Nasser Al Khater, Deputy CEO of Qatar 2022 LOC, has answered a series of questions about the 2022 FIFA World Cup in his country in an exclusive interview with Tencent Sports in Moscow.

Tencent Sports: Now we can see a lot of publicity materials for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Moscow. How much are you looking forward to the tournament?

Nasser Al Khater: We are very excited now that the Russia 2018 World Cup is coming to an end. Tomorrow July 15 is the final and then the countdown begins for Qatar 2022. So I’m excited, the team is excited. We’ve been working very hard on the first World Cup in the Middle East.

T: What do you think of Russia’s work of hosting the World Cup?

Khater: I think everyone believes and has seen that Russia did an amazing job with the organization. It was very smooth, very organized. The volunteers are very good. Even security was very smooth. You felt that the security was very good but it wasn’t overly done.

T: What can you learn from Russia as a host country？

Khater: One thing that we saw was they have is the Fan ID, which is something they tried. We have to evaluate how successful it is. We have to evaluate if there were any issues with it and what are the positives to see if this is something that we’ll consider or not.

T: Russia as the host has impressed the world with their team at this tournament. What do you expect from Qatar’s team in four years?

Kahter: The Qatar national team are slowly building itself and improving. We have players that are now playing outside of Qatar. We have players that are coming from Aspire Academy which is doing a very good job in building the skills of these players. I believe Qatar will have a team that can compete during the World Cup and hopefully they also have fortune like the Russian national team had their fortune here.

T: The Western world kept questioning and criticizing Qatar as the host. Do you have any response to that?

Khater: We saw that criticism on Russia until the very first day. And everybody that came here, saw Russia and was completely amazed, pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere, with the friendliness of the people, with how much fun they had here. So there is going to be a lot of criticism no matter where the World Cup is. There will be a lot of criticism with all major events. Some of the criticism we faced was biased and unfair. A lot of the criticism was based on lack of knowledge. Many people and many organizations that criticized us never visited Qatar. All this criticism has only made us more motivated, all this criticism has made us even more determined to make sure that we have a very successful and the best World Cup ever.

T: Can you share with us the latest progress of Qatar’s preparation for the World Cup?

Khater: Our preparations are going as planned. We have already completed a stadium. Two more stadiums will be completed by the end of this year. And by the end of 2019, two more stadiums will be complete. And by the end of 2020, all of our eight stadiums will be completed.

T: There are reports from Western media saying that FIFA asked if Qatar could accept the expansion to 48 teams for 2022 World Cup and it received a positive reply. Is this true?

Khater: The subject of 48 teams was a proposal by South American Football Confederation. Since they proposed it, FIFA has to put it on the agenda. Our official response is: We are open to discuss it. We are open to do a feasibility study because we today don’t understand the format of 48 teams. We don’t understand what the implications are. So it’s too early to say “yes” or to say “no”. We need to be more clear what is the requirement and then we will decide. But right now our plans are for a 32-team World Cup and everything that we are doing and we are planning is for a 32-team World Cup.

T: FIFA President Gianni Infantino has confirmed that the 2022 Qatar World Cup will happen in winter. Who made this decision?

Khater: I don’t think we should say that it is going to happen in winter. It’s happening in November and December. We have to remember that in one half of the world, in November and December, it’s summer for them. Australia, South Africa and many countries in South America, it’s their summer. So it’s a “November, December World Cup”. It’s a different time. There was a request actually from FIFA. They consulted with all the big leagues, they discussed it with all the confederations, and they made the decision to move it to November and December. We were ready to host it in June and July in the normal time frame. But since FIFA decided to do it in November and December, then we are also open to that.

T: Many Chinese tourists will visit Qatar and Doha for the first time in 2022. Do you have any suggestions for them?

Khater: One thing that’s interesting is that Qatar very recently signed an agreement with China in tourism. So now I think Qatar is on the list of countries that is promoted by China to visit as tourists. We have been seeing in the past month more and more tourists from China, which is good. And I think this will encourage Chinese tourists to visit Qatar before the World Cup. And I believe that we will have a lot of fans during the World Cup. I believe that if China, hopefully, is qualified to the World Cup, we will see a lot of fans from China.

T: Do you think China can make it to Qatar in 2022?

Khater: We are confident that China will be in the next World Cup because we see all the effort that is now being put on football in China from the top of leadership. We know there are many academies being built right now. There is a big focus on football.