SWILA: Qatar, the size of Nyanza, offered a World Cup of many firsts, but what can Kenya learn?

A month has lapsed since the curtains came down on the riveting 2022 World Cup Finals held in Doha Qatar. The showpiece, the first of its kind held on Arab soil ran from November 20 to December 18 bringing together 32 top footballing nations who battled for honours with Africa being represented by five countries - Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon, and Ghana.

At the end of it the fairest of them all – Argentina - were crowned deserved champions ending a near four-decade long wait for the coveted title, in a showpiece that lit up Qatar, a tiny peninsular Arab country whose terrain comprises arid desert and a long Gulf shoreline of beaches and dunes. It is country of just about three million souls.

One might wonder the relevance and significant of this one month down the line. But look at it this way, 30 days or so since the competition ended, the dust has settled, emotions have thawed and even the most ardent follower of the game can now argue with a sense of objectively, not entitlement.

The Kenyan fans who followed the competition with bated breath, analysing all the 64 matches that thrilled us, need to ask the vital, yet fundamental question/s: what are our take-home from the competition? As a country what do we learn from the showpiece?

For starters, the state of Qatar is a tiny peninsula which occupies just 11, 571km2. As a matter of fact it is smaller than the size of former Nyanza province which occupies 12, 477km2, meaning Kenya, whose surface area is 586, 646km2 is 50 times bigger!

Another fact: Qatar has a population of 2.7 million people, out of which around 300,000 are Qataris and a staggering 2.4 million are foreigners, translating to around 88 percent of the population.

Kenya, on the other hand, has a population of 50 million souls. However, despite its small size and small population, Qatar did the unthinkable, probably what the sub-Saharan countries, are unable to attain, even when put together- staging an impeccable world cup showpiece- which  the former achieved with grace and elegance silencing the doubters and critics alike more so the Western media.

Its human rights record aside, when it came to stadia, they built seven new spanking facilities in record time – the architectural design dwarfing even the most renowned football arenas in Europe such as Wembley, Parc des Princes and many others, while the Khalifa International Stadium was renovated to give it a new spanking look.

To understand the finesse, time, skill, financial input …that went into it, one needs to look no further but listen to what former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, a top-notch football brain said of their investment, “I have been to various parts of the world but nowhere have I seen such architectural design, it’s out of the world,” Wenger told journalists in one of his many numerous media engagements.

To have a better understanding and comparison, one may look at the economic side of things. Kenya’s GDP per capita as of 2021 stood at $ 2,081, this is dwarfed by Qatar which stood at $ 66,838 over the same period.

So what are the take homes? The physical size of a country does not matter when it comes to staging international events and so is the population.

1)      Qatar despite being a tiny country was able to organize a world class competition that has been hailed as “the best ever” by non-other than Fifa President Gianni Infantino.  This was informed by the building of world class stadia, complete with air-conditioning systems to regulate the high temperatures, world class media centres( each of the eight stadia that hosted the competition had its own media centre) not to forget the main media centre it domiciled at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha and the host city media centre.

2)      That despite being a country of meagre population, they got the job done pulling all stops to ensure that the competition was a success. Workers were sought from every corner of the globe, many from poor  countries such as Kenya who went to peninsula on four-month long contracts jobs, returning home  with averagely Sh450,000 over the same period,  something they can only dream of back home.

3)      The country invested in solid road and rail infrastructure putting some of the European powers to shame. Their rail system (metro) is as modern and electric and driverless - probably one of the most recent in the world.

4) In Kenya, since independence was attained 60 years ago, no major investment has been made to sports bar the efforts of the late president Daniel Arap Moi who bequeathed us Kasarani and Nyayo stadiums. With time, we have proved to the world how inept we’re so much so that we can’t build on the foundation he laid let alone fix the drainage and floodlights at these facilities.

One may argue that Qatar succeeded due to its oil and gas riches – granted. However as citizens and sports stakeholders we need to ask ourselves one question: how would we have fared under almost similar circumstances?

Today, our sports arenas are a crying shame if not an eyesore. Futile and rudderless attempts in the past to host continental tournaments such as the African Nation Championship (CHAN) and the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) have fell flat thanks to poor leadership, clue-less sports administrators, lack of planning and plain stupidity – repeating the same thing numerous times and failing to get the results. A country does not bid to host tournaments of this magnitude for the sake of it. It must have a clear, concise roadmap of getting the work done- having stadia and requisite training facilities ready. On our shores this has never been the case. And chances are high that even if we had the gas deposits and cash to burn, a tournament of such magnitude would have simply birthed more tenderpreneurs and instant billionaires. This is our Achilles heel and the lesson we must draw from Qatar. We must ask ourselves the hard question/s: how do we progress as a country, how do we take our sports forward? It can never be attained through lip service, empty rhetoric and non-existent dreams. Nada!

That Qatar, a country the size of Nyanza province did all this should make us have a moment of reflection. We must call ourselves to a meeting with the view of charting a clear, defined path out of our mess.

Athletics, our number one sports which has brought us endless glory is battling a monster in doping. Equally our football pitches have kissed the devil that is match-fixing – and are in a romance that could lead to the honeymoon.  Rugby, like the directionless Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards has equally made a begging bowl their best companion as stakeholders look the other way.

Youth structures are non-existent yet, somehow we’re made to think we’re on the right path!

The author is an editor at RMS and covered every titbit of the 2022 World Cup Finals in Doha