This World Cup's different. Here's why...
DOCKING STATION: Fans who can't get accommodation on land are booking into cruise ships docked in Doha harbour.
Everyone knows this will be the first World Cup staged in the Arab world and the first one played in mid-season in the winter. But there are many other firsts.
These are important times for women’s sport and it’s crazy to think that for more than 100 years FIFA banned women from refereeing men’s games. That’s not the case anymore, of course, and now, finally, we will see female referees in action in a World Cup finals. Six women have been included on the list of officials for Qatar. These include referees Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan, Stephanie Frappart of France and Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda, as well as assistant referees Karen Diaz Medina of Mexico, Neuza Back of Brazil and Kathryn Nesbitt of the USA.
To FIFA's credit, the move has come quicker than expected. “I never thought this could happen in 2022,” admitted Nesbitt. “This one wasn’t even on my radar. It’s a big deal in the sense that they were ready for this before anyone thought the world would be ready for it.”
Howard Webb, who refereed the 2010 World Cup Final in South Africa, is a big supporter. He said: “It shouldn’t need to be a conversation. There should be no difference between males and females.”
Qatar is ranked 164th in area and 148th in population when it comes to the world's sovereign states. The entire peninsula measures just 11,600 square kilometres, with a population of 2.8m. To put it in perspective, the United States is around 849 times bigger and 48 of US states are larger than Qatar. By area, it is also smaller than Munster.
Because the stadia in Qatar are so close together, the prospect of watching more than one game in a day is suddenly a possibility – and even easier if you are watching on television in Ireland!
In the group stage, matches will kick off at 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm local Qatar time. The region is three hours ahead of GMT, which means games begin at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm here.
Although accredited journalists at the tournament are restricted to booking two matches a day, it is physically possible for fans in Qatar to get to three in a row.
Because of the number of games being played each day in the group stage, this World Cup will whizz by faster than normal. The number of days between the opening game and the final in Qatar is 28, making it the shortest World Cup in 44 years.
With a lack of accommodation available in hotels, the Qataris have had to get creative in finding new places for fans to sleep. One solution has been to requisition three cruise ships to permanently moor in Doha, sleeping up to 6,000 fans in all. The MSC World Europa, MSC Opera and MSC Poesia are already in situ, ready for fans to arrive.
Controversy over playing a World Cup in a country where homosexuality is illegal and LGBTQ people risk facing jail, is still heated. It certainly seems at odds with FIFA’s robust anti-discrimination campaigns, and its support for diversity - and has led to huge criticism from anti-discrimination groups.. As a result, several countries – including England and Wales – have vowed to wear One Love rainbow armbands in support of LGBTQ rights. So far FIFA has stopped short of banning them, despite asking teams to ‘focus on football’.
Concerns over concussion in football are rising, with calls for concussion substitutes to be introduced. That won’t happen in this World Cup, but FIFA have appointed ‘concussion spotters’ who will monitor from the stands. Their job will be to identify potential sigs of brain injuries that medical staff may miss from closer range.
For the first time FIFA has allowed countries to pick squads of 26 instead of 23, giving coaches more options. France have bucked the trend, however, by only picking 25.
We are familiar with the five-sub rule in the Premier League, brought in because of the pandemic but now adopted permanently. This will be the first World Cup ever to allow five subs to be utilised, however - and several coaches have indicated it could make a significant change to their tactics. When you consider the impact of tiredness and injury at previous World Cups, having the ability to take players off early and bring fresher teammates on could play a big part in knockout matches, in particular.
VAR will be in operation at the World Cup but there is also some new technology being adopted for the first time: semi-automated offsides.
This support tool for video match officials and on-field officials should help them make faster and more accurate decisions. The system uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras underneath the roof a stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points for players, calculating their exact position. The ball will also have a sensor for measurement.
You read it right. The Ras Abu Aboud Stadium, in Doha, is also known as Stadium 974 – because it was made from 974 shipping containers. It will be completely demolished after the finals to become a waterfront recreation area
For the first time, the World Cup is being played mid-season, in the European winter, primarily because it would too hot in Qatar to hold it in the summer. Temperatures there reach 41 degrees in July, compared to an average of 26 degrees in November.
You could hardly call that cold, of course. So, Qatar has installed air conditioning inside stadia, said to be capable of keeping players as well as fans cool.
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