Kuwait is tendering design contracts for billions of dollars of sporting infrastructure that will enable it to host future Olympic Games.

The oil-rich country is following in the footsteps of a number of its neighbouring Gulf states that are planning to invest large sums of capital to win the right to host major sporting events.

Dubai is currently considering making a bid to host the Olympics in 2020 and Qatar has bid to host football’s World Cup in 2022.

Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Care (PAHC) has invited nine local consultants to prequalify for a contract to design an Olympic Village at its Sabah al-Ahmed development, located in the Al-Ahmadi governorate.

The Olympic Village will contain a number of indoor and outdoor sports and recreation facilities. The largest of these will be a stadium with a capacity of 70,000 to 80,000 people. The multi-use stadium will cover a total area of 40,000 square metres (sq m).

In 2009, Dubai said that it was looking into the possibility of bidding to host the Olympic Games in 2020

The development will also include an aquatic centre, which will contain an Olympic-sized swimming pool covering an area of 10,000 sq m and another swimming pool covering an area of 6,500 sq m.

The sports village will also contain many other sports facilities, including tennis and squash courts and shooting ranges. The complex will also require infrastructure and parking facilities.

The local consultants who have been invited to prequalify for the design contract are:

•  Saleh al-Qallaf Engineering Consultants
•  Dar al-Dowailah for Engineering Consultancy and Projects Management
• SSH International Engineering Consultants
• Dar Nazar al-Anjar for Engineering Consultancy
• United Technical and Engineering Office (UNITEC)
• Arab Office for Engineering Consultancy
• Technical Kuwaiti House for Engineering Consultancy
• KEO International Consultants
• Al-Jazeera Consultancy House

As many of the proposed components of the sports village are of Olympic standard, if completed to plan it would provide facilities that would enable Kuwait to make a future pitch to host the Olympic Games.

Kuwait’s Olympic Committee was unavailable to comment on whether the proposed sporting centre was part of any plans to bid for the event in the future.

 “I have no idea whether Kuwait is planning to bid for the Olympics. This project has been on the shelf for a very long time,” says one consultant based in Kuwait.

 “SSH International Engineering was awarded a contract in 1988 for the concept design of an Olympic village, but then Kuwait was hit by the invasion in 1990, and now the project seems to be it coming back,” adds the consultant.

Kuwait is not the first country in the region to consider building Olympic-standard sporting infrastructure.

In 2009, Dubai said that it was looking into the possibility of bidding to host the Olympic Games in 2020. But, little progress appears to have been made with the emirate’s proposed Olympic pitch.

In 2007, Qatar launched a bid to host the games in 2016, but its Olympic dream was short-lived as it failed to make the candidate city shortlist the following year. The 45-degree plus October temperatures and lack of sporting legacy were seen as decisive factors, which led to the early elimination of Qatar from the selection process.

The Olympic Games is not the only major sporting event that the Gulf has been chasing.

Qatar is currently bidding to become the first country in the Middle East to host football’s World Cup, with its bid to host the 2022 tournament. The country is the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter and has pledged to spend more than $50bn on developing its sporting facilities and infrastructure over the next 12 years in order to meet the criteria for a host nation (MEED 24:9:10).

Like the unsuccessful Olympic pitch a couple of years ago, Qatar’s World Cup bid is also likely to falter. But the Gulf is aware that entering the frame to host the World’s major sporting events is a useful way of gaining exposure for its countries and the region as a whole.

“Bidding for sporting events is good publicity, such as Qatar chasing the 2022 World Cup, it is helping to promote Qatar and the region Worldwide,” says one of the consultants invited to bid for the project.