with the benefit of hindsight, delve into the detail of the planning and delivery of the 2018 World Cup in order to assess the relevance of key learnings for Qatar. The debriefing marked the closure of one chapter and passed the operational baton to Qatar where preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup are already in full swing,” added FIFA’s Chief Tournament & Events Officer, Colin Smith.
“We are very happy that the World Cup in Russia was globally acclaimed as a huge success,” celebrated the CEO of the 2018 FIFA World Cup LOC, Alexey Sorokin.
“Not only did the event leave lasting bright and joyful memories for the fans from all around the world, but it has also already proved to be a catalyst for many positive changes in our country – in football, in terms of economics and also in the social realm.”
In July FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, had confirmed that said the 2022 edition would be conducted from November 21 to December 18.