Al Marri says blockading nations asked Qatar to give up 2022 World Cup to lift siege

It was a defining moment in the Qatar’s history when in 2010, the country was awarded hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Qatar had beaten bigger and more powerful countries in the race to host the world’s second-biggest sporting extravaganza. However, the success also earned the country many enemies.   

And now, Attorney General HE Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri has said that the countries involved in the illegal siege of Qatar had asked Qatar to give up its right to host the World Cup in 2022 in exchange for lifting of the siege imposed on it, according to Qatar Tribune.

“They’ve asked us to give up organising the World Cup to have the boycott against Qatar lifted. They said if Doha wants to show its willingness to find a solution and lift the embargo, it must abandon the hosting of 2022 FIFA World Cup,” he was quoted as saying by Spanish Newspaper ABC.

Last year, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan, the Head of General Security for the Emirate of Dubai, had confirmed that the siege was indeed created to take the World Cup away from Qatar.

“If the World Cup leaves Qatar, the crisis will go away ... because the crisis is created to break it,” he had tweeted to his followers, to wide outrage.

Meanwhile, Al Marri, when asked if there was a way out of the Gulf crisis, had this to say.

“I don't see any signs of a breakthrough. Today, none of these countries shows signs of wanting a dialogue to solve problems.”

He said the demands of Saudi Arabia and Egypt to close Al Jazeera channel can be attributed to the fact that the two countries do not support freedom of transmission and broadcast of information that characterizes this channel.

“I don’t see any reason for the blockade other than envy. Why do the Qataris have more liberties than we’ve, why are they richer if Saudi Arabia is a country with more wealth? Why did Qatar get a chance to host the 2022 football World Cup?”

“We trust the efforts of the Americans to mediate in this conflict, given the good relations that Washington has with all the countries in the region. We shouldn’t forget that the largest US military base in the Middle East is in Qatar,” he added.

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Cover Image Credit: Flickr/ Qatar Law Forum - photo by Adrian Haddad