It tells you something about the remarkable Aspire venue where these Championships are being staged that such a soccer field should exist within yards of a fully-equipped indoor athletics arena.

In fact, the site boasts both a sports school with a growing international reputation and a mind-boggling cluster of indoor sports venues, including also a basketball court and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Altogether an astonishing 13 different sporting events could be hosted simultaneously under one roof - the largest dome of its kind in the world.

Manchester United were here earlier this year and, as one Qatar-based official half-jokingly noted, have hardly looked back since. On arriving on Thursday evening at my Doha hotel, the first group I saw were what appeared to be an Everton youth team.

"We are lucky in Qatar to have the support from the Government to have this kind of facility,” Sheikh Saoud says. "[It] is also well-maintained. That’s why you see that after five or six years it still looks brand new. This facility has held a lot of competitions.

"That’s our target in Qatar,” the Sheikh continues. "Once we build a facility we want to do two things. First we want to make sure it’s not a white elephant; then we have a strategy. And our strategy is really to plan for the best events in the world to be held here in Qatar."

Few events are more international than the WIC, with 150 nations represented. According to Sheikh Saoud, the previous record for the most countries taking part at an event staged in Qatar was 126 at the World Table Tennis Championships in 2004. "We are making history during this competition," he says.

Competitions like this, of course, do not come cheap and the Sheikh estimates that Qatar has spent "not less than $10 million" in hosting the IAAF’s indoor flagship. "Our goal is not just to stage an event, but to make sure it is a milestone in that event and sport," he says.

As for what Qatar gets in return, he argues that this is hard to measure because "the return sometimes comes to you directly and sometimes indirectly". A return there certainly is though, with Sheikh Saoud (pictured with IAAF President Lamine Diack) singling out elements such as added-value to the hotel sector, media coverage and additional recognition by international sports organisations that Doha is eminently capable of putting on state-of-the-art events.

"When you invest in sport you are actually investing in future generations," the Sheikh continues when asked why Qatar has made sport such a key political focus. "Sport has so much meaning," he says. "Sport is something that brings different cultures together, bringing the world together in different aspects - especially now when we are living in a world with a lot of problems.

"[Nothing but sport] can gather 150 countries together with no problems.

"I want to recall the recent meeting in Copenhagen, the environment conference. They met and unfortunately they left without a result for our earth. But through sport, through the Olympic Movement, through the sport academy you see people are coming from different backgrounds, from different religions, from different languages. They come and compete with fair-play and we congratulate the winners. As for those who did not win, it’s not the end of the world.

"These are really things you would like [younger] generations to learn. That’s why we think through investment in sport we are doing so much for the country and for the youth of the country."

Is it going too far to suggest that sport is part of Qatar’s foreign policy, I wondered.

"Actually, it’s part of the country’s vision," he replied. "It’s not foreign policy but it’s more the vision of the country.

"We think about three main aspects of the country’s vision. Number one is investment for the future - to make sure that we can still live the same way in 200 years time...The second part of the vision is education. And the third is sport.

"We know that sport is really something that’s very important for youth especially these days.

"That’s why the International Olympic Committee came up with the idea of the Youth Olympic Games, which I think is a great idea. Because you know nowadays young people are busy unfortunately with video games…and also with junk food.

"So through sport you are fighting a lot of diseases."

Does this mean that a Doha bid for the Youth Olympic Games is likely?

"Our concentration now is on the World Cup," the Sheikh parries - Qatar is bidding to stage the 2022 tournament in a contest whose outcome will be known at the end of this year.

"But everything is open. I cannot say anything now, but we have our strategy in sport and we will continue. We love sport, we are committed to sport and we will continue doing this."



Staging the WIC must be a help to the World Cup bid, mustn’t it?

"Of course," he replies. "Any international event we stage in Doha will give a good impression about the readiness of the country, about the confidence of the international organisations once they have given Doha an event.

"They will leave the country with a smile hopefully."

There is of course one personality missing from Doha: the inimitable Usain Bolt.

When I ask Sheikh Saoud if he is disappointed by the Jamaican’s absence though, he is knowledgeable enough to be aware that Bolt "never competed indoors. His specialty is outdoors."

Further comments of the Sheikh’s make clear that he has been watching the WIC unfold with considerable attention to detail.

"You cannot watch the Olympics without watching the athletics," he says. "With gymnastics and swimming they are the three foundations of the Olympic Movement."

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering last year's Beijing Olympics. An archive of Owen’s material may be found by Twitter users at www.twitter.com/dodo938