When Qatar hosts the 2022 World Cup, it will be the first to be played in the Middle East.
And in a nod to the region's rising rates of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, the World Health Organization is calling on soccer's governing body, FIFA, to help promote physical activity and reduce deaths from such diseases, the BBC reports.
"Sport, such as football, can make a major contribution to improving public health by engaging people in regular, safe, and social physical activity in their local communities," says Dr. Fiona Bull, head of the WHO's physical activity unit.
"Today, one in four adults and four in five adolescents globally are not active enough and there has been little change in the average levels of physical activity over the last 15 years," says Sheikh Dr. Mohamed bin Hamad Al-Thani, director of public health at Qatar's Ministry of Public Health.
"In Qatar, we understand the role that sport, physical activity, and healthy lifestyles can have in halting this trend and our National Health Strategy and Public Health Strategy both place great priority on promoting the benefits of physical and healthy lifestyles to our population," he says.
The WHO says that, globally, NCDs kill 41 million people
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