FIFA chief Infantino says Qatar’s 2022 preparations are on track

Football world body president Gianni Infantino has expressed full confidence in Qatar getting its infrastructure ready in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“From the reports I’ve been receiving, a lot is being done and great progress is being made,” Infantino was quoted as saying by Gulf Times.

“We’re very confident that everything will be ready. Of course, it doesn’t mean we can sit down and just wait until 2022 because a lot, a lot remains to be done,” he added.

Infantino said he was happy that the country was sparing no expenses in its attempt to host the flagship event.

“Work is going ahead at full speed with commitment by the government, the Supreme Committee and the Qatar Football Association,” he said.

Infantino, who is in Doha to attend a FIFA executive meeting, also emphasised he has no objections to up to four countries co-hosting the 2026 World Cup.

“We’ll encourage co-hosting for the World Cup because we need FIFA to show we’re reasonable and we’ve to think about sustainability in the long term,” Infantino said.

“We could maybe bring together two, three, four countries who can jointly present a project with three, four, five stadiums each. We’ll certainly encourage it. Ideally the countries will be close to each other.”

The event has been co-hosted only once before, by Japan and South Korea in 2002.

Qatar is investing an estimated $200bn in World Cup related projects — which includes stadiums, hotels, training facilities and a metro rail network among other infrastructure.