MEGA-spending Qatar are pouring almost £400million EVERY WEEK on major infrastructure projects in preparation for the 2022 World Cup.
It would be enough to have made Jules Rimet's eyes water… but that's the way it will be for another three to four years.
Finance minister Ali al-Emadi has denied that it will be the most expensive World Cup ever.
In total the gas-rich emirate will spend £160billion as costs continue to soar on new stadiums, motorways, rail links and hospitals.
But Mr Emadi denied that the plans would make the 2022 tournament the most expensive World Cup yet.
He said: “We are putting $200bn in terms of infrastructure… If you look at stand alone, the World Cup, no it is not.”
The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is reported to have cost £8.8bn to host, while Russia increased government spending on the 2018 World Cup by £256m to £8.54bn.
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Brazil struggled to get many of its stadiums ready, but Mr Emadi insisted that Qatar have apparently awarded 90 per cent of the contracts for 2022 projects and that two-thirds would be delivered within the next 24 months.
"That doesn’t mean the stadiums only, we are talking about highways, rail, ports, airports, those are really underway, even hospitals and everything.
WHAT CAN £400 MILLION BUY YOU?
- One Boeing 747-8 aircraft converted into the ultimate private jet with restaurant, conference room and luxury bedrooms
- 200,000,000 Euromillions tickets
- 400,000 top-priced Wembley tickets for the Capital One Cup final
- 2,000 top of the range Bentley Continental GTs
- Eight luxury Grade I-listed houses that lie in a crescent just off Regent's Park in London
- One half of Harmony of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship
- Four high-tech roller coasters like the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida
"We are giving ourselves a good chance to deliver things on time," explained Emadi. "We don't want to be in a place where we start painting when people are coming to the country."
Mr Emadi also said the money for the World Cup projects had been protected from cuts to the national budget caused by low oil and gas prices.
Contractors have brought in hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, mainly from South Asian nations.
But human rights groups complain they have been exploited and forced to work under dangerous conditions and in extreme heat.
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