Profile of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ was the first FIFA World Cup™ to be hosted in the Middle East and was the most geographically compact since the inaugural edition of the tournament in 1930. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ was unique in many respects, with the type of opportunities and challenges related to sustainability being no exception.
The FIFA World Cup™ is the biggest single-sport competition in the world. After a preliminary competition, the 32 qualified men’s national football teams compete to become world champions in a final competition staged over one month in a host country selected by FIFA.
Over one million spectators attended the 64 matches of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, and around five billion people engaged with the event, following tournament content across an array of platforms and devices across the media universe. On social media, according to Nielsen, there were 93.6 million posts across all platforms, and 5.95 billion engagements. In addition to the matches, there were a host of other official competition-related events, including draws, team and referee seminars and workshops, opening and closing ceremonies, award ceremonies, cultural events, press conferences and launch events.
Hosting the FIFA World Cup™ often represents a historical milestone and symbolic achievement for the host country, with major implications for local communities, infrastructure development and service provision. It includes the employment and training of thousands of workers and volunteers, the transportation of hundreds of thousands of fans and the protection of people’s health and safety throughout the tournament. The scale and complexity of the tournament can generate significant opportunities for all those involved, but they also present a range of risks that need to be effectively managed in order to deliver a successful tournament.
Unique characteristics of the tournament
The FIFA World Cup 2022™ was awarded to Qatar in December 2010. Being the first FIFA World Cup™ to be hosted in the Middle East, the tournament represented a tremendous opportunity for the region to welcome and connect with billions of people from across the globe to showcase its unique identity and culture and build new bridges of understanding.
The tournament was held from 20 November to 18 December 2022, when the average temperatures in Qatar averaged 21 to 28°C. Early in the planning process, the tournament was moved to Qatar's winter period, to protect athletes and attendees from the summer heat.
It also had the most geographically compact footprint in the tournament’s history since the inaugural single-stadium edition in 1930, with all stadiums within 50 kilometres of the centre of Qatar’s capital city Doha. This hosting concept meant that spectators and players could spend less time travelling and more time enjoying the tournament.
A key objective of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ was that it served as a catalyst for the achievement of Qatar’s long-term development goals as laid out in the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2018-2022. This report demonstrates how the tournament provided significant support for the achievement of various environmental, human, economic and social development goals for Qatar. It has also inspired pathways to realise these goals through good governance and promoted sustainable development in the country.
The tournament organisers
Successful delivery of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ required close coordination and collaboration between the tournament organisers who worked closely with a broad range of stakeholders in Qatar and internationally to deliver the tournament.
Workforce profile
The table below provides an overview of staff numbers at the FIFA, SC and Q22 offices. For more information, see the detailed workforce profiles below.
Detailed workforce profiles: