3-2-1 Museum expected to reach 500,000 visitors by year end

The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum has already reached the milestone of 100,000 visitors by Sunday and expects to have 500,000 visitors by the end of this year.“As of today we have reached 100,000 visitors since His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamd al-Thani opened it on March 30, 2022 ,” museum director Abdulla al-Mulla told a press conference held to announce the details of ‘World of Football’ exhibition. “Any Sports museum is an extra special spot and considering all the fans that are coming from around the world to attend the World Cup 2022, we expect the number of visitors to reach 500,000 by the year end,” noted, Aalia Khalid al-Khater, acting head of exhibitions at the museum.Al-Khater continued: “This is our first exhibition in the museum and it is quite satisfying that we hold an exhibition within such a short span of time since our opening. It is a fitting time to host such an exhibition as we are hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 from next month. We have had the amazing opportunity to partner and work with many international museums and make this exhibition happen. The last part of the exhibition highlights this year’s World Cup and therefore we have many more materials to be added to the exhibition from this year’s World Cup."“Over 200 items are displayed at the exhibition. Some of the permanent collections of the museum is on display. The balls from each match from the quarter finals of 2022 will also be added to the exhibition,” she added. According to Andrew Pearce, the curator of the exhibition, it tells a story that even started before the first World Cup in 1930. “It tells about 1860s when the first laws of football were written. We are very privileged to have one of the those manuscripts. Our story starts there and it travels through all the World Cups until 2018 and then we followed the road to Doha. We speak about Qatar’s football history, all the World Cup stadiums in the country and we take the journey to the future and how Qatar is using football for social change,” said Pearce. Taking inspiration from the structure of a typical football match, the exhibition is presented in two halves. The first – Football for All, All for Football – examines the universal and global appeal of football. The second – The Road to Doha – takes the visitor from the first FIFA Men’s World Cup matches in Uruguay in 1930 to the final in this year’s tournament at the Lusail Stadium on December 18, 2022. The “extra time” section, History in the Making, will expand throughout the duration of the World Cup, as items from the tournament such as footballs, shoes, scarves, tickets, posters, official merchandise, and other objects, are added to commemorate events that make history in Qatar.