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Qatar faced unprecedented criticism as host country of World Cup, Emir says

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Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attends a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Qatar has faced unprecedented criticism since it was picked as the host of the 2022 World Cup, some of which has amounted to slander, the country’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said in a televised address on Tuesday.

“We dealt with the situation from the beginning in good faith. We even considered some of the criticism as positive and constructive,” he said.

“But it appears to us that the campaign is continuing and expanding and contains slander and double standards.”

-Reuters

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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