Qatar's sporting ambitions undented by controversy

Corruption claims and alleged abuse of migrants building facilities for the 2022 World Cup have not dampened Qatar's appetite to become the "world capital" of prestigious sport events.
Cleared last week by FIFA of wrongdoing in gaining the right to host the World Cup, the Gulf emirate last Tuesday won the right to organise the 2019 Athletics World Championships.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced Doha had beaten off Barcelona and Eugene, Oregon, to the dismay of international human rights campaigners.
The Gulf state, which sits on the world's third largest gas reserves, has also offered help - ultimately rejected - organising the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015 after Morocco refused to host the tournament over fears of the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

"Doha will become the world's capital of sports," sports minister Salah bin Ghanem al-Ali told AFP.
The energy-rich country has employed its wealth to lead Arab countries in hosting global sports events.

It is reaping the benefits of a policy launched in the 1990s under which it invested tens of billions of dollars in sports, both at home and overseas.
As a sign of the importance of sports, Nasser al-Khelaifi, the president of French champions Paris Saint-Germain, is also a state minister in Qatar.
Qatar also owns the BeIN Sports television channel, which has an increasingly large audience spread beyond the Middle East.

The country will organise the world short-course swimming championships in December, the handball World Cup in early 2015 and the world cycling road championships in 2016, Ali noted.
The busy agenda reflects the "confidence of the international sports community in Qatar's ability to organise international sporting events," he said.
Qatar's 2022 World Cup Organising Committee unveiled in Riyadh on Monday a model of the renovated design for Khalifa Stadium with a seating capacity of 40,000 and equipped with a cooling system to overcome the desert country's temperatures that exceed 45 degrees celsius in summer.