As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.



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THIS week the world should be watching Brazil, yet once again the focus will turn to Qatar as the media continues to attack FIFA’s decision to award our country the World Cup in 2022.When Qatar first contemplated a bid for the World Cup, we knew that no Arab nation had experienced the privilege of hosting this great sporting event, despite our deep passion for football.We believed a World Cup in Qatar would provide an opportunity to confound stereotypes, break down cultural barriers and give the rest of the world a better understanding of the Arab nations and the Middle East.Sadly, at this point, that has not been allowed to happen.This weekend we expect further attacks on Qatar and our successful bid to host the World Cup in 2022. These allegations are baseless and riddled with innuendo designed to tarnish the reputation of Qatar’s 2022 Bid Committee.The constant stream of allegations that have been released to media outlets on the cusp of our interviews with the Chairman of FIFA’s Ethics Committee Investigative Chamber do not implicate our bid. They are instead a series of tenuous links that attempt to assume guilt by association.The timing of the release of these allegations is no accident, falling in the same week as our interviews with Michael Garcia and a week before meetings of the FIFA Executive Committee and the 2014 FIFA Congress in Brazil. This has become a pattern prior to important dates in the FIFA calendar.It should be clear that these leaks are not an attempt to shine light on the 2018/2022 bidding process. They are, instead, a flagrant attempt to prejudice an ongoing independent investigation. Certainly, if the source of these leaks were genuinely concerned with the evidence, they would have provided the leaked documents to Mr Garcia, as he requested, instead of offering them to the media.Fair investigations work under the assumption that parties are innocent until proven guilty. But while Qatar’s bid committee has honoured Mr Garcia’s request to let the process run its course, our right to a fair hearing has been compromised by certain parties trying to influence Mr Garcia's investigation.We have fully co-operated in a completely open and transparent manner with FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee investigation into the bidding process. Our officials complied with requests to be interviewed and with all requests for documentation and answers. We have nothing to hide.The fact is, aggressive marketing has been an integral part of every successful bid to host a major international sporting event. The Qatari bid team expected the competition to be fierce, and knowing that we weren’t a key player in the football world, we knew we had to work harder than anyone else for our bid to succeed. We knocked on more doors, made more phone calls and took more meetings than our competitors. We travelled the world explaining in vivid detail why, in our view, a World Cup in Qatar made more sense than anywhere else.But in every aspect of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process, we strictly adhered to FIFA’s rules and regulations.This extended to our relationship with then Asian Football Confederation President and FIFA Executive Committee member Mohammed Bin Hammam, whose name has repeatedly been mentioned in the press in connection with our bid during his own attempt to secure the FIFA Presidency. But let us be clear: Mr. Bin Hammam is from Qatar, but he was not a member of Qatar’s bid team.In fact, we have never denied we had a relationship with Mr Bin Hammam. As a member of the football world and as member of Qatari society, he often crossed paths with influential Qatari citizens, including members of our bid team.Further, because Mr Bin Hammam was a member of the Executive Committee, we had to present our plans to him and convince him that our bid was the right choice for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. And as Mr Bin Hammam was also Confederation President and a voting member, it was important for us to maintain a working relationship with him. None of this was improper. We hoped, of course that Mr Bin Hammam would support our bid. But we hoped for the same from every Executive Committee member.When we first launched our bid, we were considered rank outsiders. Aware that we faced unique challenges, we refused to shy away from any of these. Instead we focused on transforming these obstacles into opportunities. We believed in our own capabilities, using the confidence gained from hosting past events, such as the 1995 Youth World Cup and 2011 Asian Cup.At a time when differences are rampant, where conflict is in the headlines, we wanted this World Cup to be an opportunity to bring people together. It began in the bid. Different people from different countries and regions joined in that vision.We developed cooling technology to cope with the climate of the Middle East, technology that would prove enormously valuable for nations in similar climates around the world.Fully aware of Qatar’s small size as a country, we pledged to build stadiums with modular components, ensuring that our stadiums were fit for purpose beyond 2022 for Qatar’s requirements. We promised to donate the 170,000 seats that will be removed after the tournament to nations in need of sporting infrastructure.Noting challenges of previous World Cup locations, we promoted the fact that the proximity of venues would make the tournament in Qatar the first compact World Cup.Finally, and most importantly, we pledged that this tournament would be a catalyst for accelerating improvement in our nation and the region. One example of this is our comprehensive engagement on the issues we face in regard to labour. We implemented worker welfare standards. This is spurring change and engagement. These improvements will, and are, fostering other changes in Qatar that are long term and sustainable and are not just focussed on the spotlight of 2022.The 2022 World Cup is not simply a proposal or an idea. With eight years to go it is a tournament being brought to life right now by people working towards the development of an amazing World Cup. We do this with the dream of welcoming football fans from all corners of the world to Qatar for the Middle East’s first FIFA World Cup in 2022. We are already constructing three stadiums and by the end of the year two more will be in development. Our country has demonstrated its support, spending more than $23 billion on transport infrastructure projects alone. And to be clear - we will do this as we advance worker welfare within Qatar.The people of Qatar are making this commitment with the dream of welcoming football fans from all corners of the world to our country for the Middle East’s first World Cup. We believe there is no reason that dream should not come true in 2022.