The Significance of Mega Sporting Events on Infrastructural Development.

A Case of the

2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

By

NAME:

2020
1. Background of the Study
Mega sporting events concept is not a new event in the world of football. Irrespective of the
gender, FIFA world cup tournaments are held every four years, featuring all qualified national
soccer teams representing their countries. The Federation Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA) World Cup competitions began in 1930 to respond to soccer prominence 1. The FIFA
World Cup history records that the tournaments alternated in two epicenters of football that is
Latin America and Europe1. However, with the development of various countries' infrastructures
concerning stadia and conferencing facilities, the World Cup hosting has diverged from the
known soccer interest epicenters to other continents such as Africa's South Africa hosting in
2010.

Various research relates to mega sporting events to infrastructural development. The mega
sporting events have a significant role in transforming countries infrastructural development,
since it plays a catalytic role to the policymakers, host community, and administrators 2. The
sporting world and economic transition has a strong bond relationship 3. Upon winning the
hosting rights of the world cup, the hosting country starts preparing the necessary resources for
the hosting of the tournament. Further, the federation body awards the hosting country a certain
amount to improve its infrastructure4. The relation presented by3sees through various
governments pump funds to infrastructural development in terms of the development of road
networks and stadia development. Investors who are opportunity seekers will also move swiftly
to build accommodation facilities since such events come with them tourism interest. On
December 2, 2010, FIFA announced Qatar as the host to the 2022 world cup tournament. From
then, the Qatar government, through close coordination with FIFA, has put up measures to get
prepared for the world event. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze the significance of holding a
mega sports event on infrastructure development.

1
Matheson, "Assessing the infrastructure impact of mega-events in emerging economies."
2
Preuss, "A framework for identifying the legacies of a mega sport event." 643-664.
3
Giampiccoli and Nauright, "Problems and prospects for community-based tourism in the New
South Africa: The 2010 FIFA World Cup and Beyond." 42-62
4
Ling, "Mega-events and infrastructure improvements: The Case of the Olympic Games in
Beijing 2008."