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DAVID 'c1LVAREZ
Madrid
'Almost five years before the 2022 championship, Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Qatar World Cup 2022, insists on the capacity of the event to build bridges in a region beset with political turmoil'
HASSAN Al Thawadi speaks with a very traditional accent that he claims to have learned during his Spanish childhood. He lived in Madrid until the age of three. For a decade now, this lawyer has dedicated himself to bringing the World Cup to his country, Qatar, in 2022.
Excerpts of his interview:
Question: Why has Qatar devoted so much effort into organising a World Cup?
Answer: Because sport is very important for the people of Qatar. We believe in the power of sport. The World Cup is not the first event we are organising. We have a long history of hosting large events: in 2006 we organised the Asian Games; in 1988 and in 2011 we organised the Asian Cup; in 1995 we organised the first U21 World ... Sport is a part of our culture. And no event is more important than the World Cup. When we had the opportunity to enter the candidacy it was a very good time for us because we were very aware that this World Cup can accelerate a positive change not only in Qatar but in the whole region. Since 2010 we have entered a time of tensions and conflicts in the world. The power of sport can help build bridges and unite people and cultures.
Q. What do you mean when you speak of a legacy? Do you think that football is also a bridge to transform the productive apparatus in the Arabian Gulf, from the exploitation of hydrocarbons to services?
A. When we speak of legacy, we refer to two things. First to the stadiums and infrastructure. Any project that we do we do it thinking about giving it a utility after 2022. The other legacy that we have before us is the human and economic legacy. These are the objectives of our vision of Qatar by 2030. This vision has three pillars: social development, sustainable development and economic diversity. With each project of the World Cup we think of each one of these pillars. In relation to renewable energy we have one of the largest projects of solar farms with the state energy company. We are thinking of manufacturing a large solar farm to enter this sector. We expect that sport will be an important part of our economic activity in the future.
Q. Are you targeting tourism exploitation?
A. In particular tourism related to sport; it is one of the most important sectors for us. Last year we organised more than 100 sporting events, ten of world class.
Q. One and a half million foreign fans are expected to attend the 2022 World Cup and the population of Qatar will be 2.4 million. What plans do you have to reuse the stadiums when all that audience leaves?
A. We have a plan for each stadium, depending on the region or neighbourhood where you are. FIFA calls for stadiums of 40,000 for group stages, 60,000 for the semifinals and 85,000 for the final. If the building remains as a stadium after the World Cup we'll reduce the capacity to 15,000 or 20,000, adapting it to our local competitions. There are three or four stadiums that will be reused for another purpose, and in these cases the buildings will remain and the stands will be temporary and we will remove them after the competition. We will send those seats for stadiums of 10,000 or 5,000 seats in developing countries. The stadiums will be reused according to the places where they are. In the city of Wakrah, in the south of the country, when we started designing the stadium we went and talked with the neighbours:"What do you want to do with this stadium and its perimeter zone? What do you need?". They said they needed schools and a wedding hall. So when we designed it, we had the community in mind to use it every day; that its use is not limited to hosting a party every six months. This is our vision of the fields: that everyone has a particular history.
Q. How many stadiums will be built in total?
A. Our project includes eight stadiums, one of which will be completely removable, the exterior and the interior. Three or four will remain as buildings but not as football stadiums: we will use them for schools, apartments, and hospitals. We hope that the rest will remain as football stadiums. But the final number of fields is pending approval from FIFA.
Q. Qatar is a desert. The temperature in Doha in November tends to touch 40 'b0 C. We presume that this means difficulties to maintain fields of natural grass and to play football on hot days.
A. We will use natural grass in all cases. We have one of the most specialised teams of gardeners in the world. We are developing the technology to plant the best grass in the world to play football. Irrigation is another challenge: we have seawater desalination technology that we use to irrigate. When Karl-Heinz Rummenigge visited the Khalifa Stadium he said he would like to play football again so he could play on that grass. The idea that we have is that we are a desert country. But we reserve surprises. The world needs to discover Qatar and the Near East to change its thinking. Not everything you have in front of your eyes is complete reality. There is a more complex reality to discover. This is the power of our World Cup. It's magic. It is an opportunity for the world to change the idea that it has: that is a small part of the landscape. We are a landscape much more varied than you think and the World Cup is perfect for you to see us.
Q. And cooling? How much does it cost to cool a stadium?
A. I swear that if they want snow they will have it. We are pioneers in cooling stadiums since 2008, when we installed a system in the Al-Sadd stadium, for 15,000 people. It was the first refrigerant technology in the world of football. It worked very effectively but it was not very sustainable. When we presented the candidacy we committed to improve it to make it more efficient and sustainable. In July, when we finished the Khalifa Stadium for 40,000 spectators, we introduced the new model and found that it is more efficient and cheaper than the one that works in Al-Sadd. Because the nozzles that send the air can be directed so that they do not disturb the players and create an external wind containment barrier
Q. How much does this cost?
A. Research and development accounted for between 8% and 10% of the total cost of building the Khalifa Stadium. We are improving the construction process every day. With each new stage the costs of refrigeration fall and sustainability will increase. We are investigating how to apply this cooling system to other things besides stadiums. We used this system in fan-zones in the 2014 World Cup. We have people experimenting with this technology in agriculture, in greenhouses. Every penny we invest we dedicate to thinking how we are going to take advantage of it in other areas and how to monetise it. Agriculture is a field; the cooling of urban areas too. Through football we have proposed to develop new industries and one of them is refrigeration. We must bear in mind that 60% of the planet has the climate of Qatar.
Q. At what temperature are the games going to be played?
A. Our air conditioning can lower the temperature to 3'baC. When they visited us, the FIFA inspectors needed to keep warm: the temperature was 40'baC outside and inside the field we lowered it to 9'baC. They could not believe! We want this to be a spectacular World Cup because of technological innovations and in terms of organisation it will be the first compact World Cup in history. Fans can go up to three matches per day, and players will never have to change their concentration hotel. Transfers from one location to another impaired performance in other World Cups. In Qatar the players will be able to use only one bed during the whole championship. The change of date to November and December will also mean that players compete with the maximum energy and not as they usually do, which is at the end of the season, when the physical wear is greater. It will be a unique opportunity to give everything for your country.
Q. What do you think will be the most important legacy of Qatar 2022?
A. Creating a platform for the world to celebrate, apart from its differences in religious, political and ethnic matters, the experience of football in the Middle East. We will know the world and the world will know us. In our region there is an idea that the world wants to enter to change us and conquer us; and outside there is an idea that in our region we cannot live with humanity because we are not like Westerners. The truth is that we are also human and we need more platforms to exchange ideas or at least discover the differences and similarities, and discover that if we have differences it does not matter because we can live together.
Q. You said that football serves to build bridges but Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt lead a boycott against Qatar and demand the withdrawal of the World Cup. How is this contradiction overcome? How does the current blocking situation influence the organisation of the World Cup?
A. For us it is not a contradiction because we still believe in this and we have the confidence that football will be a platform for the union of people. But we live in a complicated world. This is an illegal and unjust blockade illegal in international law. It is a sad page in the history of our region. But in the history of Qatar we move forward. We believe in the GCC but we also believe in our sovereignty. We want to resolve this conflict with dialogue; if those who block us are willing to approach us 100 metres, we are willing to walk 10,000 to approach us. How does the organisation of the World Cup affect us? We have a plan B. We have established very fast supply routes and the projects are adjusting to the planned programme. The citizens of these countries can come to Qatar: nobody is excluded from our country. The works
of the World Cup
continue. (elpais.com)
