Under the guidance of the Managing Director, Dr. Mariam Ali Abdul Malik, PHCC has successfully completed the spectators screening project who attended the FIFA Club World Cup to complement the success achieved in managing the same project at the conclusion of HH Amir Cup and AFC Finals 2020, following the methodology and the firm system starting from Project Strategic Planning to Operational Implementation Phase.

PHCC was responsible to screen the spectators to minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread, taking into consideration the latest public health measures including risk assessment, social distancing, specific hygiene regimes and resource planning.

Doha hosted this major tournament from 4th Feb 2021 to 11th Feb 2021. The tournament included high profile teams from across the world and 7 matches were held at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium and Education City Stadium, which have been equipped to host the upcoming World Cup.

PHCC, in partnership with Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), supported Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SCDL) in hosting the tournament as per the new sports protocols, which were suited to the world’s COVID-19 current phase.

PHCC played a clear role by managing all the related activities for conducting COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Testing for the spectators within 72 hours before each match. As per the health regulations and protocols in Qatar, the stadia spectator’s capacity allowed for the FIFA Club World Cup was 25% stadia capacity for each game including the final match. PHCC team went live with Rapid Antigen Testing for around 25,000 of spectators at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).

To organize and deliver such a unique and complex project with stakeholders from different organizations covering strategic to operational levels, this demanded a blend of project management and agile approach. Our priority was to ensure everyone’s safety, in line with the measures implemented by the State of Qatar in alignment with FIFA Safety Protocols.

“I am extremely grateful to be entrusted to lead the Project - PHCC’s Planning and Management of screening spectators for FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020. Since we had been through the learning curve for the HH Amir Cup Finals, we continued to enhance the robust system we built, its processes, workflows, etc. to fit the purpose. We have set up our Project Core Team – Corporate Project Management Office (CPMO) together with Emergency & Disaster Preparedness (EDP) in collaboration with Operations and other internal and external stakeholders.” – stated Dr. Yasmin Ali, PHCC Project Director.

“As we got involved in the planning and management of testing for HH Amir Cup Final, AFC Finals 2020 and FIFA Club World Cup 2020, we can see a striking similarity between Projects and Portfolio Management and Football Game. We carefully and strategically planned, every move in detail beforehand and every risk and unforeseen situation anticipated and ensured it was mitigated. Each team member roles and responsibilities were defined both for planning and operations. Timely communication and constant reviewing of the processes during the implementation was very important for work success.”

Dr. Yasmine added, “We sometimes needed contingency plans (more than one plan) when something did not go as anticipated. The project team, Medical Operations Team and other supporting team (IPAC, OHS, IT) all were very adaptive and flexible in the response to agile nature of this project and changing some of these plans.”

“I would sincerely express my heartfelt gratitude to our MD, Dr. Mariam Ali Abdulmalik for her supervision and support for all and continuous guidance for the mission to succeed.”

“Overall, this has been a very collaborative and cross-sectoral effort between PHCC, MoPH, HMC and SCDL to protect the health of the community of Qatar for those who had attended this sporting event following unprecedented health measures.”

“We owe a huge credit to different services and sectors who integrated and worked so hard to evidence how safe our activities and facilities are, to achieve our primal goal, which was the safety of spectators and everyone involved, all under the guidance of Dr. Abdulwahab Al Musleh, the Senior Advisor to Her Excellency, the Minister of Public health for Sports and Emergency Affairs.”