A delegation of the Council of Europe’s Sport Conventions’ division carried out a visit to Doha from 16 to 20 December 2019 at the occasion of the FIFA Club World Cup, Qatar 2019™. This visit took place in the framework of the Project entitled “Promoting the benefits of sport for society with partnership actions between governments and the sports movement: supporting safety, security and service arrangements for Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022”, agreed between the Council of Europe and the State of Qatar represented by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.

The team, composed of European experts in the field of safety, security and service at major sports events and senior project officers from the Council of Europe, met with authorities responsible for the organisation of the FIFA World Cup 2022 (i.e. representatives of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Stadium managers, high officials from the Ministry of Interior…), representatives of the private sectors, international police delegations as well as football fans who made the trip to Qatar for this competition.

This visit was an excellent opportunity to observe the preparations and the management of the event, the pre-match phase (fan zone, transportation to the stadia, police deployment, arrival of fans, ingress, search and screening, stewarding…) and the post-match phase (crowd egress, access to public transportation…)

Besides its meetings, the delegation also carried out interviews with key persons in the organisation of major sports events, such as the Head of the International Police Cooperation Centre (IPCC), match commanders, representatives of international police delegations (including spotters), representatives of Private Security, stadium managers… These interviews will be used as training material for the future activities to be implemented in Qatar in the frame of this project.

The Council of Europe Sport Conventions’ secretariat wishes to extend its gratitude to the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy for the excellent organization of this visit by accommodating all its requests in terms of meetings, visits of institutions and interviews, despite a heavy agenda and public holidays in Qatar. The secretariat would also like to thank the experts, Mr Adrian Dinca (NFIP Romania), Mr Rodrigo Cavaleiro (National authority for the Prevention and the Fight against Sport-related Violence, Portugal), Mr Rick Riding (Sports Ground Safety Authority, UK) and Mr Ronan Evain (Football Supporters Europe), for their invaluable input and their longstanding commitment to the activities of the Council of Europe’s sport division.