• With the smallest host nation ever, the 2022 World Cup will be the smallest in history
• The football spectacle in Qatar, though, will surpass all past World Cups in the majority of other categories
• In ten important figures, France 24 examines a tournament unlike any other

The 2022 World Cup will have cost 220 billion euros, which is five times more than the cost of the previous seven competitions combined, according to financial consulting firm Front Office Sport. The amount spent smashes the previous record, which was set by Brazil’s World Cup in 2014, which cost 15 million euros.

Six brand-new stadiums were constructed by the tiny emirate, each equipped with cutting-edge air conditioning to keep players and spectators cool. More than three times as much money was spent on the 60,000-seat Al Bayt stadium alone as it was on the nearby Stade de France, which was constructed for the 1998 World Cup.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup final will be held in the Lusail Stadium, an 80,000-seat arena outside of Qatar’s capital Doha.

Qatar also built three metro lines, an airport, and a brand-new city called Lusai, complete with hotels, golf courses, and an opulent marina, in addition to the stadiums. The emirate’s own estimation of the cost of the competition does not include these substantial infrastructural investments.

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Every World Cup stadium is within a 55-kilometer radius of Doha, the host city. The Qatari bid emphasised the need of organising a small event with simple access to all resources. Thus, the distance between the stadiums at Khalifa International and Education City is only five kilometres.

The stadium is known as Stadium 974 since that is how many reused shipping containers were used to construct it. The 40,000-seat stadium will be taken apart after the World Cup and put back together to host sporting events somewhere else, but its final destination is still uncertain.

📍🏟️ Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar. 🇶🇦

The 40,000 seater stadium is made of shipping containers. The aim is for the stadium to be dismantled and reassembled in a new location after the tournament. pic.twitter.com/CVBLOMreoC

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) November 4, 2022

A total of 3.2 million tickets have been made available for the event, with sponsors and airlines receiving a third of them. FIFA statistics show that as of October 17, 2.89 million tickets had been sold. In decreasing order, Qatar, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, France, Brazil, and Germany are the nations that purchased the most.

Officials from Qatar reported receiving between 1.5 million and 1.7 million requests for Hayya (“Welcome”) Cards in the middle of October. These cards are necessary to enter stadiums and use the free public transportation system. Even if the number is less than the 3 million fans counted at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, it still poses a significant logistical issue for the tiny nation of Qatar, which has just 3 million people.

Due to a lack of lodging in Qatar, 168 shuttle flights will be used to bring visitors from other nations each day during the World Cup. 60 flights per day are operated from Dubai, 48 are operated from Mascate (Oman), 40 are operated from Riyadh and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), and 20 are operated from Kuwait City. For the first time in 27 years, Air France will temporarily start flying from Paris to Doha, with 3 to 6 flights each week.

According to the group Football Supporters Europe, fans from France who want to watch the reigning champions play will have to spend an estimated 6,000 euros on transportation, lodging, and tickets. That is two to three times more money than was allocated for the previous World Cup in Russia.

According to the tournament’s organisers, Qatar will ultimately make 9 billion dollars’ worth (8.7 billion euros’ worth) of profit from hosting a global event. The amount is based on Qatar’s estimation of the event’s costs, which is far less than the 220 million euros suggested by Front Office Sport. The 2018 World Cup, according to its organisers, contributed 12.5 billion euros—or 1% of the country’s GDP—to the Russian economy between 2013 and 2018.

According to a FIFA report from June 2021, up from 2.1 million tonnes for the 2018 competition, the World Cup in Qatar will release up to 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 into the environment. NGOs assert that the number is very certainly an underestimate, nevertheless.

According to a Guardian study using statistics from the employees’ home countries, more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have perished in Qatar since it was awarded the right to host the World Cup in 2010. Officials in Qatar have dismissed the British newspaper’s critical story as “misleading.”

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