Continuing its streak of hosting major sports events, FIFA World Cup 2022 host Qatar is gearing up to hold more mega events that will go along with regular competitions on country’s busy annual sports calendar. The start of the year 2024 will bring delight to fans worldwide as Qatar is preparing to play host to the AFC Asian Cup and the World Aquatics Championships – the first ever edition of the global swimming spectacle to be held in the Middle East.
Both the highly-anticipated events have already marked their 100-day countdowns with the Asian Cup, bringing together 24 teams for continent’s most prestigious title, set to take place from January 12 and February 10, 2024. The World Aquatics Championships will be held from February 2 to 18, 2024 with 2600 elite swimmers representing 190 countries confirming their participation in the historic event.
Ticket sales for the Asian Cup, which Qatar is hosting for the third time after staging the 1988 and 2011 editions is receiving overwhelming response with more than 150,000 tickets – allocated in the first batch of sales – sold out within days. Fans from host country Qatar, Saudi Arabia and India led the way globally in the opening stage and such was the interest that a total of 81,209 tickets were sold within the first 24-hours of launch of sales on October 10.
Hosts Qatar will defend their title in the tournament featuring 51 matches to be played across nine stadiums. The home side will open the event with a game against Lebanon at the iconic Lusail Stadium, with a capacity of approximately 88,000 spectators. Like the FIFA World Cup, fans will be able to stay in one venue throughout the tournament due to Qatar’s compact nature with the farthest distance between any two stadiums is 75kms.
The World Aquatics Championships will see swimmers competing for 75 medal events in six aquatic sports – swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving – in Doha with Aspire Dome, Hamad Aquatic Centre and Old Doha Port being the venues. The World Championships will be vital for athletes, who are expected to produce exciting action as they look to excel before heading to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The ticket sale for the Championships is underway with the opening ceremony scheduled for February 4 at the Aspire Dome. Like always, Qatar with its rich experience of hosting swimming competitions including the FINA World Cup and FINA Open Water meets is expected to set new benchmarks in hosting of the sport’s global spectacle.
