Qatar: Is it ready to host a World Cup?
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's Matt Slater & Phil Buckingham to look at ahead to preparations for the World Cup in Qatar in just 45 days time. Is the country ready for the influx of people from both an accommodation & security point of view?
What do Qatari residents feel about the attention the World Cup has brought to their country and the scrutiny it has been under from those who have highlighted human rights and environmental abuses in the host nation.
Also, what will the knock on effect be in the Premier League in terms of players returning to their clubs ahead of a busy Christmas schedule and just before the January transfer window.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Athletic. |
| 0:03.3 | It's now just 45 days until the start of World Cup 2022, but is Qatar ready to host it? |
| 0:09.6 | And what are the challenges and possible knock-on effects for the club competitions and even the January transfer window? |
| 0:15.4 | I'm Mark Chapman. This is the Athletic Football podcast. |
| 0:30.3 | Thank you. is The Athletic Football Podcast. I'm joined from The Athletic by Matt Slater and Phil Buckingham, |
| 0:33.3 | who've both written a piece that asked the question if Qatar is really ready to host the World Cup. |
| 0:39.8 | So for a podcast with the same title, they were the perfect guest to book. |
| 0:44.8 | Here we go again, Matt, don't we? |
| 0:47.0 | I mean, I can't remember how many tournaments you've covered. |
| 0:51.3 | I myself go all the way back to Euro 2000 in the Netherlands |
| 0:56.7 | and Belgium. I think every, every, does, we know at the stage where every tournament has |
| 1:01.3 | the same questions asked of it? Every major event, Olympics, world champs. Yeah, there's always, |
| 1:07.3 | around this time, you know, questions asked about accommodation, transport, security. |
| 1:13.2 | It's a checklist, right? And it's not a surprising checklist. And it's got to be done. And it's |
| 1:17.2 | essential. And in the past, there would always be each venue would have a kind of Achilles heel, |
| 1:22.9 | like an obvious problem. And that would be the focus. I think the thing about Qatar is because it's such an unusual World Cup, such an unusual venue, sort of great unknown, their tagline is a World Cup like any other. The question's a bit more generalised. They're sort of like, well, it's all of them, right? We're a bit unsure of all of them. We know you've had a long time to prepare. We know you've got a good budget, great budget, and you've hired a lot of great consultants from around the world. |
| 1:48.5 | We've asked you these questions for a long time and you've given us answers. |
| 1:52.3 | It's just a sense that we thought you'd be a bit more ready, right? |
| 1:57.1 | Really ready. |
| 1:58.3 | And we think you perhaps should have tested this stuff a bit more stress tested this |
| 2:02.7 | stuff before because unlike so many of these other places that we've been to before you really |
| 2:08.2 | haven't done anything like this before not to this scale not to this type of event and you are |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.