Argentina lifts WC and Qatar's building frenzy reaches its day of reckoning

It’s a date in the calendar that’s been looming even for one of the wealthiest countries on the planet.
 

As Qatar returns to its sleepier pace after Argentina triumphed in Sunday’s final of a controversial, yet often breathtaking football World Cup, the next challenge is already upon the nation of 3 million people: how to prevent a dozen years of furious development from turning its sole metropolis into the Gulf’s most conspicuous white elephant.

“I kept always telling them that I worry about December 19th when the tournament is over,” Berthold Trenkel, chief operating officer of Qatar Tourism, said at