Doha (AFP)

With the Tokyo Games over, Paris-2024 has taken up the Olympic torch, but all eyes are also on the next major international competition, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with a double theme: the Covid-19 uncertainty and the image degraded that sticks to the skin of the emirate.

What will be the state of the pandemic in a little over a year, with the approach of this first World Cup in the Middle East?

Impossible to answer, but one certainty: unlike the Tokyo Olympics, which took place without an audience, the Qatari organizers promise full stadiums.

It could be a first for a sporting event of this magnitude in the Covid era if the Beijing Winter Olympics are also held behind closed doors, in February 2022, as suggested by an official from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"Whatever happens, I expect that we will have supporters, including foreigners, in the stadiums," said Danyel Reiche, associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

In recent months, Qatar has already organized several sporting events - albeit of lesser importance -, he argues.

To its credit, the small gas emirate recently served as a vaccination center for Olympic athletes traveling to Tokyo, and also hosted the team of refugees who participated in these Olympics.

Taking a date, Qatar has already committed, with a view to the 2022 World Cup, to obtain a million doses for unvaccinated supporters.

At this stage, the details of this program are not known, but officials from Qatar-2022 traveled to Tokyo during the Games to observe the health organization of the events.

"Tokyo was a partial success (...) with little opposition to the restrictions in force among those present," said Simon Chadwick, director of the Eurasian Sports Center at Emlyon Business School, Lyon's business school.

Fireworks illuminate the Education Stadium, after the final of the Bayern-Tigres Club World Cup, on February 11, 2021 in Al Rayyan - AFP / Archives

"Qatar would do well to follow and refine these procedures", with a "big difference of course: the presence of spectators", he adds.

- Workers' rights -

To this day, the small country is still teeming with construction sites.

And its leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, admitted that the pandemic had caused "very limited" delay for some infrastructure projects.

"The preparations (...) will all be completed in the coming months," he said, however, of a tournament which officials hope will bring in around $ 20 billion (around EUR 17 million). to the economy of Qatar.

The construction of these stadiums and other infrastructure is accompanied by recurring criticism of human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of workers and poor workers from Africa and Asia.

In a gesture of defiance, several European teams have shown their support for human rights before the qualifying matches for the World Cup, in particular Norway and Germany.

Foreign workers on the construction site of the Lusail stadium, the largest of the 2022 World Cup, December 15, 2018 Karim ABOU MERHI AFP / Archives

Doha recognizes that efforts remain to be made but prides itself on unprecedented social advances in the Gulf region.

"The speed of change will not be enough to convince some detractors," regrets Mr Chadwick.

In February, Qatar fiercely denied information from the British daily The Guardian that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the 2010 World Cup was awarded.

- Beer for everyone?

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Groups of supporters and commentators are worried about the lack of entertainment planned in a notoriously conservative Muslim emirate and little associated with the festive spirit that accompanies the World Cups.

Currently, the organizing committee is still counting on 1.5 million visitors during the tournament, which lasts one month.

"I was full of DJ nights on beaches with thousands of people in Doha," recently assured Ronald De Boer, 2022 World Cup ambassador and former Dutch international, who lived in the Qatari capital for five years.

The new Al-Janoub stadium equipped with giant fans to ensure air conditioning, in view of the 2022 World Cup, December 16, 2019 GIUSEPPE CACACE AFP / Archives

"Doha will be ready to welcome" these fans, he said, reassuring in particular future visitors on the sale of alcoholic beverages.

While beer will be widely available in fan zones, restaurants and hotels, it is however likely that ticket holders will not be able to access it within the stadiums - an official decision remains to be made.

With the exception of VIPs in the boxes, who will have access to well-stocked bars.

© 2021 AFP