Why is the World Cup in Qatar the most important event of the year?

The football it is emotion, passion and colors. Story of feats and failures. It is a global phenomenon that allows you to create poems with movement and transcend time with discussions about moments that were alive for only a few seconds. And it’s also an income-generating machine, especially when the time comes. World Cup.

This gives human beings one of the most popular sports on the planet, the second most practiced in the world and what is known by many as the most beautiful of all, with a mystique that boils over every four years.

All these factors come into play and it is not surprising that each edition of the Soccer World Cup becomes more and more attractive. The numbers, one of the key points of this fair, emphasize that the cup that Pelé lifted three times is the most coveted.

Qatar 2022 is a colossus

Since the beginning of the new century, the World Cups have sought to go further and further and, although the investment for the competition has fluctuated, the period has concentrated the most expensive tournaments, being Qatar 2022 the top of this list.

For him Qatar World Cup an infrastructure budget of just over 220,000 million dollars has been allocated. This is equivalent to 15 times the budget of the one who previously occupied the position of the most expensive: Brazil 2014.

Qatar 2022 He is a colossus and whoever wins is already historic. Compared to other sporting events of global importance it is also: the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Gamesthe most onerous, cost 13,000 million dollars.

A global passion

An investment of this magnitude was necessary to ensure that for the first time in history the World Cup is played in practically new stadiums, a requirement to hold the tournament in a country with the characteristics of Qatar.

A host of extreme weather, with temperatures that can exceed 30 degrees in the shade in winter, required stadiums with cooling technology. With effort they achieved it and the developments excite the locals.

The first World Cup to be played in an Arab country will also be the biggest sporting event ever hosted by that nation. Before the World Cup in Qatar there was no national sport, but now the country has it clear.

The World Cup from FIFA it attracts attention from all points on Earth and concentrates it for a month on a portion of the globe called the host. The cusp lasts 90 minutes, with the center of the world in a balloon.

Technology, axis of evolution

From work to play, the human experience has been enriched with the help of technology. However, soccer had clung to the technological lag compared to other sports. FIFA wants to close that gap.

The WAS, an extra judge (Russia 2018 badge) is intended to help the referee with difficult decisions from a video room, but often multiplies the confusion. This problem could be fixed with technology.

Some 12 cameras installed under the stadium roof will follow the players from 29 different points, as well as the ball. They will be able to recreate movements with immediate 3D models that will bring precision to refereeing.

The semi-automatic misplaced image will generate visual representations of each player’s skeleton in real time, with up to 50 shots per second. Although it is not new Qatar 2022 It will be your litmus test.

Fortune in the field and in the streets

The big numbers will not only be in the infrastructure. Each of the 32 squads that will compete represent millionaire sums, from England, the most valuable, to the rookie Qatar at the bottom of this list.

The value the set of teams that will play in Qatar 2022 is approximately 12.900 million dollars (about 248.970 million pesos), according to the portal specialized in Transfermarket transfers.

Also, the Qatari Government It expects to receive 1.2 million fans from all over the world, a figure that is almost half of its population. the main city, Dohait has only 90,000 hotel rooms, but it will not be a limitation.

Measures have been taken such as the rental of cruise ships and the FIFA estimates that the revenue from the World Cup will be 6.816 million dollars (about 131.548 million pesos). Qatar valued them at 17,660 million (339,680 million pesos).

These amounts imply generating enough money in a month to buy all the shares of some listed companies in Mexico, such as Cemex (according to FIFA figure) or Bimbo (with the expectation of Qatar).

One last train to Olympus

An extra incentive to follow this competition is that it will possibly be the last chance for two of the best players of all time to climb a hierarchy reserved for only a few.

Lionel Messi y Cristiano Ronaldo, only one of the two or perhaps none, may be the monarch of the time. It is the latest episode in an unstated and unspoken rivalry, known to all soccer fans.

At 35 for the Argentine and 37 for the Portuguese, it will be highly unlikely to witness his skills again at the highest level of competition. With his careers they add 1,604 goals: 1,604 joys that could finally be crowned.

protest showcase

It is expected that the Qatar World Cup be seen by some 5 billion people in the world, beating the Russia 2018 record of more than 3.5 billion people. That makes it the biggest channel for conveying ideas.

It is not by chance that this World Cup has 17 gigantic companies as its sponsors, seven of which: Adidas, Coke, Wanda, Hyundai, Visa, Qatar Energy y Qatar Airways are official partners of the FIFA.

With all eyes on it, it is expected that protests or expressions in favor of various causes will not be missing from this event. feminists, LGBTTTI and pro-human rights communities can be among the protagonists.

Qatar, a small Arab country with a strong patriarchal tradition, is criticized for its position against homosexuality, which can be punished by death; or about rape victims, who often go to jail for adultery.

Some national teams such as Denmark are going to join these protests in some way, with the large number of deaths of workers during the preparation of the event as one of the issues that generates the most rejection.

Perhaps for these reasons, viewers of this World Cup feat will have to download applications to their cell phones as a government requirement, which some consider spyware. It will be a World Cup like never before.

jose.rivera@eleconomista.mx

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