Three years ago, Qatar brought together top football nations of the Arab world at the inaugural FIFA Arab Cup which turned out to be a roaring success. The 16-team tournament dubbed the precursor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at that time provided the ultimate live experience of the country’s world-class facilities and flawless organisation to football fans and all the other stakeholders.
Algeria defeated Tunisia in the final, culminating days of excitement at the memorable tournament with fans calling to make the competition a part of the international football calendar. Their wish partially came true recently as FIFA gave go-ahead to the popular regional tournament, and much to the delight of the enthusiasts, Qatar was named as the host nation for the next three editions to be held in 2025, 2029 and 2033. FIFA though did not include the Arab Cup in the International Match Calendar as the event “will follow the principle of an invitational competition.”
Going by Qatar’s perfect hosting of the first edition of the Arab Cup followed by the blockbuster World Cup and the AFC Asian Cup, which were declared the best in history, the planned Arab Cup editions are expected to be highly successful. Qatar’s world-class stadiums, state-of-the-art facilities and rich experience of hosting major events will come into play again in the next three editions and the compact nature will again ensure fans attend the maximum matches during the tournament.
As top sports officials promised the country will not stop bringing the mega events home after staging the World Cup, Qatar is maintaining its status as the global sports hub by hosting the mega events continuously. Before getting the hosting of the three Arab Cup editions, Qatar was also named as the host country for the FIFA U-17 World Cup from 2025 to 2029.
Apart from prominent football competitions, Qatar is also set to host other major events as it was recently announced that Doha’s Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex will host the 17th edition of the FIP World Padel Championships from October 28 to November 2, 2024. The flagship FIP bi-annual event will see 16 national teams across both the men’s and women’s categories in action.
Doha will also play host to the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2025 as the Qatar Table Tennis Association marked the one-year countdown to the competition on Friday. The next sports season is set to be bigger and better as several other events are lined up along with the competitions on Qatar’s busy sports calendar including the MotoGP and Formula One races.
