São Paulo – Today marks exactly four years for the first World Cup hosted by an Arab country, Qatar. The mark was celebrated by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in its Instagram account this Wednesday (21). “The 2022 FIFA #World Cup Qatar kicks off in exactly four years time! We’re counting down the days already” the post reads.
Qatar will host the 2022 tournament, which also will be the first World Cup to take place in November. The schedule change – the tournament usually is held between May and July – was due to climate issues. Temperatures in Qatar exceed 40C in July.
The date change was being discussed within FIFA since the middle of 2014. “There is no question that Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup. We encountered several obstacles and we overcame them one by one, starting with the weather: we moved the event from June to November, when temperatures are milder,” said the then Qatar’s ambassador in Brazil, Mohammed Al-Hayki, to ANBA, in an interview conducted in March of this year.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
