Qatar Football AssociationFifa
14.12.2018 14:53 in :

Doha: FIFA President Gianni Infatino yesterday announced Qatar’s 2022 World Cup preparations are running ahead of schedule.

Infantino was addressing home and international media at the end of the three-day FIFA Executive Football Summit held in Doha.

“As far as I could see, the progress is going according to plan,” Infantino said yesterday.

“The stadiums will be ready by 2020, which means two years ahead of the World Cup. I have never seen this at any World Cup in the past.

“I have seen World Cups and European Championships and we have never had all stadiums ready before an event. It has never happened. Here it will happen. I am very, very confident on that,” he added.

The FIFA President on Wednesday met the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, QFA President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani and Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.

“I have had the chance to meet the Prime Minister yesterday to discuss with him Qatar’s preparations for the World Cup. I was here a few weeks ago as well. All the signs are positive,” Infantino said.

“The Metro is moving towards completion. The stadium work is also going on.

“Amazing work! It is the same word (used by Qatar) in their World Cup slogan. It will be an amazing World Cup,” he said. “Their preparations are in advanced stages,” he added.

“Today is the 13th of December. In four years time, we will be playing the semi-finals around this time. The weather right now is absolutely beautiful. I am sure everything will be fantastic in four years time when we come back in 2022. But we will be coming here often in the next four years,” Infantino said.

Infantino said the World Cup in Qatar will provide football fans around the globe the chance to discover the country and its people

“There is no secret as to how FIFA can help. What I can say is we will work hard, work together, work jointly with Qatar. It is the first World Cup which will be played in the Middle East,” Infantino said.

“It has to be an occasion for the world to come and meet new people here. I think it is important for the people to come to this part of the world and discover the country, to discover the passion for football people have here. There will be surprises for many.

“It was the same story when World Cup was held in Russia. There were many people with prejudices and when they went to Russia, they had a great time. Similarly, people shouldn’t have prejudices about this part of the world. The World Cup will be a celebration and that is the message we want to give to the world.

“So we will, of course, come up with concrete initiatives for our Qatari friends on how to make this a unique World Cup. But I don’t want to spoil the fun by announcing what we will be doing together in the next four years (smiles). There are few plans that have already started. The stadiums are absolutely amazing,” he said.

When asked about the illegal blockade on Qatar could impact the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Infantino said: “Will it (the blockade) have an impact on the World Cup? No! What I want to say as a citizen of the world is that this gets stopped and that some agreements can be found for the people in the region, for the people in the world.”

Infantino said FIFA, under his leadership, had become a transparent organisation that believed in equality and opportunity for all.

“As I said before if we could all have the same feeling that it is good for football then we will have a fantastic World Cup as we did in Russia.

“I am very happy with the debates (in Doha). We had debates on how to make football grow in Asia, Africa and the Americas because it is where it is needed the most. The teams (in those continents) can invest in their football. FIFA has financial stability in terms of revenue, income and reserves. It is important that we can share this information with our members and the media,” the 48-year-old said with a smile.