How Project Management Can Contribute to Positive Legacy in FIFA 2022 in Qatar
Chapter One
Aim of the Dissertation
The core goal of this study is to put a clear understanding of the roles of the project managers in contributing to the positive legacy from FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Meaning of this Aim
Hosting mega events have always been privileged to the already developed countries but since 2008, developing countries have contributed to hosting of these events. For instance, China held Olympic Games in 2008 while South Africa held it in 2010. According to Arago (2015) World Cup provides the incentive of creating infrastructure while also promoting international exposure of the host country; thus boosting their business and tourism alliances. “the impact of the sporting industry on economic decision making has increased dramatically… tourism and advertising revenues generated by mega-events such as World Cup or Olympic Games have become a major boost to the hosting nations (Bohlmann & Heerden, 2008, pg. 383).” The event leaves behind legacies, which according to Cardoso, Fleury, and Malaia (2013) refers to the structures built for the event and remain after the event is over. These are the ones used to evaluate the positive impact of hosting World Cup.
Before hosting this event, the host country must develop these legacies to ensure that the event will run smoothly without any hindrance. In this case, hosting World Cup is more of multiple projects laid to achieve a common goal. As such, the paper aims at evaluating the role that project management has to ensure that the preparation of this event the developed structures will leave behind a positive legacy. As Preuss (2013) claims, it is the goal of this event to have a positive impact for both social, cultural, and environment aspect of the host country. Besides, hosting World Cup involves a high opportunity cost as Cardoso, Fleury, and Malaia (2013) note. This leads to a massive investment on the legacies that have an adverse effect on the host country such as reduction in some public services, high taxation levels, and greater government borrowing. As a consequence, it is important to ensure that the event leaves positive impact despite these drawbacks. Correspondingly, the developing countries are as well interested in hosting the event where their governments are not effective, and some are corrupted. This raises the interest of assessing how these countries or rather any host country can reap positive legacies from the event. Qatar having won the bid to host this event in 2022, it is the aim of the study to evaluate the obligation that project management has in leading to the positive legacies of this event.
General Background
The Federation International de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup is among the followed and watched event across the world. The event is held after every four years creating excitement and expectation for the hosting country (Ramdas, Gaalen, & Bolton, 2015). Therefore, the event results in numerous positive effects for the host country. For instance, in 2006, Germany held FIFA World Cup attracting an audience of more than 26.29 billion people (Ramdas, Gaalen, & Bolton, 2015). As such, hosting this event is an excellent chance for the host country to show its national cultural identity to the globe. The new structures are as well associated with both economic, infrastructural, and social benefits. Such effects according to the Ramdas, Gaalen, and Bolton (2015) are among the consistent effects of hosting FIFA World Cup; thus being classified as a mega event.
Hosting the World Cup event is a mega project for the host country. It is upon the project managers to ensure that they establish structures that will have positive impact to the host country during and after the event. Despite the nature and size of this project, the outcome of the event is the key factor used to assess the effectiveness of this event. The aims of hosting the event are direct according to Death (2011) who claims that it is to accommodate and host the international mega event. Nonetheless, there are more of that the host country aims while hosting the event apart from these two goals. Moreover, as a project, it is important for the project managers to consider the project time. This project facet ensures that the host country is prepared of to establish the required project tasks while incorporating necessary changes to what is usually done in other host countries. Time is essential in affirming that the projected structures will be established on time before hosting the event to avoid wasting resources. As a result, project management should strictly adhere to the time aspect of the project to ensure that all the proposed structures are established and functional before the event starts.
Another important project aspect to consider in preparation for the World Cup event is the risks involved. Since most of the preparations made are in the form of structures, the host country should ensure that they take into considerations the risk measures that may arise during these constructions. This calls for adequate safety procedures as a way of mitigating the project risks. The project cost is yet another crucial aspect to consider once a country has won the bid to host FIFA World Cup. Overspending is a major attribute of most of the mega projects; thus it is essential for the project managers to possess the expertise required to manage project resources. In addition, it is prevalent that FIFA lays more emphasis in making money than the game itself; thus important for the project manager to ensure that project funds are appropriately allocated and managed to ensure that the host country does not strain to meet the demands of the event.
With such conflicting and demanding ideas of the project management practices in preparation for this event, it is important to evaluate the mechanisms that may contribute to the positive impact of the event while at the same time abiding by these constraints. It is evident that hosting this event involves huge expenditures for the host country. It is the role of this country to ensure that such expenditures will yield more benefits from these structures while bringing out the full development goals of the host country. among the expected benefits of the event as per Molly and Chetty (2015) include poverty mitigation, job creation, and infrastructure provision, which are the key expected goals of this event. However, the difference between the anticipated benefits and real outcomes of the event refers to the legacy. FIFA World Cup legacy is manifested in venues built to host the event such as velodromes, stadiums, and swimming pools (Molly & Chetty, 2015). However, establishing these venues is associated with the cost overruns, delays, and underutilization, thus, the need for ensuring that the project management practices employed are effective to facilitate and enhance the achievement of more legacies that are positive.
Problem Definition
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar offers the best opportunities for the entire country while at the same time poses substantial challenges. The primary benefits that the country expects from this mega event are enhancing the infrastructures as well as services in regard to sustaining prosperity, which will result to the accomplishment of the country’s long-term ambition. Likewise, it is the hope of the country that after hosting the event, they will establish both social, cultural, human, economic, and environmental strategies that will lead to the long-term benefits allowing for future reserves. This, therefore, proves why hosting this mega event is key to the future developments of Qatar. Equally, Qatar will be the first Middle Eastern country to host World Cup. However, the country needs to increase the performance and implementation of the construction plans for the event to end in success. This follows the awareness of the need for success that has been expressed following the limited infrastructures as well as the bulky abstract design of ideas. Despite the success of hosting similar events such as AFC Asian Cup in 2011 and FIFA U-20 Football Cup in 1995, concerns have been raised on how effective the event will be implemented due to its conspicuous climatic features. In the attempt of defending themselves, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) committed itself to offering a comfort zone for both users and players using cooling technologies as a way of meeting the FIFA requirements.
Most of the hosting countries aim at creating a positive impact on both the economic, environment and social aspect as a way of creating sustainability of the event. In this perspective, these nations aims at ensuring that their current conditions have been enhanced once they have hosted this event. This misconception is inappropriate as in most of the instances leads to making of bad decisions by upholding greater hopes from the event. Preuss (2013) add that most of the mega events have a tendency of mobilizing considerable resources in a short duration and later disappear leaving long-life consequences. This tendency is prevalent when the event organizers focus on the event itself and forget to account for basic issues such as the environmental progress of the event. With the increased focus on the positive impact of the event, it is important to evaluate the effective approaches to ensuring that the long-term consequences of the event are mitigated. This calls for the responsible parties to take appropriate actions in ensuring that the long-term effects of the event are improved.
Infrastructures according to Preuss (2013) are among the long-term influences of this event. In preparation for this event, QFA has promised to deliver 12 stadiums, where three of these stadiums will have to be renovated on a $3 billion budget. However, the climatic condition of Qatar does not meet that of the technical requirements of FIFA; thus more spending will be incurred in moderating the temperature of these stadiums (Sofotasiu, Hughes, & Calautit, 2015). The event, therefore, is expected to incur more money compared to what other countries incurred after hosting the event.
As such, the event is expected to have positive legacies that can benefit Qatar in numerous ways in future. Project managers in charge of the entire project are mandated to lead Qatar to success, by ensuring that the country will incur both short and long-term benefits after hosting World Cup. To achieve this, the structures established in preparation for the event should have leave positive legacy to Qatar. In this case, therefore, the study aims at assessing the role that project management has in facilitating this positive impact. This follows the methodology used to execute the project, ensure that it is executed within the project cost, and schedule while meeting the FIFA requirements. Along the same line, the study evaluates the major stakeholders of this project and the role that they have in ensuring that the study leads to a successful closure. The positive legacy, in this case, will be based on both the economic, social, cultural, infrastructural, and cultural aspect of the Qatar people.
Objectives of the study
The main objective of this study is to determine how project management can contribute to a positive legacy in FIFA 2022 in Qatar.
In the attempt to achieve the primary objective of the study, it is the goal of the study to achieve the following objectives.
- To construct a conceptual framework of the key principles to illustrate how PM can contribute to a positive legacy in FIFA 2022 in Qatar.
- To explore the views of the key stakeholders involved in organizing FIFA games and understand their views of how PM can contribute to a positive legacy in FIFA 2022 in Qatar.
- To present the findings arising from the key stakeholders as a descriptive case study
- As an output of the study, present a model of the key attributes that illustrates how PM can contribute to a positive legacy in FIFA 2022 in Qatar
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