Indoor athletics and World Cup football – Qatar style

BY THE TIME you read this, the opening shots will have been fired at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha.

By shots, I mean that Britain’s Jessica Ennis will have started her bid to land the pentathlon gold medal to go with her outdoor heptathlon World title, the 60m sprinters will have strutted their stuff in the early heats with Dwain Chambers hoping to ruffle some American feathers and Jenny Meadows, Britain’s new darling of the track, will hopefully have qualified smoothly from her 800m heat. Oh, and the men’s shot put qualification will have taken place as well, so as it happens I was right the first time. 

As I write this, sitting in the truly stunning Aspire Dome, the largest indoor sports venue of its type in the World, final preparations are underway to set the stage for what will be the biggest WIC ever.

148 countries are taking part, from Antigua to Zambia and in a year dominated by the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, this is a big deal for the sport’s governing body; so much so that they’ve called in presentation specialists from Australia, Great Big Events (my employers for the week) to run the show. And what a show we are promised, with giant video screens at either end of the hydraulically operated blue and gold track, animated graphics, newly composed music as well as an opening ceremony which is being kept all hush-hush for now.

In fact, it’s interesting to note just how far the sport of athletics has pushed out the boat in the technological and crowd entertainment World, with the likes of GBE and also Fast Track in the UK, in a week when football’s governing body has decided that they’d rather continue to see mistakes being made on the pitch rather than trust goal line cameras. The two sports couldn’t be further apart.

The WIC is also a massive stepping stone for Doha. Not as big as the Asian games that it staged in 2006, the Championships will at least focus the World’s attention on the capital city of Qatar, which is bidding to host the World Cup in 2022.

It’s a bid that other competing nations will write off at their peril. As a city, Doha is hugely ambitious and the bid committee, led by His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, is passionate about bringing the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time. They have succeeded with other sports such as Moto GP, WTA tennis and PGA golf and they see football as the next step.

As you’d expect in this part of the World, money certainly won’t be a problem, nor will a lack of talent, as Qatar has always been at the forefront of bringing in outside help and expertise. Being compact, it should also appeal to the fans; at least it should to those who will be spending a fortune in South Africa this summer travelling thousands of miles to follow their national team.

FIFA will make its decision regarding the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in December this year and if Qatar can come up with a plan to counter the 40 degree heat which is common during July (when the tournament has to be staged) then it stands a pretty decent chance.