Qatar 2022 an opportunity for Africa to harness lessons

Doha, The Gulf Observer: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 presents an opportunity for Africa to harness lessons on the mega event and football.

Qatar’s experience and knowledge over the 12 years of preparation of the tournament will be helpful for capacity building in development of African football, said academic experts.

“More than ever, Qatar can do a lot for African football because Qatar went through 12 years of planning for the World Cup,” said Sport Management Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University in Qatar and New York University, Dr. Gerard Akindes, adding that there is a lot that Africa can learn from Qatar.

“A lot of learnings have been accumulated and that can be shared and disseminated and African football needs more and more of experiment and experience, people that can support the capacity building on the continent and also to support hosting events,” he added speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of a panel discussion, “Football on the World Stage: What About Africa?”

“There’s many things that Qatar can teach Africa today…We need to bring all that knowledge and to be able to build more capacity in the continent,” said Dr Akindes.

While, Qatar’s legacy on hosting mega events and addressing challenges are lessons Africa could take forward from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, according to Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Sport and Entertainment Management (MSEM), CSE, HBKU, Dr. Kamilla Swart.

“There are many lessons to take from Qatar hosting on the World Cup. If I reflect from 2010 to 2022 in terms of a legacy — way back in 2010 there was not that much of a distinction between impact and legacy. But there was a vision of what Qatar wanted to achieve in terms of planning of the World Cup,” she said.

“What we see is how Qatar is managing events better in terms of facing and addressing the challenges and also in terms of how Qatar used the World Cup to leverage opportunities for women in sports, inclusivity and accessibility, a lot of lessons we can take forward,” said Dr. Swart.

The discussion “Football on the World Stage: What About Africa?” was organised by The College of Science and Engineering (CSE), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), featured discussions about African football, its participation in the FIFA World Cup and its position on the global stage with the objective of creating awareness about football in Africa.

It received audience from the general public to industry professionals, organisations, footballers, sport institutions, academics, African fans and spectators’ representatives.