Qatar \\\'ready\\\' for 2015 men\\\'s world championship

DOHA, Jan 12 (AFP): Tiny, gas-rich Qatar, pushing ahead with its sporting ambitions, has completed preparations for hosting the 2015 men's world championship which opens in Doha on Thursday, organisers said.

"The championship will present a big challenge and Qatar is completely ready" to host the tournament, said Qatar 2015 organising committee director general Thani al-Kuwari.

"The committee has completed 99 per cent of preparations and only some minor details remain," he told AFP, three days before the start of the tournament.

The opening ceremony will take place in Lusail Hall, a stadium with a seating capacity for 15,000 spectators, while the final games, scheduled to take place on February 1, will be held in two other stadiums-Al-Sadd Club (7,000 spectators) and Duhail (4,000 spectators).

Teams from 24 countries will participate in the championship and the first match on Thursday will take place between Qatar and Brazil.

The opening ceremony will bring together 24 artists from different countries and will focus on the theme of "childhood."

The cup, made of pure gold, will be offered by Qatar, said Kuwari.

'No fatalities'

Kuwari also stressed that building of the stadiums went smoothly without causing fatalities in the ranks of thousands of foreign workers, most of them Asian, who built these facilities.

Qatar has come under the media microscope since winning the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with doubts thrown up over corruption, its human rights record and treatment of its massive foreign workforce.