FIFA Club World Cup is an international men’s football competition, which is organized every year by the International Federation of Football Association, in short, called FIFA. The winning team of this championship receives the FIFA Club World Cup trophy and the Champion’s certificate from FIFA. In 2022, this championship is scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates. Initially, it was supposed to be held in Japan in December 2021, which had to be canceled due to the pandemic of Coronavirus.
Statement of the FIFA President
The present FIFA president Gianni Infantino informed last October that it was unanimously decided at the FIFA Council meeting that Club World Cup 2021 can only be played during the early phase of 2022, though dates are yet to be decided. Though Japan was supposed to host this championship in 2021, it withdrew its name as the host because of the pandemic situation. So, the UAE will be the new host of this international football tournament.
Japan was earlier selected host of Club World Cup 2021
Initially, China was selected as the host of the Club World Cup that was supposed to be held in June and July 2020. Then the entire world was hit by the pandemic of Coronavirus, for which this championship was postponed for an indefinite period.
Moreover, the change in schedules of other international football championships forced FIFA to change the venue of the Club World Cup from China to Japan, where it was supposed to be held in late 2021. Japan had earlier hosted this tournament in 2016 and Japan Football Association (JFA) was very interested to merge this occasion with its centenary celebrations in 2021.
But JFA had to decide in September 2021 that their country will not host this championship due to the severity of this pandemic. It had no other option as the Japanese government decided to renew the emergency in most parts of the country, to stop the fresh wave of COVID-19 throughout Japan.
UAE was chosen as the host of Club World Cup now
So, many countries participated in the bidding for being the host of Club World Cup 2021, which was postponed to early 2022. Finally, the UAE was announced as the host of this championship by FIFA.
However, this is not the first time that the UAE is hosting the Club World Cup. It has hosted this championship 4 times earlier, in 2009, 2010, 2017, and 2018. So, it will be easy for this country to host this event again in 2022 despite the pandemic situation.
24 teams are supposed to participate in this tournament, which includes the earlier champions from the last 6 international football championships and some league-winner teams from the host country. Passionate football lovers of Saudi Arabia can get cheap flights from Riyadh to Dubai, for enjoying all the games of this tournament.
Qatar prepares for World Cup
Another Gulf country Qatar is chosen as the host of FIFA World Cup 2022. It is expected to be the largest among all football tournaments that had ever been hosted by any country in the Middle East. Football lovers can enjoy two matches in a day in the stadium specially prepared for this event. This stadium is named 974, after the international phone code of Qatar (+974), and also due to the 974 recycled shipping containers used in building the stadium.
It is designed by a reputed Spanish architect firm as the first transportable and re-mountable football stadium. It can accommodate 40,000 audiences in the galleries made in a modern modular style. FIFA World Cup 2022 will start on November 21 and continue till December 18. After the World Cup is over, this stadium will be dismantled and removed from this site. However, the designer expects this transportable stadium to house the FIFA World Cup several times in different countries.
Football lovers also can visit Al Khor City and Al Wakrah City to watch some matches in Al Bayt Stadium and Al Janoub Stadium respectively. Normally, the FIFA World Cup occurs in the months of June and July every year. But the extreme heat of the desert region prevents the tournament in summer, due to which it is shifted to be held in the winter. So, football lovers can travel to these cities by train, metro, water taxi, or cars from Doha, the capital city of Qatar. They will find plenty of accommodations in hotels near the scheduled venues of football matches.
FIFA talks to Qatar on ease vaccination mandate
Vaccination to prevent COVID-19 is mandatory for all adults in Qatar now. So, FIFA discussed with the Qatar government to ease this mandate for the sake of their players and football lovers who will be arriving from different countries. They suggested that people may provide medical reports to prove their complete recovery from COVID-19 or their negative PCR test reports to convince them that they will not cause Coronavirus infection to others. However, the Qatar government finally confirmed that all participants and visitors need to be fully vaccinated for attending FIFA World Cup 2022.
Qatar will keep the arrangement for 1 million doses of Coronavirus vaccine that should suffice all who are yet to be vaccinated. FIFA declared that Qatar will take care of the health of all involved in this football tournament to be organized in this country.
So, FIFA encourages all football players to be vaccinated and maintain the health protocols mentioned by the Ministry of Public Health of the Qatar government. As the number of COVID-19 cases is dropping day by day, the Qatar government decided to ease the protocol to some extent by the end of September 2021.
Therefore, the event of the FIFA World Cup will be a matter of legacy to the Middle East. The Qatar government has arranged for hotels, hospitals, shopping facilities, transport, and entertainment options near the sporting complexes where matches of this tournament will be held. All the venues will have parking spaces, comfortable seating arrangements, and wheelchair ramps. The latest technology will be used to make visitors comfortable while protecting the surrounding environment and biodiversity of this land.
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