AFP, Doha :
After upending the football establishment by winning the right to host the World Cup, Qatar’s preparations are heading into overdrive with a year to go as they rush to welcome more than a million fans and prove their critics wrong.
The tiny Gulf state has a reputation for punching above its weight but challenges do not come much bigger than holding football’s showpiece event in a desert peninsula of 2.7 million without a strong sporting tradition.
Twelve months before the November 21, 2022 kick-off, the Qatari capital Doha, which is hosting almost the entire tournament, is dotted with roadworks and building sites that are causing chaos for its inhabitants.
With some Qatari infrastructure projects delayed by the pandemic, the clock is ticking more loudly than organisers might have liked, just as scrutiny of the preparations starts to rise.
However, most of the building blocks are in place, with six of the eight World Cup stadiums due to host the 16-team Arab Cup from November 30.
“I’ve never seen a country in the world which has been so ready so much in advance… it will be like a toy store for fans when they come,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in Qatar this week.
