Former Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi; Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi; Editor-in-Chief of Lusail Mohamed Hajji; Director-General of Qatar News Agency, Ahmed bin Said Al Rumaihi and President of Qatar Press Center (QPC) Saad bin Mohammed Al Rumaihi with other official during a panel discussion at the headquarters of QPC. Pics by: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Doha: The panellists at a discussion have defended the right of Qatar of hosting FIFA World Cup 2022 refuting the campaigns against Qatar organising the mega sporting event.
They said that Qatar has full right to host the World Cup following its local norms, culture and tradition.
The panellists noted that the campaigns which were intensified ahead of World Cup had nothing to do with hosting mega sporting event rather they aimed at distorting the image of Qatar through baseless allegations.
They said that Qatar made remarkable achievements in hosting a unique and the most successful FIFA World Cup and in other sectors like labour reforms, human rights and women empowerment among others but some international media outlets ignored these reforms and focused on an issue which does not belong to this region.
They were speaking at a panel discussion on ‘The Unfair View of Some Western Media Towards Qatar’s Organising FIFA World Cup 2022’ organised by Qatar Press Center and Qatar News Agency (QNA) at the headquarters of the Center.
The event was also attended by former Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi; Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi; Editor-in-Chief of Lusail Mohamed Hajji; Director-General of Qatar News Agency, Ahmed bin Said Al Rumaihi and President of Qatar Press Center (QPC) Saad bin Mohammed Al Rumaihi with other officials and experts.
President of Qatar Press Center Saad bin Mohammed Al Rumaihi, in his inaugural speech, said that the event aimed at holding a panel discussion on the mega sporting event which is being held for the first time in Arab region.
He said that the purpose of the event is to bring about the real picture behind misleading and false campaigns against Qatar’s hosting FIFA World Cup.
“Some Arab countries had tried to host the World Cup but luck did not favour them. Finally Qatar won the right on December 2, 2010 to host FIFA World Cup 2022. Since then some media outlets started criticising Qatar’s hosting the World Cup,” said Al Rumaihi.
However, he said, Qatar which received overwhelming support from Arab countries hosted the most successful and unique FIFA World Cup so far.
“Arab people know very well that Qatar and Arab countries deserve hosting such mega sporting events like other people and nations of the world and people refuted the perspective of those thinking that World Cup is monopoly for certain people or nations,” said Al Rumaihi.
From left: Nazime Bessol, Algerian journalist and member of the Executive Office of the International Sports Press Association Africa Region; Dr Khaled Al Hroub, Professor at Middle Eastern Studies and Arab Media Studies, Northwestern University, Qatar; Dr. Tarik M Yousef, Director of Middle East Council for Global Affairs and Faisal Al Mudahka, Editor-in-Chief, Gulf Times and Deputy CEO, Qatar Press Center (QPC); at a panel discussion at the QPC.
The panel discussion was attended by Dr. Tarik Youssef, Director of Middle East Council for Global Affairs; Dr. Khaled Mohamed Al Hroub, Lecturer at the College of Liberal Arts on Contemporary Middle East Politics and Arab Media Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar; and Nazim Bessol, member of Executive Office of the International Sports Press Association Africa Region.
Faisal Abdulhameed Al Mudahka, Deputy Director of Qatar Press Center who is also Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Times moderated the panel discussion.
Dr. Tarik Youssef said that criticism against Qatar hosting FIFA World Cup 2022 decreased with the beginning of the mega sporting event on November 20.
However, he said, the focus of negative campaigns shifted from main issues of hosting the World Cup to some secondary issues.
“The media campaigns which Qatar faced especially during few months before starting the World Cup were more fierce compare to the previous ones. Moreover, they focused on those areas which were nothing to do with hosting this mega sporting event,” said Youssef.
He said that the media campaign that Qatar faced is, in fact, a warning of what may happen in the world, and of the challenges that Arab countries may face at all levels in the coming period.
Dr. Khaled Mohamed Al Hroub said that host country has right to organise FIFA World Cup following its culture, tradition and norms.
“The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is being held following Arab and Islamic culture because the host country has freedom to do so this is why it is called the World Cup which belongs to entire world not to certain county or region,” said Al Hroub.
He said that the West is part of this world, “the West constitutes only about 8 percent of the world’s population, and not the whole world, and therefore they have no right to impose their culture and vision on other peoples of the world.”
Nazim Bessol said that fans who came to Qatar from all over the world will share their experiences of World Cup with their fellow citizens presenting real image of Qatar and its generous people.
