Most expensive World Cup worth US$300 billion kicks off

Despite courting controversy over its selection to host the 2022 World Cup tournament, Qatar has spent about $300 billion in 12 years toward infrastructure to host the global football event.

The Middle-East nation, with its capital in Doha, had earlier earmarked an official budget of $10 billion but had to splurge further funds to build seven new stadiums and refurbish an existing one to make it 8 stadiums to host the football tournament.

To place the cost into further context, the most expensive World Cups previously were the 2014 tournament in Brazil and the 2018 edition in Russia, which both cost less than $15 billion.

But oil-rich country Qatar is now ready to host visitors in about 20,000 new hotel rooms, a new railway metro and more than 1,100 miles of new roads constructed for the event, according to a Bloomberg report.

Although the selection of Qatar has been marred with concerns about human rights abuses, labour conditions, and weather temperatures, millions of fans have geared up to witness the world’s best footballers take center stage.

In hopes of efforts to redeem its image on the global stage, officials in Qatar are expected to also face major pushback from groups over their culture and moral standings.

FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has however defended the decision to host the World Cup in Qatar. According to him, suggestions that the tournament should not go ahead are merely ‘hypocritical and racist’ on the part of Western critics.

At a press conference held on Saturday, November 19, Gianni Infantino said, “We are taught many lessons from Europeans, from the Western world. What we Europeans have been doing for the last 3,000 years, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons.”

Ghana’s expenditure at 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Ghana’s Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, on November 4, 2022, presented the country’s budget for the 2022 World Cup to Parliament.

The address which was delivered before lawmakers highlighted the possible financial, sporting, tourism, and economic benefit of the World Cup tournament.

Mustapha Ussif disclosed that the government has budgeted $14 million for the Black Stars’ campaign in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

A breakdown of the budget indicates that Ghana is targeting a semi-final finish at the World Cup.

However, the budget for the semi-final is pegged at $14,184,100 million should the national team finish in the top four of the competition.

Mustapha Ussif said Ghana stands to gain between $27 million dollars to $42million in case it advances to the finals.

But the for the three group matches against Portugal, South Korea, and Uruguay, the government has budgeted US$8,166,200.00 million.

With the country already getting $1.5million and an additional $9 million for participating in the World Cup, Ghana stands to gain a profit of nearly $2 million by just participating in the group stages of the World Cup.

He also confirmed that the Ghana Football Association has received $1.5 million from FIFA to augment the Black Stars’ preparations for the tournament which begins on November 20, 2022.

According to him, part of the $1.5 million they received from FIFA was “useful to organizing the team’s friendly matches to improve technical and managerial readiness for Qatar.”

The Black Stars of Ghana will begin their 2022 FIFA World Cup with an opening game against Portugal on Thursday, November 24 at the 974 Stadium in Doha, Qatar.

In 2010, the government reportedly budgeted US$19 million for the tournament in South Africa.

In 2014 when the country’s participation was rocked with chaos and disgrace, the government then reportedly spent $9,622,170 million on three matches the country participated in.