Analysis-Qatar scores as World Cup host but may not net long-term goals

DOHA : Tucked behind Doha's $300-million Lusail Boulevard, where construction workers are toiling to transform desert into a Champs-Elysees-inspired commercial thoroughfare before the 2022 soccer World Cup, sits a sole convenience store.

With the main stadium, four skyscrapers and apartments designed for some 200,000 people all in Lusail, its manager Younes waits somewhat anxiously behind his till, anticipating a rush of trade when the event finally kicks off in November.

Gas-rich Qatar, in an attempt to emulate the dramatic transformation of Gulf rivals Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has spent at least $229 billion on infrastructure in the 11 years since winning the bid to host the World Cup.

Much of the work was planned independently as Qatar pushes to diversify its non-energy economy, with ambitions to become a regional business hub and to triple tourist numbers to 6 million a year by 2030, a government official told Reuters.

But analysts and academics are not convinced that the big spending from its gas revenues will mean Qatar can fulfil its economic dream once the 28-day tournament ends.

Younes, who declined to give his surname, also has doubts.

"After the World Cup, what will happen? Will business go down or up? We don't know," he said.

Qatar faces stiff competition from regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which offer larger and more established markets and greater variety for tourists.

But that has not deterred the tiny, cash-rich state as it spends its way onto the global stage. At the peak of its building boom in 2016, Qatar spent 18 per cent of GDP on infrastructure, dwarfing the sums spent on staging previous World Cups.

South Africa shelled out $3.3 billion on infrastructure to prepare for the