The FIFA inspection team will stay through Thursday and includes six delegates, led by Chilean Football Federation President Harold Mayne-Nicholls. Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the organizing committee for the recently concluded World Cup in South Africa, is also part of the delegation.
Qatar is the final stop on a tour of the nine countries bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments. FIFA will announce the winners on Dec. 2.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, chairman of the Qatar 2022 Bid, called the visit “an important milestone in the journey of our bid and a seminal moment in the sport of football throughout the region.”
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to present our bid, in all its detail and ambition, to football’s governing body,” he said in a statement.
Inspectors were expected to tour the solar-powered stadium for five-a-side football, which is supposed to keep temperatures at 81 degrees on the field and in the stands, far cooler than the average of 106 degrees in June, July and August. They will also attend a local football match later in the evening in a traditional stadium.
The solar-powered system is designed to continuously pump cool air into the venues, and Qatar bid committee CEO Hassan Al-Thawadi has said the technology can be expanded in the coming years to ensure that fan zones and training sites are also kept cool.
The heat — the local press reported this was the hottest summer on record and included a July day when the temperature topped 122 degrees — and the country’s strict restrictions on alcohol have emerged as the biggest hurdles for the World Cup bid from the tiny Middle East nation.
Most analysts consider Qatar the longshot in a group of bidders containing the United States, Australia, South Korea and Japan, which all have hosted either a World Cup or an Olympics in the past.
What Qatar lacks in experience it makes up partly with its ambitious bid.
It is among the richest countries bidding — it has the world’s second highest per capita income — and money appears to be no object in its plans. It will show inspectors a $4 billion plan to build nine stadiums and renovate three others, all with the new cooling system, as well as some of the $42.9 billion in infrastructure upgrades that it plans regardless of whether it wins the bid.
It also plans to make the case that a Qatar World Cup would make history, since it would be the first time that a Middle East nation has hosted the prestigious tournament.
“We feel extremely confident that FIFA will enjoy learning about our plans for the World Cup” Al-Thawadi said. “We can say that every angle will be covered, from green technologies to infrastructure and accommodations to the legacy of greater understanding that a World Cup in Qatar will leave. This is a bid unlike any other, and we take the responsibility to our country and the entire region very seriously.”
