Football: Turkish company wins Qatar World Cup contract

DOHA: Qatar World Cup organisers announced on Wednesday that Turkish construction company Tefken will build the 40,000-seater Al Thumama Stadium for the tournament in five years’ time.
A statement from the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the tournament organising body in Qatar, said Tefken will work in a joint venture with local firm, Al-Jaber.
“We are delighted to award the main contract to Al-Jaber Engineering and Tekfen as a joint venture,” said the head of the committee, Hassan Al-Thawadi.
Al Thumama will host games through to the quarter-finals in 2022.
It is the seventh stadium for which the main construction contract has now been awarded.
The announcement of a contract being awarded to a Turkish company comes at a time of exceedingly warm relations between the two countries.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Doha earlier this month, along with other officials.
At the time of last year’s failed Turkish coup, it was reported that the first call Erdogan received from a foreign leader was from Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Qatar is currently planning for eight stadiums to be used during 2022.
However, FIFA is yet to make a final decision on the number of venues it wants and Qatar has set aside a parcel of land for a potential ninth stadium.
In its initial bid for the World Cup, Qatar said up to 12 stadiums could be used for the tournament.
Earlier this month, Qatar’s Finance Minister Ali Shareef al-Emadi said the country was spending almost $500 million every week on major infrastructure projects for the World Cup.
That eye-watering level of spending could continue until 2021, he added.