Police officers from different countries will be on Qatar's streets during the 2022 World Cup in an effort to prevent hooliganism, a senior security officer for the tournament has said.
Major Ali Mohammed Al-Ali, deputy executive director for security with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the body overseeing the tournament, also predicted that Qatar would deliver "the safestRead more
Xavi Hernandez said he is open to being Qatar's coach when it hosts the 2022 World Cup and rebuffed critics by claiming he is "very proud" to be in Doha.
The Barcelona great, 37, who currently plays in Qatar for Al Sadd, told AFP he is "90 percent" certain to retire at the end of this season and then launchRead more
At the very same time as Syria's football "miracle" unfolded this week, two rather sorrier World Cup tales were played out.
In a virtually empty, expensively-refurbished 2022 World Cup venue, Khalifa International, two of football's most ambitious nations, Qatar and China, confirmed their exits from the 2018 tournament to almost global indifference.
China won 2-1 but their own longed-forRead more
Qatar, isolated by its neighbours in a diplomatic crisis, on Wednesday introduced a visa-free entry programme for 80 nationalities to stimulate air transport and tourism.
"The visa exemption scheme will make Qatar the most open country in the region," tourism department official Hassan al-Ibrahim told a news conference in Doha.
Interior ministry official Mohamed Rashed al-Mazrouei said that nationals ofRead more
The diplomatic crisis sweeping the Gulf could invigorate a campaign by critics of Qatar to strip Doha of the 2022 World Cup, experts said Monday.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen were among those to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar on the grounds that Doha supported extremist groups "that aim to destabilise the region".
One ofRead more
FIFA could seal a major partnership deal with Qatar Airways within weeks, a source said on Friday, the same day football's corruption-tainted world body announced a $369 million loss.
"We hope to confirm it in the next few months, perhaps before the congress in Bahrain (May 10-11)," the source close to FIFA said in Zurich.
The contract between FIFA andRead more
The energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar says it plans to boost production from a vast underwater natural gas field by 10 percent.
State-run Qatar Petroleum said Monday the increase would give the 2022 World Cup host capacity to export some 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day from the North Field.
Qatar is a small but wealthy member ofRead more
Qatar's population has swollen by almost 40 percent since the emirate was chosen to the host the 2022 World Cup, official government figures have revealed.
The country's population stands at a record 2.67 million, figures just published from the Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics (MDPS) reveal.
In December 2010, when it was controversially chosen as the venue for football'sRead more
FIFA's ethics tribunal on Wednesday banned top Qatari and Asia football official Saoud al-Mohannadi for one year for refusing to help in an investigation.
Al-Mohannadi is vice-president of the 2022 World Cup host nation's football association and had wanted to run for an Asian Football Confederatioin vice president's position this year as a first step to getting into FIFA.
TheRead more