Supreme Committee Secretary-General Hassan al-Thawadi with members of his team.
The US delegation which made an official visit to the State of Qatar included Democratic senators Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, and Republican Senator Cory Gardner, and were accompanied by the US ambassador to Qatar, Dana Shell Smith. They received an overview of progress taking place towards the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar from the SC Secretary General, and then had the opportunity to see the developments first hand as they toured Khalifa International Stadium – which is set to be the first World Cup stadium to be completed in Qatar by the end of this year.
“We were pleased to have met with this high-ranking delegation of US Senators and given them first-hand information about our progress in a number of areas, including stadium construction, our workers’ welfare standards and their implementation, and human and economic legacy initiatives,” said SC Secretary General al-Thawadi.
“The first World Cup in the Arab world will be held in a country which like the US loves sport, and a region which is crazy about football. We take this tournament as an opportunity to accelerate human and economic progress, and we are already seeing this taking place on workers’ welfare. The legacy we leave behind will be our measure of success for this tournament,” al-Thawadi added.
A range of topics were discussed during the meeting, including co-operation between the two countries, US companies working on SC projects, the safety record on SC construction sites which includes zero work-related fatalities, and the development and implementation of the SC’s Workers’ Welfare Standards as it continues to make workers’ welfare a top priority across all construction sites.