Qatar has detected three more coronavirus cases among workers on World Cup stadiums, organisers said Thursday, bringing the number of infections among those involved in 2022 tournament construction to eight.

The Gulf nation has reported seven deaths from the COVID-19 disease and 4,103 cases in total, announcing the first infections in stadium workers on Wednesday.

Building work for the stadiums and infrastructure to stage the tournament has continued through the crisis even as non-essential retail has been halted and mosques, parks and restaurants have closed.

"The Supreme Committee for Delivery &amp; Legacy (SC) has confirmed that two staff members who work for a SC contractor have tested positive for COVID-19," organisers said in a statement.&nbsp;

"In addition, six workers on SC projects have tested positive."

On Wednesday the SC said that staff at three of the seven stadiums being built from scratch for the 2022 tournament had been affected.

The SC was following health ministry guidance to respond to the cases and all those affected would continue to be paid and receive free healthcare, the statement added.

The timings of the competition, due to be held in November and December of 2022, remain unchanged by the coronavirus pandemic which has already forced the postponement of the European football championships and the Tokyo Olympics.&nbsp;

Qatar has detected three more coronavirus cases among workers on World Cup stadiums, organisers said Thursday, bringing the number of infections among those involved in 2022 tournament construction to eight.

Qatar has detected three more coronavirus cases among workers on World Cup stadiums, organisers said Thursday, bringing the number of infections among those involved in 2022 tournament construction to eight. The Gulf nation has reported seven deaths from the COVID-19 disease and 4,103 cases in total, announcing the first infections in stadium workers on Wednesday. Building work for the stadiums and infrastructure to stage the tournament has continued through the crisis even as non-essential retail has been halted and mosques, parks and restaurants have closed. "The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has confirmed that two staff members who work for a SC contractor have tested positive for COVID-19," organisers said in a statement. "In addition, six workers on SC projects have tested positive." On Wednesday the SC said that staff at three of the seven stadiums being built from scratch for the 2022 tournament had been affected. The SC was following health ministry guidance to respond to the cases and all those affected would continue to be paid and receive free healthcare, the statement added. The timings of the competition, due to be held in November and December of 2022, remain unchanged by the coronavirus pandemic which has already forced the postponement of the European football championships and the Tokyo Olympics.

Qatar reports three new virus cases at World Cup sites

The Red Devils' have decided not to travel to Qatar amidst heightened tensions after Irani General Qassem Soleimani was killed in drone strikes executed by the United States.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/fa-cup-solskjaer-needs-time-to-make-lasting-impact-at-manchester-united-guardiola-272687">FA cup: Solskjaer needs time to make lasting impact at Manchester United -&nbsp;Guardiola</a> 
 
The players are also asked not to go to the Middle East for vacationing during the days off at the start of next month before the beginning of the training camp.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/qatari-emir-in-iran-de-escalation-is-the-only-solution-273833">Qatari emir in Iran: 'De-escalation is the only solution'</a> 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../fa-cup-gunners-push-through-leeds-272669">Manchester United</a> boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “I am going to give them a few days off. I don’t know where they will all scatter around but we will stay in Europe. 
 
“If there is one thing that worries me it’s not on the football pitch, there are other things that worry me more than football. 
 
Solskjaer plans to set the training camp in Europe that has a more settled climate than what Manchester has to offer. 
 
“We were looking at the Middle East but that is not going to happen.” 
 
This is a big blow for Qatar which is the venue for the World Cup in 2022. The fear of countries backing out to play the World Cup if the tensions remain scares the Arabs. The United States have already dumped their plans to train in Qatar. 
 
Manchester United were looking forward to being in Qatar because of the weather and the highly-rated Aspire sports arena. 
 
Stadiums in Qatar which will host the World Cup are designed based on its respective cities tradition. 
 
Aspire sports Arena is the largest indoor multi-purpose dome in Qatar. 
 
Qatar has already been surrounded by a lot of controversies regarding the hosting of the World Cup.

The Red Devils' have decided not to travel to Qatar amidst heightened tensions after Irani General Qassem Soleimani was killed in drone strikes executed by the United States.

The Red Devils' have decided not to travel to Qatar amidst heightened tensions after Irani General Qassem Soleimani was killed in drone strikes executed by the United States. Also read: FA cup: Solskjaer needs time to make lasting impact at Manchester United - Guardiola The players are also asked not to go to the Middle East for vacationing during the days off at the start of next month before the beginning of the training camp. Also read: Qatari emir in Iran: 'De-escalation is the only solution' Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “I am going to give them a few days off. I don’t know where they will all scatter around but we will stay in Europe. “If there is one thing that worries me it’s not on the football pitch, there are other things that worry me more than football. Solskjaer plans to set the training camp in Europe that has a more settled climate than what Manchester has to offer. “We were looking at the Middle East but that is not going to happen.” This is a big blow for Qatar which is the venue for the World Cup in 2022. The fear of countries backing out to play the World Cup if the tensions remain scares the Arabs. The United States have already dumped their plans to train in Qatar. Manchester United were looking forward to being in Qatar because of the weather and the highly-rated Aspire sports arena. Stadiums in Qatar which will host the World Cup are designed based on its respective cities tradition. Aspire sports Arena is the largest indoor multi-purpose dome in Qatar. Qatar has already been surrounded by a lot of controversies regarding the hosting of the World Cup.

Manchester United scrap plans to set training camps in Middle East amid tensions

FIFA World Cup 2022: One of the most controversial world cups in football history

Ex-UEFA chief <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/michel-platini-says-cleared-by-swiss-authorities-plans-return-139946">Michel Platini was arrested </a>Tuesday in connection with a probe into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a source close to the investigation said.

The French football legend elected to lead European football's governing body in 2007 was taken into custody by French anti-corruption police investigating the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to the gas-rich Gulf state.

Qatar was named the host in a decision that triggered controversy over its suitability amid allegations of corruption.

Platini, 63, led UEFA until 2015 when he was banned from football for four years for ethics violations including receiving $2 million payment from the disgraced former head of FIFA Sepp Blatter.

Qatar has been accused of buying votes in its bid to stage the World Cup and a subsequent report by US independent investigator Michael Garcia unearthed an array of suspect financial dealings, many linked to Sandro Rosell, the ex-Barcelona president who served as a consultant for Qatar.

Platini, a triple Ballon d'Or winner, was expected to succeed Blatter as FIFA president in 2016 before his fall from grace. He has been battling to clear his name ever since.

Ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini was arrested Tuesday in connection with a probe into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a source close to the investigation said.

Ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini was arrested Tuesday in connection with a probe into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a source close to the investigation said. The French football legend elected to lead European football's governing body in 2007 was taken into custody by French anti-corruption police investigating the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to the gas-rich Gulf state. Qatar was named the host in a decision that triggered controversy over its suitability amid allegations of corruption. Platini, 63, led UEFA until 2015 when he was banned from football for four years for ethics violations including receiving $2 million payment from the disgraced former head of FIFA Sepp Blatter. Qatar has been accused of buying votes in its bid to stage the World Cup and a subsequent report by US independent investigator Michael Garcia unearthed an array of suspect financial dealings, many linked to Sandro Rosell, the ex-Barcelona president who served as a consultant for Qatar. Platini, a triple Ballon d'Or winner, was expected to succeed Blatter as FIFA president in 2016 before his fall from grace. He has been battling to clear his name ever since.

Ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini arrested in 2022 Qatar World Cup probe

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be held with 32 participating teams and not an<a href="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;q=https://www.wionews.com/sports/as-fifa-eyes-world-cup-expansion-rights-groups-say-workers-at-risk-202898&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiNwOf207DiAhU17HMBHWOdDz4QFjACegQIDxAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw1e_UYFymD8ahyHd2Tg4ICL"> expanded 48 teams,</a> organisers FIFA said on Wednesday.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino had proposed expanding the tournament and explored the idea of adding additional host nations.

But the sport's world ruling body said in a statement,&nbsp;"Following a thorough and comprehensive consultation process with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, it was concluded that under the current circumstances such a proposal could not be made now."

FIFA and Qatar also looked at whether the Gulf state could host an expanded tournament alone by changing the normal requirements for facilities.

"A joint analysis, in this respect, concluded that due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact on the host country, more time would be required and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June," FIFA said.

"It was, therefore, decided not to further pursue this option", <a href="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;q=https://www.wionews.com/sports/chelsea-lose-transfer-ban-appeal-but-can-register-minor-players-says-fifa-217035&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiNwOf207DiAhU17HMBHWOdDz4QFjABegQIEBAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw10nVsQJMu9jYDbYDXgBbyk">FIFA </a>added.

Infantino began to back away from the idea in March when after a FIFA Council meeting in Miami he said,&nbsp;“If it happens -&nbsp;fantastic. If it doesn’t happen -&nbsp;fantastic also”.

Qatar World Cup organisers said they had always been open to an expanded tournament if a "viable operating model" had been found.

"A joint analysis concluded that due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact on Qatar, more time would be required and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June. It was, therefore, decided not to further pursue this option," they said in a statement.

"With just three and a half years to go until kick off, Qatar remains as committed as ever to ensuring the 32-team FIFA World Cup in 2022 is one of the best tournaments ever and one that makes the entire Arab world proud", the statement added.

The 2026 World Cup, to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, is scheduled to feature 48 teams and given a large number of stadiums available is unlikely to face any logistical problems.

The obstacles to a 48-team tournament in Qatar were numerous and some of the natural partners for joint-hosting in the Gulf were ruled out due to a deep political and economic rift in the region.

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and non-Gulf state Egypt cut political, trade and transport ties with Qatar in June 2017.

Those countries accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism, which it denies.

FIFA’s study said the blockade would need to be lifted before there was any chance of those countries hosting matches.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be held with 32 participating teams and not an expanded 48 teams, organisers FIFA said on Wednesday. FIFA President Gianni Infantino had proposed expanding the tournament and explored the idea of adding additional host nations.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be held with 32 participating teams and not an expanded 48 teams, organisers FIFA said on Wednesday. FIFA President Gianni Infantino had proposed expanding the tournament and explored the idea of adding additional host nations. But the sport's world ruling body said in a statement, "Following a thorough and comprehensive consultation process with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, it was concluded that under the current circumstances such a proposal could not be made now." FIFA and Qatar also looked at whether the Gulf state could host an expanded tournament alone by changing the normal requirements for facilities. "A joint analysis, in this respect, concluded that due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact on the host country, more time would be required and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June," FIFA said. "It was, therefore, decided not to further pursue this option", FIFA added. Infantino began to back away from the idea in March when after a FIFA Council meeting in Miami he said, “If it happens - fantastic. If it doesn’t happen - fantastic also”. Qatar World Cup organisers said they had always been open to an expanded tournament if a "viable operating model" had been found. "A joint analysis concluded that due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact on Qatar, more time would be required and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June. It was, therefore, decided not to further pursue this option," they said in a statement. "With just three and a half years to go until kick off, Qatar remains as committed as ever to ensuring the 32-team FIFA World Cup in 2022 is one of the best tournaments ever and one that makes the entire Arab world proud", the statement added. The 2026 World Cup, to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, is scheduled to feature 48 teams and given a large number of stadiums available is unlikely to face any logistical problems. The obstacles to a 48-team tournament in Qatar were numerous and some of the natural partners for joint-hosting in the Gulf were ruled out due to a deep political and economic rift in the region. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and non-Gulf state Egypt cut political, trade and transport ties with Qatar in June 2017. Those countries accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism, which it denies. FIFA’s study said the blockade would need to be lifted before there was any chance of those countries hosting matches.

FIFA to stick with 32 teams for 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar

Former Spain midfielder Xavi Hernandez says FIFA should abandon a proposal to increase the number of teams at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to 48 from 32.

The World Cup will feature 48 teams for the 2026 edition, to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, but FIFA President Gianni Infantino said last week increasing the number of teams for the 2022 tournament was "feasible".

Former Barcelona great Xavi, who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010 and is seeing out his career in Qatar with top-flight club Al Sadd, said 48 teams would not be the right option for 2022, however.

"It's too much and too long. Imagine 48 teams in Qatar, it will not be good in my opinion," he told reporters on Monday.

"It's still for the organisers to decide, but for now Qatar is doing everything to prepare for 32 teams and it will be difficult to change it for more teams. Also, it's good for football to have 32. That's more than enough."

Should FIFA and Qatari organisers agree on a proposal to increase the number of teams, it would be put to a vote at the FIFA Congress in Paris on June 5.

Xavi, who was in Mumbai for a promotional event for Generation Amazing, a legacy programme initiated by Qatar 2022 organisers, also expected Qatar to acquit themselves well on the field at the tournament.

The tiny Gulf state stunned four-times champions Japan to win this year's Asian Cup and Xavi was not surprised by their breakthrough success.

"I thought the football there was the worst when I first went there," the 39-year-old said. "But they've improved a lot and very quickly since then, everybody saw it at the Asian Cup."

Former Spain midfielder Xavi Hernandez says FIFA should abandon a proposal to increase the number of teams at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to 48 from 32. The World Cup will feature 48 teams for the 2026 edition, to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, but FIFA President Gianni Infantino said last week increasing the number of teams for the 2022 tournament was "feasible".

Former Spain midfielder Xavi Hernandez says FIFA should abandon a proposal to increase the number of teams at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to 48 from 32. The World Cup will feature 48 teams for the 2026 edition, to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, but FIFA President Gianni Infantino said last week increasing the number of teams for the 2022 tournament was "feasible". Former Barcelona great Xavi, who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010 and is seeing out his career in Qatar with top-flight club Al Sadd, said 48 teams would not be the right option for 2022, however. "It's too much and too long. Imagine 48 teams in Qatar, it will not be good in my opinion," he told reporters on Monday. "It's still for the organisers to decide, but for now Qatar is doing everything to prepare for 32 teams and it will be difficult to change it for more teams. Also, it's good for football to have 32. That's more than enough." Should FIFA and Qatari organisers agree on a proposal to increase the number of teams, it would be put to a vote at the FIFA Congress in Paris on June 5. Xavi, who was in Mumbai for a promotional event for Generation Amazing, a legacy programme initiated by Qatar 2022 organisers, also expected Qatar to acquit themselves well on the field at the tournament. The tiny Gulf state stunned four-times champions Japan to win this year's Asian Cup and Xavi was not surprised by their breakthrough success. "I thought the football there was the worst when I first went there," the 39-year-old said. "But they've improved a lot and very quickly since then, everybody saw it at the Asian Cup."

Xavi Hernandez says 48-team Qatar World Cup would be too long

With the 2018 World Cup in Russia behind it, the soccer world’s focus shifts to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Politics and the Gulf’s internecine political and legal battles have already shaped debate about FIFA’s controversial awarding of World Cup hosting rights to Qatar. The battles highlight not only the sport’s dominance in the Middle East by autocratic leaders but also the incestuous relationship between politics and sports that is at the root of multiple scandals that have rocked the sports world for much of this decade and compromised good governance in international sports.

Three men symbolise the importance of soccer to Gulf autocrats who see the sport as a way to project their countries in a positive light on the international stage, harness its popular appeal in their cultural and public diplomacy campaigns, and leverage it as a pillar of their efforts to garner soft power: Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his nemeses, United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi sports czar, Turki al-Sheikh, one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s closest associates.

To be sure, the tension between Qatar and its Gulf detractors was spilling onto the soccer pitch long before the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt took their opposition to Qatari policies to a new level with the imposition in June 2017 of a diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar. Since then, debate about the Qatari World Cup has been further politicised with the Gulf crisis driving efforts to deprive Qatar of economic and soft power benefits it derives from its hosting of the tournament, if not of the right to host the mega-sports event.

The UAE-Saudi efforts took on added significance as Qatar and its detractors settled in for the long haul. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt will likely face difficult choices if the Gulf crisis persists when the World Cup, the first such mega-tournament to be held in the Middle East, kicks off in Doha in late 2022.

Difficult choices

The choice would involve potential political risk. It would be between maintaining the boycott that has cut off all air, sea and land links between Qatar and its detractors at the expense of fans in a soccer-crazy part of the world in which little evokes the deep-seated emotions associated with religion and football or effectively breaching the embargo to evade political backlash and ensure that supporters have access to a sports milestone in the region’s history. The starkness of the boycotting states’ dilemma would be magnified if any one of them were to qualify for the Qatar World Cup and would be enhanced if they were to play the host country or, for example, Iran.

The issue of ability to attend is magnified by expectations that the demography of fans attending the World Cup in Qatar may very well be different from that at past tournaments. Qatar is likely to attract a far greater number of fans from the Middle East as well as Africa and Asia. The Asian Football Confederation’s Competition Committee has already urged governments to exempt football teams from travel bans and would almost certainly do the same for fans.

As a result, the UAE-Saudi effort to undermine the Qatar World Cup is about more than seeking to deliver a body blow to Qatar. It is also about avoiding being further tied up into knots in an anti-Qatari campaign that has so far failed to break the Gulf state’s resolve, force it to concede, and garner international support. The campaign is multi-pronged and doesn’t shy away from violating laws as is evident in Saudi bootlegging to deprive beIN, the sports franchise of Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera television network, of the fruits of acquired rights to broadcast World Cup tournaments and European competitions at the risk of being penalized and/or taken to court by the likes of FIFA and the English Premier League. Saudi media reports that the government has launched an anti-piracy campaign, confiscating more than 4,000 illegal receivers that hacked beIN failed to put an end to the bootlegging.

Signalling the political importance that men like the crown princes and Sheikh Tamim attribute to sports, a former top UAE security official, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan, suggested that the only way to resolve the Gulf crisis would be for Qatar to surrender its World Cup hosting rights. "If the World Cup leaves Qatar, Qatar's crisis will be over ... because the crisis is created to get away from it," Khalfan said.

Khalfan spoke at a time that leaked documents from the email account of Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador in Washington and a close associate of the country’s crown prince, revealed a UAE plan to undermine Qatar’s currency by manipulating the value of bonds and derivatives. If successfully executed, the plan would have allowed Qatar’s distractors to argue that the Gulf state’s financial problems called into question its ability to organize the World Cup.

Serving national interests

Al-Sheikh, the chairman of the kingdom’s General Sport Authority, makes no bones about harnessing sports to serve the kingdom’s interests. With a career in security rather than sports, he was unequivocal in his assertion on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s debut in the 2018 World Cup in Russia that he made decisions based on what he deemed “Saudi Arabia’s best interest,” reaffirming the inextricable relationship between sports and politics.

Barely 24 hours before the World Cup’s opening match, Saudi Arabia made good on Al-Sheikh’s assertion that the kingdom’s international sports policy would be driven by former US President George W. Bush’s post 9/11 principle of “you are either with us or against us.”

With Morocco’s bid for the 2026 World Cup in mind, Mr. Al-Sheikh had warned that "to be in the grey area is no longer acceptable to us. There are those who were mistaken in their direction … If you want support, it'll be in Riyadh. What you're doing is a waste of time…," &nbsp;Al-Sheikh said. &nbsp;Al-Sheikh was referring to Morocco’s refusal to join the anti-Qatari campaign. Adopting a Saudi Arabia First approach, Mr. Al-Sheikh noted that the United States “is our biggest and strongest ally.” He recalled that when the World Cup was played in 1994 in nine American cities, the US “was one of our favourites. The fans were numerous, and the Saudi team achieved good results.”

Al-Sheikh was manoeuvring at the same time to ensure that the kingdom has greater say in international soccer governance, including issues such as the fate of the Qatari World Cup and a push to extend international isolation of Iran to the realm of sports. To do so, Saudi Arabia backed a proposal to speed up the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams from 32, which is scheduled to kick off in 2026, by making it already applicable to the 2022 World Cup. Saudi Arabia hopes that the expansion would significantly complicate Qatari preparations for the event. Implementing the expansion in 2022 would strengthen UAE and Saudi efforts to petition FIFA to force Qatar to agree to co-hosting of the World Cup by other Gulf states, a proposal that was incorporated in the UAE plan to undermine Qatar’s currency.

In an indication of things to come, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in early 2018 thwarted a UAE-Saudi attempt to get Asian tournament matches that were scheduled to be hosted by Qatar moved to a neutral venue. The AFC warned the two countries that they would be penalized if they failed to play in Doha or host Qatari teams.

Al-Sheikh’s moves were part of a two-pronged Saudi-UAE effort. Global tech investor Softbank, which counts Saudi Arabia and the UAE among its largest investors, is believed to be behind a $25 billion proposal embraced by FIFA president Gianni Infantino to revamp the FIFA Club World Cup and launch of a Global Nations League tournament. If approved, the proposal would give Saudi Arabia a significant voice in global soccer governance.

Complimenting the Saudi FIFA bid is an effort to expand the kingdom’s influence in the 47-nation AFC, the largest of the world soccer body’s constituent regional elements. To do so, Saudi Arabia unsuccessfully tried to create a new regional bloc, the South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF), a potential violation of FIFA and AFC rules. The federation would have been made up of members of both the AFC and the Amman-based West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) that groups all Middle Eastern nations except for Israel and is headed by Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, a prominent advocate of soccer governance reform.

The initiative fell apart when the Asian members of SWAFF walked out in October 2018 in the wake of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The killing could also jeopardize Saudi efforts to gain control of the AFC with the Al-Sheikh-backed candidacy of Saudi Football Federation chief Adel Ezzat, who resigned in August 2018 to run for the office.

Benefits outstrip reputational risk

Al-Sheikh and his boss, Prince Mohammed, share with the crown prince’s UAE counterpart and namesake, a belief that the public diplomacy and soft power fruits of harnessing sports outstrip reputational risks. Simon Pearce, Abu Dhabi’s director of strategic communications and a director of Manchester City, the British club bought by UAE Crown Prince Mohammed’s brother but controlled by the de facto Emirati ruler’s men, said as much in leaked emails to Al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador in Washington.

The emails discussed the UAE’s registration of a new soccer club, New York City Football Club, as the United States’ Major League Soccer newest franchise. Mr. Pearce argued that Abu Dhabi’s interests in the US political environment are best served by associating New York City FC with City Football Group, the Abu Dhabi government’s soccer investment vehicle, rather than the government itself to evade criticism stemming from the Emirates’ criminalization of homosexuality, its less than stellar record on women’s rights and its refusal to formally recognize Israel despite maintaining close security and commercial relations with the Jewish state.

The UAE’s sports-related investments, guided by the crown prince, much like the acquisition of important Qatari sports stakes on the behest of Sheikh Tamim also give Gulf states political leverage and create additional commercial opportunity. The investments constitute the flip side of large amounts of Gulf money being channelled to influential think tanks, particularly in Washington. In a series of notes in 2012, Mr. &nbsp;Pearce advised Prince Mohammed, a man obsessed with perceived threats posed by any form of political Islam and a driving force in the campaign against Qatar, to tempt than British prime minister David Cameron to counter what he described as Islamist infiltration of the BBC’s Arabic service in exchange for lucrative arms and oil deals.

To illustrate the UAE and Qatar’s sway in European soccer, Nicholas McGeehan, an independent researcher and former Human Rights Watch executive focussed on the region, looked at recent bookies odds for the Champions League. Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City was the favourite followed by Qatar’s Paris Saint-Germain. Third up was Bayern Munich, whose shirts are sponsored by Qatar, fourth was Barcelona, which recently ended a seven-year sponsorship deal with Qatar, and fifth Real Madrid that sold the naming rights to its new stadium to Abu Dhabi.

Saudi and UAE public relations efforts to generate public pressure for a deprival of Qatari hosting rights were at times mired in controversy. The launch in May of the Foundation for Sports Integrity by Jamie Fuller, a prominent Australian campaigner for a clean-up of global soccer governance, backfired amid allegations of Saudi and UAE financial backing and Fuller’s refusal to disclose his source of funding.

Saudi and UAE media together with UK tabloid The Sun heralded the launch in a poche London hotel that involved a reiteration of assertions of Qatari wrongdoing in its successful World Cup bid. Media like Abu Dhabi’s The National and Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya projected the launch as pressure on FIFA to deprive Qatar of its hosting rights. “It is no secret that football’s governing body is rotten to the core. (FIFA) will rightly come under renewed pressure to strip Qatar of the competition and carry out an internal investigation in the wake of the most recent allegations. The millions of fans eagerly anticipating 2022’s festival of football deserve better,” The National said. Saudi-owned Ash-Sharq Al Awsat newspaper reported that a June 2018 FIFA Congress would hold a re-vote of the Qatari hosting. The Congress didn’t.

Qatar remains vulnerable

Despite so far successfully having defeated efforts to deprive it of its hosting rights, Qatar remains vulnerable when it comes to the integrity of its winning bid. The bid’s integrity and Sheikh Tamim’s emphasis on sports as a pillar of Qatari soft power is at stake in legal proceedings in New York and Zurich involving corruption in FIFA and potential wrongdoing in the awarding of past World Cups. Qatar has suffered reputational damage as a result of the question marks even if the Gulf crisis has allowed it to enhance its image as an underdog being bullied by the big boys on the block.

To Qatar’s credit, it has introduced reforms of its controversial kafala or labour sponsorship system that could become a model for the region. In doing so, it cemented the 2022 World Cup as one of the few mega-events with a real potential of leaving a legacy of change. Qatar started laying the foundations for that change by early on becoming the first and only Gulf state to engage with its critics, international human rights groups and trade unions.

Even so, Qatar initially suffered reputational damage on the labour front because it was relatively slow in embracing and implementing the reforms. Qatar’s handling of the Gulf crisis suggests that it has learnt from the failure of its initial response to criticism of its winning 2022 bid when it acted like an ostrich that puts its head in the sand, hoping that the storm will pass only to find that by the time it rears its head the wound has festered, and it has lost strategic advantage.

The integrity issue remains Qatar’s weak point. For activist critics of the awarding of hosting rights to Qatar, there are two questions. One is, who do they want to get in bed with? Qatar’s detractors, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia hardly have stellar human and labour rights records. If anything, their records are worse than that of Qatar, which admittedly does not glow.

The second question critics have to ask themselves is how best to leverage the World Cup, irrespective of whether the Qatari bid was compromised or not. On the assumption that it may have been compromised, the question is less how to exact retribution for a wrongdoing that was common practice in global football governance. Leveraging should focus on how to achieve a fundamental reform of global sports governance that has yet to emerge eight years into a crisis that was in part sparked by the Qatar World Cup. This goes to the heart of the fact that untouched in efforts to address the governance crisis is the corrupting, ungoverned, and incestuous relationship between sports and politics.

Siamese twins: Sports and politics

The future of the Qatar World Cup and the Gulf crisis speaks to the pervasiveness of politics in sports. The World Cup is political by definition. Retaining Qatar’s hosting rights or depriving the Gulf state of the right to host the tournament is ultimately a choice with political consequences. As long as the crisis continues, retaining rights is a testimony to Qatar’s resilience, deprival would be a victory for its detractors.

As a result, the real yardstick in the debate about the Qatari World Cup should be how the sport and the integrity of the sport benefit most. And even then, politics is never far from what the outcome of that debate is. Obviously, instinctively, the optics of no retribution raises the question of how that benefits integrity. The answer is that the potential legacy of social and economic change that is already evident with the Qatar World Cup is more important than the feel-good effect of having done the right thing with retribution or the notion of setting an example. Add to that the fact that in current circumstances, a withdrawal of hosting rights would likely be interpreted as a victory of one side over the other, further divide the Arab and Muslim world, and enhance a sense among many Muslims of being on the defensive and under attack.

The silver lining in the Gulf crisis may be the fact that it has showed up the fiction of a separation of sports and politics. FIFA, the AFC, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), seeking to police the ban on a mixing of sports and politics, have discovered that it amounts to banging their heads against a wall. Despite their attempts to halt politics from subverting Asian tournaments, domestic and regional politics seeped into the game via different avenues.

As a result, FIFA and its regional confederations have been tying themselves up in knots. In a bizarre and contradictory sequence of events at the outset of the Gulf crisis, FIFA president Infantino rejected involving the group in the dispute by saying that “the essential role of FIFA, as I understand it, is to deal with football and not to interfere in geopolitics." Yet, on the same day that he made his statement, Mr. Infantino waded into the crisis by removing a Qatari referee from a 2018 World Cup qualifier at the request of the UAE. FIFA, beyond declaring that the decision was taken “in view of the current geopolitical situation,” appeared to be saying by implication that a Qatari by definition of his nationality could not be an honest arbiter of a soccer match involving one of his country’s detractors. In FIFA’s decision, politics trumped professionalism, no pun intended.

Similarly, the AFC was less principled in its stand towards matches pitting Saudi Arabia and Iran against one another. Iranian club Traktor Sazi was forced in February to play its home match against Al Ahli of Jeddah in Oman. It wasn’t clear why the AFC did not uphold the principle it imposed on Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the case of Iran. “Saudi teams have been able to select host stadiums and cities, and Saudi teams will host two Iranian football representatives in the UAE and Kuwait. In return, Iranian football representatives should be able to use their own rights to choose neutral venues,” said Mohammad Reza Saket, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Football Federation in a letter to the AFC.

Soccer governance bodies have long struggled to maintain the fiction of a separation in a trade-off that gave regulators greater autonomy and created the breeding ground for widespread corruption while allowing governments and politicians to manipulate the sport to their advantage as long as they were not too blatant about it. The limits of that deal are currently being defined in the Middle East, a region wracked by conflict where virtually everything is politicised. 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

With the 2018 World Cup in Russia behind it, the soccer world’s focus shifts to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Politics and the Gulf’s internecine political and legal battles have already shaped debate about FIFA’s controversial awarding of World Cup hosting rights to Qatar.

With the 2018 World Cup in Russia behind it, the soccer world’s focus shifts to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Politics and the Gulf’s internecine political and legal battles have already shaped debate about FIFA’s controversial awarding of World Cup hosting rights to Qatar. The battles highlight not only the sport’s dominance in the Middle East by autocratic leaders but also the incestuous relationship between politics and sports that is at the root of multiple scandals that have rocked the sports world for much of this decade and compromised good governance in international sports. Three men symbolise the importance of soccer to Gulf autocrats who see the sport as a way to project their countries in a positive light on the international stage, harness its popular appeal in their cultural and public diplomacy campaigns, and leverage it as a pillar of their efforts to garner soft power: Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his nemeses, United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi sports czar, Turki al-Sheikh, one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s closest associates. To be sure, the tension between Qatar and its Gulf detractors was spilling onto the soccer pitch long before the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt took their opposition to Qatari policies to a new level with the imposition in June 2017 of a diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar. Since then, debate about the Qatari World Cup has been further politicised with the Gulf crisis driving efforts to deprive Qatar of economic and soft power benefits it derives from its hosting of the tournament, if not of the right to host the mega-sports event. The UAE-Saudi efforts took on added significance as Qatar and its detractors settled in for the long haul. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt will likely face difficult choices if the Gulf crisis persists when the World Cup, the first such mega-tournament to be held in the Middle East, kicks off in Doha in late 2022. Difficult choices The choice would involve potential political risk. It would be between maintaining the boycott that has cut off all air, sea and land links between Qatar and its detractors at the expense of fans in a soccer-crazy part of the world in which little evokes the deep-seated emotions associated with religion and football or effectively breaching the embargo to evade political backlash and ensure that supporters have access to a sports milestone in the region’s history. The starkness of the boycotting states’ dilemma would be magnified if any one of them were to qualify for the Qatar World Cup and would be enhanced if they were to play the host country or, for example, Iran. The issue of ability to attend is magnified by expectations that the demography of fans attending the World Cup in Qatar may very well be different from that at past tournaments. Qatar is likely to attract a far greater number of fans from the Middle East as well as Africa and Asia. The Asian Football Confederation’s Competition Committee has already urged governments to exempt football teams from travel bans and would almost certainly do the same for fans. As a result, the UAE-Saudi effort to undermine the Qatar World Cup is about more than seeking to deliver a body blow to Qatar. It is also about avoiding being further tied up into knots in an anti-Qatari campaign that has so far failed to break the Gulf state’s resolve, force it to concede, and garner international support. The campaign is multi-pronged and doesn’t shy away from violating laws as is evident in Saudi bootlegging to deprive beIN, the sports franchise of Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera television network, of the fruits of acquired rights to broadcast World Cup tournaments and European competitions at the risk of being penalized and/or taken to court by the likes of FIFA and the English Premier League. Saudi media reports that the government has launched an anti-piracy campaign, confiscating more than 4,000 illegal receivers that hacked beIN failed to put an end to the bootlegging. Signalling the political importance that men like the crown princes and Sheikh Tamim attribute to sports, a former top UAE security official, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan, suggested that the only way to resolve the Gulf crisis would be for Qatar to surrender its World Cup hosting rights. "If the World Cup leaves Qatar, Qatar's crisis will be over ... because the crisis is created to get away from it," Khalfan said. Khalfan spoke at a time that leaked documents from the email account of Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador in Washington and a close associate of the country’s crown prince, revealed a UAE plan to undermine Qatar’s currency by manipulating the value of bonds and derivatives. If successfully executed, the plan would have allowed Qatar’s distractors to argue that the Gulf state’s financial problems called into question its ability to organize the World Cup. Serving national interests Al-Sheikh, the chairman of the kingdom’s General Sport Authority, makes no bones about harnessing sports to serve the kingdom’s interests. With a career in security rather than sports, he was unequivocal in his assertion on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s debut in the 2018 World Cup in Russia that he made decisions based on what he deemed “Saudi Arabia’s best interest,” reaffirming the inextricable relationship between sports and politics. Barely 24 hours before the World Cup’s opening match, Saudi Arabia made good on Al-Sheikh’s assertion that the kingdom’s international sports policy would be driven by former US President George W. Bush’s post 9/11 principle of “you are either with us or against us.” With Morocco’s bid for the 2026 World Cup in mind, Mr. Al-Sheikh had warned that "to be in the grey area is no longer acceptable to us. There are those who were mistaken in their direction … If you want support, it'll be in Riyadh. What you're doing is a waste of time…," Al-Sheikh said. Al-Sheikh was referring to Morocco’s refusal to join the anti-Qatari campaign. Adopting a Saudi Arabia First approach, Mr. Al-Sheikh noted that the United States “is our biggest and strongest ally.” He recalled that when the World Cup was played in 1994 in nine American cities, the US “was one of our favourites. The fans were numerous, and the Saudi team achieved good results.” Al-Sheikh was manoeuvring at the same time to ensure that the kingdom has greater say in international soccer governance, including issues such as the fate of the Qatari World Cup and a push to extend international isolation of Iran to the realm of sports. To do so, Saudi Arabia backed a proposal to speed up the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams from 32, which is scheduled to kick off in 2026, by making it already applicable to the 2022 World Cup. Saudi Arabia hopes that the expansion would significantly complicate Qatari preparations for the event. Implementing the expansion in 2022 would strengthen UAE and Saudi efforts to petition FIFA to force Qatar to agree to co-hosting of the World Cup by other Gulf states, a proposal that was incorporated in the UAE plan to undermine Qatar’s currency. In an indication of things to come, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in early 2018 thwarted a UAE-Saudi attempt to get Asian tournament matches that were scheduled to be hosted by Qatar moved to a neutral venue. The AFC warned the two countries that they would be penalized if they failed to play in Doha or host Qatari teams. Al-Sheikh’s moves were part of a two-pronged Saudi-UAE effort. Global tech investor Softbank, which counts Saudi Arabia and the UAE among its largest investors, is believed to be behind a $25 billion proposal embraced by FIFA president Gianni Infantino to revamp the FIFA Club World Cup and launch of a Global Nations League tournament. If approved, the proposal would give Saudi Arabia a significant voice in global soccer governance. Complimenting the Saudi FIFA bid is an effort to expand the kingdom’s influence in the 47-nation AFC, the largest of the world soccer body’s constituent regional elements. To do so, Saudi Arabia unsuccessfully tried to create a new regional bloc, the South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF), a potential violation of FIFA and AFC rules. The federation would have been made up of members of both the AFC and the Amman-based West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) that groups all Middle Eastern nations except for Israel and is headed by Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, a prominent advocate of soccer governance reform. The initiative fell apart when the Asian members of SWAFF walked out in October 2018 in the wake of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The killing could also jeopardize Saudi efforts to gain control of the AFC with the Al-Sheikh-backed candidacy of Saudi Football Federation chief Adel Ezzat, who resigned in August 2018 to run for the office. Benefits outstrip reputational risk Al-Sheikh and his boss, Prince Mohammed, share with the crown prince’s UAE counterpart and namesake, a belief that the public diplomacy and soft power fruits of harnessing sports outstrip reputational risks. Simon Pearce, Abu Dhabi’s director of strategic communications and a director of Manchester City, the British club bought by UAE Crown Prince Mohammed’s brother but controlled by the de facto Emirati ruler’s men, said as much in leaked emails to Al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador in Washington. The emails discussed the UAE’s registration of a new soccer club, New York City Football Club, as the United States’ Major League Soccer newest franchise. Mr. Pearce argued that Abu Dhabi’s interests in the US political environment are best served by associating New York City FC with City Football Group, the Abu Dhabi government’s soccer investment vehicle, rather than the government itself to evade criticism stemming from the Emirates’ criminalization of homosexuality, its less than stellar record on women’s rights and its refusal to formally recognize Israel despite maintaining close security and commercial relations with the Jewish state. The UAE’s sports-related investments, guided by the crown prince, much like the acquisition of important Qatari sports stakes on the behest of Sheikh Tamim also give Gulf states political leverage and create additional commercial opportunity. The investments constitute the flip side of large amounts of Gulf money being channelled to influential think tanks, particularly in Washington. In a series of notes in 2012, Mr. Pearce advised Prince Mohammed, a man obsessed with perceived threats posed by any form of political Islam and a driving force in the campaign against Qatar, to tempt than British prime minister David Cameron to counter what he described as Islamist infiltration of the BBC’s Arabic service in exchange for lucrative arms and oil deals. To illustrate the UAE and Qatar’s sway in European soccer, Nicholas McGeehan, an independent researcher and former Human Rights Watch executive focussed on the region, looked at recent bookies odds for the Champions League. Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City was the favourite followed by Qatar’s Paris Saint-Germain. Third up was Bayern Munich, whose shirts are sponsored by Qatar, fourth was Barcelona, which recently ended a seven-year sponsorship deal with Qatar, and fifth Real Madrid that sold the naming rights to its new stadium to Abu Dhabi. Saudi and UAE public relations efforts to generate public pressure for a deprival of Qatari hosting rights were at times mired in controversy. The launch in May of the Foundation for Sports Integrity by Jamie Fuller, a prominent Australian campaigner for a clean-up of global soccer governance, backfired amid allegations of Saudi and UAE financial backing and Fuller’s refusal to disclose his source of funding. Saudi and UAE media together with UK tabloid The Sun heralded the launch in a poche London hotel that involved a reiteration of assertions of Qatari wrongdoing in its successful World Cup bid. Media like Abu Dhabi’s The National and Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya projected the launch as pressure on FIFA to deprive Qatar of its hosting rights. “It is no secret that football’s governing body is rotten to the core. (FIFA) will rightly come under renewed pressure to strip Qatar of the competition and carry out an internal investigation in the wake of the most recent allegations. The millions of fans eagerly anticipating 2022’s festival of football deserve better,” The National said. Saudi-owned Ash-Sharq Al Awsat newspaper reported that a June 2018 FIFA Congress would hold a re-vote of the Qatari hosting. The Congress didn’t. Qatar remains vulnerable Despite so far successfully having defeated efforts to deprive it of its hosting rights, Qatar remains vulnerable when it comes to the integrity of its winning bid. The bid’s integrity and Sheikh Tamim’s emphasis on sports as a pillar of Qatari soft power is at stake in legal proceedings in New York and Zurich involving corruption in FIFA and potential wrongdoing in the awarding of past World Cups. Qatar has suffered reputational damage as a result of the question marks even if the Gulf crisis has allowed it to enhance its image as an underdog being bullied by the big boys on the block. To Qatar’s credit, it has introduced reforms of its controversial kafala or labour sponsorship system that could become a model for the region. In doing so, it cemented the 2022 World Cup as one of the few mega-events with a real potential of leaving a legacy of change. Qatar started laying the foundations for that change by early on becoming the first and only Gulf state to engage with its critics, international human rights groups and trade unions. Even so, Qatar initially suffered reputational damage on the labour front because it was relatively slow in embracing and implementing the reforms. Qatar’s handling of the Gulf crisis suggests that it has learnt from the failure of its initial response to criticism of its winning 2022 bid when it acted like an ostrich that puts its head in the sand, hoping that the storm will pass only to find that by the time it rears its head the wound has festered, and it has lost strategic advantage. The integrity issue remains Qatar’s weak point. For activist critics of the awarding of hosting rights to Qatar, there are two questions. One is, who do they want to get in bed with? Qatar’s detractors, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia hardly have stellar human and labour rights records. If anything, their records are worse than that of Qatar, which admittedly does not glow. The second question critics have to ask themselves is how best to leverage the World Cup, irrespective of whether the Qatari bid was compromised or not. On the assumption that it may have been compromised, the question is less how to exact retribution for a wrongdoing that was common practice in global football governance. Leveraging should focus on how to achieve a fundamental reform of global sports governance that has yet to emerge eight years into a crisis that was in part sparked by the Qatar World Cup. This goes to the heart of the fact that untouched in efforts to address the governance crisis is the corrupting, ungoverned, and incestuous relationship between sports and politics. Siamese twins: Sports and politics The future of the Qatar World Cup and the Gulf crisis speaks to the pervasiveness of politics in sports. The World Cup is political by definition. Retaining Qatar’s hosting rights or depriving the Gulf state of the right to host the tournament is ultimately a choice with political consequences. As long as the crisis continues, retaining rights is a testimony to Qatar’s resilience, deprival would be a victory for its detractors. As a result, the real yardstick in the debate about the Qatari World Cup should be how the sport and the integrity of the sport benefit most. And even then, politics is never far from what the outcome of that debate is. Obviously, instinctively, the optics of no retribution raises the question of how that benefits integrity. The answer is that the potential legacy of social and economic change that is already evident with the Qatar World Cup is more important than the feel-good effect of having done the right thing with retribution or the notion of setting an example. Add to that the fact that in current circumstances, a withdrawal of hosting rights would likely be interpreted as a victory of one side over the other, further divide the Arab and Muslim world, and enhance a sense among many Muslims of being on the defensive and under attack. The silver lining in the Gulf crisis may be the fact that it has showed up the fiction of a separation of sports and politics. FIFA, the AFC, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), seeking to police the ban on a mixing of sports and politics, have discovered that it amounts to banging their heads against a wall. Despite their attempts to halt politics from subverting Asian tournaments, domestic and regional politics seeped into the game via different avenues. As a result, FIFA and its regional confederations have been tying themselves up in knots. In a bizarre and contradictory sequence of events at the outset of the Gulf crisis, FIFA president Infantino rejected involving the group in the dispute by saying that “the essential role of FIFA, as I understand it, is to deal with football and not to interfere in geopolitics." Yet, on the same day that he made his statement, Mr. Infantino waded into the crisis by removing a Qatari referee from a 2018 World Cup qualifier at the request of the UAE. FIFA, beyond declaring that the decision was taken “in view of the current geopolitical situation,” appeared to be saying by implication that a Qatari by definition of his nationality could not be an honest arbiter of a soccer match involving one of his country’s detractors. In FIFA’s decision, politics trumped professionalism, no pun intended. Similarly, the AFC was less principled in its stand towards matches pitting Saudi Arabia and Iran against one another. Iranian club Traktor Sazi was forced in February to play its home match against Al Ahli of Jeddah in Oman. It wasn’t clear why the AFC did not uphold the principle it imposed on Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the case of Iran. “Saudi teams have been able to select host stadiums and cities, and Saudi teams will host two Iranian football representatives in the UAE and Kuwait. In return, Iranian football representatives should be able to use their own rights to choose neutral venues,” said Mohammad Reza Saket, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Football Federation in a letter to the AFC. Soccer governance bodies have long struggled to maintain the fiction of a separation in a trade-off that gave regulators greater autonomy and created the breeding ground for widespread corruption while allowing governments and politicians to manipulate the sport to their advantage as long as they were not too blatant about it. The limits of that deal are currently being defined in the Middle East, a region wracked by conflict where virtually everything is politicised. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Gulf rivalries spill onto the soccer pitch

The head of soccer's world governing body said here Thursday that FIFA is considering a plan to increase the number of teams taking part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from 32 to 48.&nbsp;

While the decision to shift to a 48-team format was approved last year by FIFA, the change was not supposed to take effect until 2026.

But FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested advancing the implementation to 2022.

"We gathered the opinions as well of our members, the federations," he said Thursday during a press conference in Doha, the Qatari capital.

"So far, of course, the majority are in favor because 16 more teams participating not only means that 16 more countries will have World Cup fever, but 50 or 60 countries will be able to dream of qualifying for the World Cup," Infantino said.

"Whether it is feasible or not is a different question," he acknowledged.

FIFA will make a final decision in March, Infantino said, adding that some matches might have to be in other countries if Qatar could not accommodate the expanded schedule.

"Of course, I'm not naive enough to not know and read the news, and what's going on, but we are in football not in politics and in football sometimes dreams come true," the FIFA president, alluding to the current tensions between Qatar and neighbors such as Saudi Arabia.

The head of soccer's world governing body said here Thursday that FIFA is considering a plan to increase the number of teams taking part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from 32 to 48.

The head of soccer's world governing body said here Thursday that FIFA is considering a plan to increase the number of teams taking part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from 32 to 48. While the decision to shift to a 48-team format was approved last year by FIFA, the change was not supposed to take effect until 2026. But FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested advancing the implementation to 2022. "We gathered the opinions as well of our members, the federations," he said Thursday during a press conference in Doha, the Qatari capital. "So far, of course, the majority are in favor because 16 more teams participating not only means that 16 more countries will have World Cup fever, but 50 or 60 countries will be able to dream of qualifying for the World Cup," Infantino said. "Whether it is feasible or not is a different question," he acknowledged. FIFA will make a final decision in March, Infantino said, adding that some matches might have to be in other countries if Qatar could not accommodate the expanded schedule. "Of course, I'm not naive enough to not know and read the news, and what's going on, but we are in football not in politics and in football sometimes dreams come true," the FIFA president, alluding to the current tensions between Qatar and neighbors such as Saudi Arabia.

FIFA: Most countries back expanding 2022 World Cup to 48 teams

A story claiming that six Arab nations had written to FIFA demanding that Qatar be stripped of the World Cup in 2022 was published on what appeared to be a fake version of a Swiss news website, the site&#39;s co-founder said on Sunday.

The report, carried on a website resembling The Local, included quotes purporting to be from FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Reuters published stories based on the report, which were subsequently withdrawn.

The fake story on The Local&nbsp;said that the six countries, which last month cut ties with Qatar, had collectively written to world soccer&#39;s governing body asking it to remove Qatar as hosts under Article 85 of the FIFA Code, which allows for such action in the case of emergency.

<h3><a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/uae-arranged-for-hacking-of-qatar-govt-sites-causing-diplomatic-row-washington-post-17984" target="_blank">Related Read:&nbsp;UAE arranged for hacking of Qatar gov&#39;t sites, causing diplomatic row: Washington Post</a></h3>

&nbsp;

&quot;The Local&#39;s staff neither wrote, published nor removed the article in question and The Local can therefore not vouch for any of the claims made,&quot; co-founder James Savage said in a statement on Sunday.

&quot;Our investigation so far indicates the article appeared on a fake site designed to look like The Local, and never appeared on The Local&#39;s own site.&quot;

The Local publishes in English and operates nine news sites across Europe.

Reuters published stories based on the report, which were subsequently withdrawn

A story claiming that six Arab nations had written to FIFA demanding that Qatar be stripped of the World Cup in 2022 was published on what appeared to be a fake version of a Swiss news website, the site's co-founder said on Sunday. The report, carried on a website resembling The Local, included quotes purporting to be from FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Reuters published stories based on the report, which were subsequently withdrawn. The fake story on The Local said that the six countries, which last month cut ties with Qatar, had collectively written to world soccer's governing body asking it to remove Qatar as hosts under Article 85 of the FIFA Code, which allows for such action in the case of emergency. Related Read: UAE arranged for hacking of Qatar gov't sites, causing diplomatic row: Washington Post "The Local's staff neither wrote, published nor removed the article in question and The Local can therefore not vouch for any of the claims made," co-founder James Savage said in a statement on Sunday. "Our investigation so far indicates the article appeared on a fake site designed to look like The Local, and never appeared on The Local's own site." The Local publishes in English and operates nine news sites across Europe.

Website says report of plot to strip Qatar of World Cup was 'fake'

Alcohol will be banned from streets and public places and if Qatari officials get their way even stadiums during the 2022 World Cup, the head of the country&#39;s tournament organising committee said on Tuesday.

The comments by Hassan Al-Thawadi will further alarm football traditionalists already unhappy that the tournament will be moved to the winter because of fierce summer temperatures in Qatar.

A ban on alcohol inside stadium, there has long been speculation about what the conservative Muslim country would do on the tricky issue of alcohol for the World Cup, could bring organisers into conflict with FIFA and powerful sponsors.

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<h5>In the run-up to the tournament in Brazil in 2014, it was widely reported that FIFA demanded alcohol be served at stadiums, which was against Brazilian law at the time</h5>
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&quot;There will be no alcohol consumption on the streets, squares and public places and that is final,&quot; Al-Thawadi, secretary general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said in an interview printed on the website of Arabic language newspaper Al-Sharq.

&quot;We are against the provision of alcohol in stadiums and their surroundings.&quot;

There will not be a total alcohol ban, but drinking will be permitted only in &quot;far-away places&quot;, said Al-Thawadi, without going into details.

Drinking of alcohol is not illegal in Qatar and alcohol is available in hotels, while expats who live in the Gulf emirate can buy drink after applying for a licence.

Public drinking, however, is prohibited and bringing alcohol into the country is also forbidden.

The official said Qatar would resist attempts to change the country&#39;s laws for the tournament, as has happened with previous World Cup hosts.

&quot;I did not get into a discussion with FIFA on this matter and there has been great pressure from FIFA on Russia (2018 hosts) to change its laws,&quot; he said.

&quot;But our position is clear, we will legalise according to Qatari law and commensurate with the customs and traditions.&quot;

This could potentially lead to problems with football&rsquo;s governing body FIFA and major sponsors, including beer giant Budweiser.

In the run-up to the tournament in Brazil in 2014, it was widely reported that FIFA demanded alcohol be served at stadiums, which was against Brazilian law at the time.

The South American hosts finally relented.

As well as the impact on cultural traditions there has been growing concern in Qatar about the link between alcohol and the behaviour of fans, especially following clashes at the Euros in France earlier this year, most notably between English and Russian fans.

Organisers have already stated they feared alcohol helped contribute to some of the violence seen in France.

Al-Thawadi said earlier this year that drunken fans during the 2022 World Cup would be treated &quot;gently&quot;.

It has been estimated by organisers that up to one million fans could descend on Qatar for the 2022 tournament.

Many of these could stay in hotels, specially designed campsites and cruise ships.

(AFP)

The ban could extend to inside stadiums too, the head of the country's tournament organising committee said on Tuesday

Alcohol will be banned from streets and public places and if Qatari officials get their way even stadiums during the 2022 World Cup, the head of the country's tournament organising committee said on Tuesday. The comments by Hassan Al-Thawadi will further alarm football traditionalists already unhappy that the tournament will be moved to the winter because of fierce summer temperatures in Qatar. A ban on alcohol inside stadium, there has long been speculation about what the conservative Muslim country would do on the tricky issue of alcohol for the World Cup, could bring organisers into conflict with FIFA and powerful sponsors. In the run-up to the tournament in Brazil in 2014, it was widely reported that FIFA demanded alcohol be served at stadiums, which was against Brazilian law at the time × "There will be no alcohol consumption on the streets, squares and public places and that is final," Al-Thawadi, secretary general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said in an interview printed on the website of Arabic language newspaper Al-Sharq. "We are against the provision of alcohol in stadiums and their surroundings." There will not be a total alcohol ban, but drinking will be permitted only in "far-away places", said Al-Thawadi, without going into details. Drinking of alcohol is not illegal in Qatar and alcohol is available in hotels, while expats who live in the Gulf emirate can buy drink after applying for a licence. Public drinking, however, is prohibited and bringing alcohol into the country is also forbidden. The official said Qatar would resist attempts to change the country's laws for the tournament, as has happened with previous World Cup hosts. "I did not get into a discussion with FIFA on this matter and there has been great pressure from FIFA on Russia (2018 hosts) to change its laws," he said. "But our position is clear, we will legalise according to Qatari law and commensurate with the customs and traditions." This could potentially lead to problems with football’s governing body FIFA and major sponsors, including beer giant Budweiser. In the run-up to the tournament in Brazil in 2014, it was widely reported that FIFA demanded alcohol be served at stadiums, which was against Brazilian law at the time. The South American hosts finally relented. As well as the impact on cultural traditions there has been growing concern in Qatar about the link between alcohol and the behaviour of fans, especially following clashes at the Euros in France earlier this year, most notably between English and Russian fans. Organisers have already stated they feared alcohol helped contribute to some of the violence seen in France. Al-Thawadi said earlier this year that drunken fans during the 2022 World Cup would be treated "gently". It has been estimated by organisers that up to one million fans could descend on Qatar for the 2022 tournament. Many of these could stay in hotels, specially designed campsites and cruise ships. (AFP)

No alcohol on streets, in public places at Football World Cup: Qatar

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