By Armstrong Vas
Doha: Veteran football administrator Walter Gagg is confident that the 2022 World Cup will be a ‘huge success’ with Qatar having successfully hosted football events in the past even at short notice.
Gagg, who is now associated with the football governing body as director, said Qatar hosted the U-20 FIFA World Cup, stepping in for Nigeria, and earned the accolades from the football world.
“In 1995, Qatar hosted the U-20 championship, when FIFA could not go to Nigeria, we came here (to Qatar) with less than three months to go for the event. Qatar organised the competition with 16 teams and they did brilliantly,” said Gagg, on the sidelines of the World Stadium Congress 2016, here yesterday. The two-day conference ends today.
"Qatar one of the best organisers of mega events"
Gagg said Qatar had accomplished the job of hosting mega events and rated them as one of the best organisers.
“They (Qatar) are top organiser’s and when they say something and organize an event, they do it to perfection. We have full confidence in the organizers of Qatar 2022,” he added.
Gagg said FIFA’s main lookout, when it comes to fulfilling stadia requirements and specifications, a venue must meet in order to uphold FIFA World Cup standards, is security and comfort for spectators, press and technical people.
“The main requests we have always for the organizers is - comfort at the stadia and security – if we have stadia which fulfil the two conditions, the stadia is perfect. The technical infrastructure for technical people and infrastructure for players and also for the media, is also important. We just do not have 100 or 150 media representative but thousands and thousands of media representatives and we have to give them the best,” said the FIFA official, while explaining the stadia requirements and specifications.
“We have to make sure spectators, technical infrastructure for players, and technicians, all of them, must have the best conditions, which in turn helps in the competitions to be a huge success,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey in the FIFA organization over the last 30 years Gagg said: “Many changes have happened, but special items remain the same – delivering a high quality product.”
The Peninsula
