Qatar’s hosting of World Cup depends on rejection of extremism

CAIRO – 10 October 2017: Qatar's hosting of the 2022 World Cup should depend on its rejection of extremism and terrorism, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter Tuesday.

“Hosting the 2022 World Cup should not be attained by supporting terrorist organizations; consequently, Doha should review its policies regarding funding terrorism,” Gargash tweeted.

Hosting World Cup 2022 should not be tainted by suppot of extremist individuals & orgs/ terrorist figures,review of Qatar's policies a must.

— د. أنور قرقاش (@AnwarGargash) ١٠ أكتوبر، ٢٠١٧

Gargash made the comment after former Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan wrote on Twitter that the Gulf crisis would end if Doha forfeited hosting the World Cup. Gargash said Khalfan had been misunderstood in media coverage.

Qatar aims to use sports, especially the World Cup, to project itself on the global stage, which is one of the reasons why Qatar has been hosting an array of sporting events.

Qatar will suffer from the delay of materials necessary to construct the nine stadiums and huge infrastructure to host the 2022 World Cup after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain closed the only land route into Qatar and refused to allow them to use their sea ports or airspace.

In September, the boycotting countries did not participate in the draw for the Middle East soccer tournament in Doha and declared they wanted to postpone the tournament.