Abdul Hameed Al-Shatti opens his heart to the East: Qatar created, entertained and dazzled the world

Abdul Hameed Al-Shatti opens his heart to the East: Qatar created, entertained and dazzled the world

Dialogue: Muhammad Ali Al-Mohannadi

Kuwaiti journalist Abdul Hameed Hussein Al-Shatti, the goalkeeper of the Kuwait, Qadisiyah and Salmiya national teams, who worked for the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa, and then in 2000 moved to work for the newspaper Al-Qabas, is visiting Doha these days. he has several sports betting shops, to watch the atmosphere of the World Cup and follow the matches He spoke about the hosting of the World Cup in Qatar and his sports career He opened his heart to the East and such was the dialogue.

At the beginning of his speech, he confirmed that he was born on February 14, 1956, and said: My sports career is full of gifts. She started at Al-Farabi School, then at Al-Rumaithiya School, where I played as a goalkeeper and was encouraged by the teachers. I also played with the school team, and I joined the Kuwaiti club Al-Qadisiyah in 1968 and played with it. When I got the chance in 1972 and we won several championships including the League, the Cup and the AFC Cup, I had a wonderful experience with Qadsia and I shone in the matches I played. I had with me the stars of the golden era of Kuwaiti football such as Jassem Yaqoub , Hamad Bu Hamad, Farouk Ibrahim, Faisal Al-Dakhil, Karim Nassar, Abdullah Al-Asfour, Abdullah Al-Issa and others, then moved to the Al-Salmiya club and played for the Kuwait national team.

Santos and Qadisiyah answer

On the memory of the match that brought together the club Al-Qadisiyah and the Brazilian club Santos, he said: I played the match of my life with the club Al-Qadisiyah in its golden age, which includes a distinguished elite of stars, with the Brazilian club Santos team with its big stars led by the king Al-Jawhar (Peleom) where the Brazilian team visited the region and toured Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, as well as Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt. I remember playing at the Shuwaikh High School Stadium on 14/2/1973. We didn’t have grass stadiums then. The first time the women came to us cheering and watching player Pele and we managed to snatch a breakthrough goal scored by the terrifying Jassem Yaqoub, then from a beautiful deceptive ball Pele scored the equalizer with a back-heel and then prepared for himself and placed it in the far corner. The press wrote about my brilliance while playing the game of my life in my sports history. Star Pele also praised my level and brilliance. He shook my hand warmly at the ceremony and I was very happy. The news and press followed this game, and Egypt also asked for a live broadcast of the game, because after Kuwait, Santos will play Egypt’s Al-Ahly, which Santos won by five goals.

Qatar succeeded par excellence

He added: “I have followed the development of sports in Qatar for a long time, and Qatar has organized many international tournaments in various games and succeeded in them, such as the 1988 Asian Nations Championship and the 1995 FIFA Youth World Cup, organized in a record short time, within three week, following Nigeria’s apology.” , Asian Football Championship 2011, Asian Games Championship 2006 and other international tournaments, about more than 500 tournaments.

Qatar promised and fulfilled

He explained, saying: We were pleased with Qatar’s victory in hosting the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup Finals, the biggest football tournament in the world and a global football event watched by hundreds of millions in countries around the world, and Qatar outperformed the big countries thanks to its good record in 2010, and since that time, Qatar has been working day and night to make this edition exceptional, different and different from all tournaments, despite the difficult circumstances that Qatar was going through and the conditions of pandemics, the spread of the corona epidemic around the world, and malicious campaigns and rumors to withdraw the World Cup from Qatar, jealousy, envy and western hatred. About Qatar and Islamic countries, but Qatar did not pay attention to these rumors, but rather continued the march and started work on the infrastructure and construction of 8 international stadiums inspired by the environment and the Qatari and Arab heritage, which are environmentally friendly and sustainable and are considered a legacy for future generations. Arabs 2021 as an experiment before the World Cup and achieved great success, and thus the Arabic language was adopted as an official language in the International Federation of Football Associations, which is an achievement in itself, so Qatar made great efforts to introduce the Arabic language In FIFA, Qatar completed all infrastructure projects, hospitals, roads, railways (metro) two years before hosting the tournament, Hamad International Airport and a large road network of various bridges, tunnels and other requirements of the International Federation.

Dazzle and entertain

He said: “Qatar has dazzled the world with its beautiful professional organization. The opening ceremony was beautiful and imaginative and expresses the Qatari environment, tradition, folklore and interest in women. The matches were also strong and exciting and the technical level was high due to their staying in the winter season, especially since the players came to Doha after playing in various leagues, and are at an excellent technical level, and the advantage is the proximity of the stadium and the audience can watch more matches, and the (Railway) metro takes you to all stadiums and tourist spots within a few minutes very fast because every two minutes there is a metro and its experience was fun and easy to access and it also transports you for free because you have a haya card which gives you free bus rides and free treatment and free entry to the fan stands , and when you come to Qatar, the phone companies give you a free mobile sim in the air, sea., and land drops.

The people of Qatar

He said that one of the good and attractive scenes that the masses talked about was the kindness, generosity and tradition of the people of Qatar. In fact, I have seen everyone welcoming the masses in their own way. There are people close to the stadiums, handing out pancakes, sweets, popular food, water, juices and Arabic coffee to the crowds leaving the stadium. The opening of the assembly also caught my eye. some Qataris escorted some of the masses to the tourist areas, especially the sandy area of ​​Sealine and its beautiful beaches, the town of Al-Khor and the area of ​​Mangarouf.

fan zone

Regarding fan zones, he said: I heard that there are more than (95) fan zones (Fan Zones) for the masses in Qatar, all of which offer different fan activities, songs and popular folklore and songs from different countries .. And circus and others, and Qatar has opened tourism projects such as the old port of Doha, which has been transformed into a beautiful tourist area, and don’t forget the Lusail Trail, and Qatar, which has many beautiful heritage events, especially the activities of bunks and Omani folk dances, and a city of caravans and a city of tents and stuff to set up fans, and honestly, I loved it. The beds with the flags (32) of the participating countries are a beautiful sight.

Financial rewards

Regarding the championship prizes, he said that FIFA has allocated financial prizes for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which is the largest in the history of the World Cup and is about (440) million dollars, so the first place gets (42) million dollars, and the second place will will receive (30) million dollars. The third place will receive (27) million dollars, and the fourth place will receive (25) million dollars, and the holders of the centers from the fifth to the eighth place will receive (17) million dollars, while the holders of positions from (9- 16) get 13 million each As for the position holders (17-32), each team will receive (9) million dollars for each team, and all teams will be allocated an amount of 1.5 million dollars to prepare for this tournament.