The most expensive World Cup soccer match in history has officially begun, but hosts Qatar lost 0:2 to Ecuador in the first game, setting a shameful all-time record for the first host country to lose in the opening match. Although Qatar has successfully become the center of global attention, the price it has paid has been extremely heavy.
Most expensive World Cup ever
Statistics show that as the first World Cup in history to be held in the Middle East and Arabia, Qatar spent $229 billion to host this World Cup.
How big is this expense? In previous sessions, Russia spent US$11.6 billion in 2018, Brazil spent US$15 billion in 2014, South Africa spent US$3.6 billion in 2010, Germany spent 4, $3 billion in 2006, South Korea and Japan spent a total of $7 billion in 2002. France and the United States in 1994 cost $2.3 billion and $500 million, respectively .
This means that the amount spent by Qatar is almost 5.2 times the sum of expenditures in the last seven sessions.
First held in the Northern Hemisphere winter
There are many reasons for the need to spend so much money, but Qatar’s climate is the most important factor.
Due to the tropical desert climate here, the maximum temperature can reach 50 degrees Celsius in the summer from May to October, making it the first choice of this year to be held in the northern hemisphere winter, but also in November, the average temperature in Qatar still reaches almost 30 degrees, and the huge temperature difference at night makes it difficult to keep up with the competition.
For this reason, Qatar installed air conditioners in the stadium for the first time and invested heavily in the construction of the hardware.
In addition, due to the conflict between playing time and various countries’ football seasons, Qatar had to resort to a large amount of player subsidies and huge bonuses to attract players to participate. The current champion team will receive $42 million in prize money, an increase of $4 million from 2018. Runner-up will receive $30 million and third-place finisher will receive $27 million.
Luckily, the Qatari family is wealthy enough to help them sustain the situation. Qatar is rich in petroleum, natural gas and related associated resources, among which natural gas reserves rank third in the world, crude oil reserves rank fourteenth in the world, and helium reserves rank second in the world .
Total revenue estimated at less than $5 billion
Also, while huge losses cannot be avoided, football events are already highly commercialized, which may help them offset some costs.
Broadcasting rights are the main source of income. The World Cup has the largest audience of any sporting event.
According to FIFA data, a total of 3.572 billion people watched the World Cup in Russia. Asia is still the largest group of viewers, with 1.6 billion Asians watching the World Cup, accounting for 43.7% of the total viewing population. And China is the country with the most people watching the World Cup in the world: 656 million people watched the World Cup in Russia, which is 18.4% of the total audience.
A sufficient audience will naturally help attract sponsors to attend. Statistics show that the total amount of sponsorship of Chinese enterprises in the Qatar World Cup reached 1.395 billion US dollars, ranking first in the world, and the United States ranked second with 1.1 billion US dollars.
On an annual basis, Chinese companies top the list with $207 million in sponsorship value annually, followed by Qatari companies with $134 million and US companies with $128 million.
FIFA estimates that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will generate a total revenue of $4.666 billion.
This also means that for the next month or so, Qatar has been putting in a lot of effort for many years and it may take many years in the future to prove if it is worth it.
