With Qatar soon to be at the center of world sport, the World Health Organization and Qatar Ministry of Health are stepping up their efforts to help make this year’s celebration of football, the ‘Game of the World’, a beacon of health and safety launchpad for exchange of lessons with major sporting events in the future.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, which is scheduled to take place in Doha from November 20th to December 18th, is a unique platform for us to promote health worldwide and to communicate that sport and health belong together. They are intertwined, playing together in a celebration of joy, well-being and solidarity for billions of people around the world.
Our partnership at Sport For Health has two main goals: first, to work with key partners to help make the 2022 FIFA World Cup – the first in the Middle East – healthy and safe; and second, to capture and share lessons learned with our partners and organizers of other major sporting events.
The partnership, which is supported by FIFA and Qatar’s Supreme Implementation and Legacy Committee as part of efforts to promote health through football around the world, began last October. Since then we have worked closely together to promote physical health and well-being in a variety of ways. These include promoting health and nutrition awareness during the holy month of Ramadan, participating in the third edition of the Walk the Talk: Health For All Challenge initiative in Geneva, and raising awareness of the harm caused by smoking on World No Tobacco Day.
By focusing on physical activity, healthy diet and nutrition, tobacco control, mental health and health security, we work to provide guidance on how to improve the physical and mental health of everyone worldwide through sport.
Our goals are ambitious and are based on three main pillars: first, to advance health through strategic collaborations with governments and sports organizations, reaching billions of people through football and other sports; second, to make major sporting events safe for fans, players and staff; and third, sharing information with the public to help them make healthy lifestyle choices.
The partnership leverages this year’s FIFA World Cup to promote the health benefits of physical activity for all through sport, by developing new tools to reach people of all ages, especially youth. As a partner, we have been busy developing science-based guidelines through technical engagement to teach the importance of physical activity.
One of the key findings is that good mental health can often be associated with regular physical activity, which may include exercising or just walking and participating in physical activities with others. This can also help promote a sense of inclusion and community.
Whether you’re engaged in high-intensity workouts or even just gardening, every effort counts for a healthy mind and body. To further promote healthy living, we emphasize the importance of nutrition by demonstrating the benefits of healthy dietary choices at major sporting events.
Likewise, at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, smoke-free stadiums and bans on tobacco advertising will help protect people from this deadly product. The benefit of these measures will help promote and protect the health of sports enthusiasts at future major sporting events.
Finally, ensuring the safety of sporting events through a commitment to health security is a fundamental pillar of the project.
From ensuring protocols are implemented for mass gatherings outside and inside stadiums, to ensuring control measures are in place to protect people from infectious disease outbreaks, we are committed to working with partners to ensure all necessary steps are taken to make sporting events like carry out the FIFA World Cup, safe and secure.
As we all know, teamwork is essential for success in sport. The same applies to the protection and promotion of health. For this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar and beyond, we are committed to working together to harness the global power of sport to help people lead healthier lives.
The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
Comments are closed.