The 11th of September, I was invited as second jury by Pr. Jean-Christophe Dissart for the master thesis defense of Mayssa Jammoul (Master International Cooperation in Urban Planning, Institute of Urban Planning and Alpine Geography, Grenoble). Her topic was the impact of such mega event as a football world cup on urban development.
Abstract by M. Jammoul
Hosting the 2022 FIFA Men’s world cup is a turning point for Qatar, a nation that is in transition, with a small surface and population, and wealthy in natural gas reserves. It is a remarkable chance to have a unique opportunity and leave a positive legacy for the nation. In any case, the preparation, execution, and the resulting impacts of such occasions are challenging initiative with critical long term impacts on the economy, society, and environment in the host nation. This study tends to the intersection between mega events and national vision, to systematically approach from past mega-events and apply that to the case of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The Qatari bid proposed a new FIFA Men’s World Cup (WC) spatial compact model around just one city area. Herein, the projects, the vision , and the challenges in this scenario are evaluated accordingly, showing that local organizers are targeting on urban development concepts, upholding the idea of legacies .