Qatar is confident that it can host a successful World Cup in 2022 and preparations are fully on track after a boycott by its Gulf neighbours briefly disrupted supply lines last year, its foreign minister told Reuters. "We are confident we will host the best World Cup in the Arab world. It will represent the whole Arab region," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also deputy prime minister, said in an interview during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"The government has already overcome the disruptions which happened to supplies at the beginning of the crisis and we have introduced alternative routes. There is no disruption at the moment," he said, adding he had heard no signals from FIFA that it was planning to change the venue of the World Cup. FIFA has made no suggestion that either Russia or Qatar should lose the right to stage tournaments in 2018 or 2022 respectively, despite publishing a report last year detailing numerous attempts to influence voting officials. The World Cup is the centrepiece of Qatar's strategy to project itself on the global stage.