Holding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is a "done deal", a confident head of the Gulf state's tournament organising committee said Monday, shrugging off ongoing corruption and human rights concerns. Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, told the local Arabic daily Al-Sharq newspaper that football's biggest tournament will go ahead in the Middle East despite calls elsewhere for Qatar to be stripped of hosting rights.
"The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar, the first in a Middle Eastern, Arab and Muslim country," said Al-Thawadi. "It is a done deal." He added that World Cup organisers in the Gulf had a "generally positive" relationship with FIFA, football's governing body. Qatar is the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation being carried out by Switzerland's Attorney General office.
Launched in May 2015, the Swiss legal team is investigating the bidding process amid allegations of corruption for the 2022 World Cup - and the 2018 tournament in Russia. But Al-Thawadi told Al-Sharq that Qatar had nothing to fear. "I am totally confident our file is clean," he said. Qatar also faces continued criticism from human rights groups over the treatment of its labour force helping to build World Cup venues and related infrastructure.