Hammam hails Qatar hosting of Asian Cup
Reuters - Monday 24 January 2011, 16:35
DOHA - AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam
has praised Qatar's hosting of the on-going Asian Cup saying the
experience bodes well for their staging of the World Cup finals
in 2022.
"It's been an extremely well organised event by Qatar," Bin
Hammam, the Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation
told the tournament's website.
"Although it is 12 years between now and 2022, it was a very
good rehearsal for that competition."
The tiny gas-rich Gulf emirate has been in the spotlight
since it was awarded the right to host ther world's biggest
single sporting event by world governing body FIFA last month.
Organisers, however, have suffered little criticism for
their hosting of the 16-team premier Asian tournament which
concludes with the final at the Khalifa Stadium on Saturday.
Apart from some low attendances in the opening group stage
matches and other minor problems, the opening weeks of the
tournament went largely without a hitch.
The main difference between this tournament, and the World
Cup in 2022 will be that at the moment the World Cup is
scheduled to be played in the summer months when the
temperatures can sore to higher than 50 Celsius (122
fahrenheit).
Debate has already started about the viability of staging
the finals in such hot weather or whether it should be moved to
the winter with far more agreeable temperatures, but no decision
on that is likely to be taken in the immediate future.