The most expensive World Cup football match in history officially kicked off, but the landlord Qatar lost 0:2 to Ecuador in the first game, setting a historical shameful record for the first landlord country to lose in the opening match. Although Qatar has successfully become the focus 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 has spent US$229 billion to host this World Cup.
How big of an expense is this? In previous sessions, Russia spent 11.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, Brazil spent 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, South Africa spent 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, Germany spent 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, South Korea and Japan spent a total of 7 billion U.S. dollars in 2002. France and the United States in 1994 cost US$2.3 billion and US$500 million, respectively.
This means that the amount spent by Qatar is nearly 5.2 times the sum of expenditures in the past seven sessions.
Held for the first time in the northern hemisphere winter
There are many reasons for the need to spend so much money, but Qatar’s climate is the biggest factor.
Due to the tropical desert climate here, the maximum temperature may reach over 50 degrees Celsius in the summer from May to October, which makes this year’s first choice to be held in the northern hemisphere winter, but even in November, the average temperature in Qatar still reaches nearly 30 degrees , and the huge temperature difference at night makes it difficult to hold the competition.
For this reason, Qatar installed air conditioners in the stadium for the first time and invested heavily in hardware construction.
In addition, due to the conflict between the game time and the football seasons of various countries, Qatar had to resort to a large amount of subsidies for players and huge bonuses to attract players to participate. The current champion team will receive US$42 million in prize money, an increase of US$4 million over 2018 and a record high. The runner-up will receive US$30 million and the third runner-up will receive US$27 million.
Fortunately, Qatar’s family is rich enough to help them sustain the situation. Qatar is rich in oil, 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
In addition, although huge losses cannot be avoided, football events are already highly commercialized, which can 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 viewing group, 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 largest number of people watching the World Cup in the world. 656 million people watched the World Cup in Russia, accounting for 18.4% of the total audience.
Sufficient audience will naturally help to attract sponsors to participate. Statistics show that the total sponsorship amount of Chinese enterprises in 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 topped the list with US$207 million in sponsorship value per year, followed by Qatari companies at US$134 million and US companies at US$128 million.
FIFA estimates that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is expected to generate a total revenue of US$4.666 billion.
This also means that for the next month or so, Qatar has made great efforts for many years, and it may take many years in the future to prove whether this crazy huge investment is worth it.