DOHA: Rising costs may lead to Qatar reducing the number of stadiums it plans to develop for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Bloomberg, citing a note the US bank issued to investors after meetings with the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, reports that organisers are negotiating with FIFA to cut the number of venues from the original 12 to eight or nine.

In its bid to host the World Cup, Qatar pledged to build nine new stadiums and refurbish three others, all in the space of 10 years.

“We are fully committed to delivering on the commitments we made to FIFA,” said Yasir Al Jamal, technical director of Qatar 2022, in a statement. “The requirement is a minimum of eight and a maximum of 12 stadiums. We are currently working on delivering our first five stadiums.”

Qatar has agreed to spend up to $65bn on developing the infrastructure needed to host the World Cup but this includes not only stadia but massive investment in wider development, including accommodation and a $25bn  rail and metro network.

However, in the note Alberto Ades, head of emerging-market fixed-income strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said costs are likely to exceed the bank’s initial estimate of $95bn.

The note will raise interest among all those countries – Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States – which lost out to surprise winner Qatar in the host vote undertaken by the FIFA executive committee in December 2010.

READ MORE AT:

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Leading official quits FIFA’s Independent Governance Committee  FIFA’s reform efforts have suffered a new blow with the resignation of Alexandra Wrage, one of the key members of its Independent Governance Committee (IGC).  Wrage quit in protest over her belief that reform plans had been watered down…. read more Brazilian government keen to avoid “gentrification” of World Cup stadia Deputy Sports Minister Luis Fernandes has revealed that the Brazilian government is actively working to ensure the country’s staging of the 2014 FIFA World Cup does not result in an unwanted legacy of the “gentrification” of its stadia…. read more Qatar 2022 may scale back World Cup stadia plan Rising costs may lead to Qatar reducing the number of stadiums it plans to develop for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch…. read more FIFA denies claims of Blatter backing for AFC presidential candidate FIFA has moved to deny claims from Yousuf Al-Serkal that he has the backing of Sepp Blatter, as the race for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nears the finishing line…. read more Bayer Leverkusen to offer “stadium of the future” experience Bayer 04 Leverkusen has revealed details of a new partnership with Deutsche Telekom and Cisco which it states will transform the BayArena into a “stadium of the future”…. read more Prefer your news online? Stopped receiving your usual copy? Click here! Player foundations – to do good or to look good? Daniel Wood, managing director of Back in Football, discusses the work of footballers for charitable causes…. Footballers have a huge amount of responsibility on their shoulders and are idolised by fans worldwide. When more people can start to see and feel the good work that they do, I believe this will also push more players to do more, which can then really instigate change and affect a whole range of causes in a positive way…. read more
Expecting to read more here? As part of our ongoing improvements to our news service our stories are now kept online. Just click ‘read more’ after each story to read them in full.