The Most Expensive FIFA World Cup

 Is FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 the Most Expensive In the History of Football World cups?

We are counting down to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 that will be held in Qatar, whose capital is Doha. Qatar is a monarchy whose emir or king Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani gives the orders. It can be said that he is the owner of PSG through the sovereign wealth fund. Qatar is the third richest country in the world, measured by GDP per capita. Much of this is due to its vast oil and gas reserves, which are also the third largest in the world. This is the most expensive World Cup ever. 

Since Qatar received the bid to host the Football World Cup 2022 in 2010, the Gulf state has been building monuments that will accommodate the 1.5 million visitors expected for the region's first World Cup. It is the most expensive tournament in FIFA history, costing $220 billion nearly 20 times what Russia spent in 2018. The costs of the 2006 World Cup in Germany seem almost negligible at $4.3 billion. The previous highest budget was 15 billion U.S. dollars spent by Brazil in 2014, while South Africa disbursed 3.6 billion USD four years earlier. 

So what exactly makes Qatar different? The building of stadiums cost around $6.5 billion to $10 billion, and the remaining bulk of $220 billion was used as part of the broader Qatar 2030 National Plan, which centres around developing infrastructure, including construction of an innovation centre with hotels, a sophisticated metro network and airports. The massive underground transport network which opened in 2019, cost an estimated $36 billion. 

Another crucial component was the multi-award winning Hamad International Airport. Since then, the country has spent 16 billion U.S. dollars to develop it since it opened in 2014. Meanwhile, the new construction of the city of Lucille has consumed a significant portion of the 220 billion USD.