DOHA, Qatar — Since the day Qatar was named the host of the 2022 World Cup, it was obvious the tournament would be different from the ones that had preceded it.

For a start, Qatar is a tiny country, and Doha, its capital, has never hosted an event on the scale of the World Cup. Qatar has billed this as a positive: the chance to put on the most compact tournament in history, a soccer celebration lacking only the quadrennial hassle and expense of frequent air travel and hotel hopping.

But with just over three years until the opening match, and with more than a million foreign fans expected to descend on Qatar during the monthlong tournament, the planners tasked with World Cup lodging and ticketing continue to grapple with an uncomfortable, and inescapable, reality:

Qatar, the smallest country to host a World Cup, might struggle to find rooms for all the expected visitors.