Qatar made a promise to fans 12 years ago when it started campaigning to host the World Cup: We love soccer just like you, so come and enjoy it with us.
The message acknowledged there would be skeptics that a tiny
emirate whose team had never been to a World Cup — never played a qualifying
game until 1977 — could match the passion for soccer’s biggest event shown by
the previous host at that time, Germany in 2006.
Some skepticism is still there on the eve of the tournament.
Doubts about LGBTQ fans being safe in a country where
same-sex relations are criminalized and in the bemused reaction provoked by
Qatar’s plan to pay expenses for about 1,500 fans to visit and be social media
influencers.
The invited fans will go to the opening ceremony dressed in
each team’s colors and sing approved chants before Qatar plays Ecuador in the
first game on Nov. 20, then stay for at least two weeks posting positive social
media content while reporting trolls to tournament organizers.
Does Qatar “get” soccer culture enough to stage the biggest
event in the world’s favorite sport?
Absolutely, one local fanatic in Doha told The Associated
Press.
“This whole country is going to turn into a festival — we
are all aware of that,” Hamad Al Amari, who watches Premier League matches with
a Liverpool fan group, said in a telephone interview. “It doesn’t get any
better than this.”
A nation that’s like a city-state — with about 350,000
citizens in a population of less than 3 million — will have its limits tested
to cope with the 1.2 million visitors expected during the 29-day tournament.
Some will find themselves watching games in shopping
centers, at alcohol-free joints like Lemon Café in the Tawar Mall favored by Al
Amari’s group of Liverpool fans.
“People who want to have a pint (of beer) go to hotels.
There are sports bars that understand it,” he said, singling out Champions at a
five-star Marriott hotel in West Bay.
There, a bottle of beer can go for 56 riyals (about $15).
Budweiser, the World Cup beer sponsor, will be served
through the evening at the official FIFA Fan Festival site, a 40,000-capacity
area in downtown Al Bidda Park. It’s also where Al Amari, a stand-up comedian,
will work as an entertainment host.
The park and the extensive waterfront Corniche area, now
closed to traffic, will be hubs for many fans.
Finding a secret spot off the beaten track to watch games
will be tough, Al Amari said, and restaurants and shisha bars in the tight
lanes of Souq Waqif market will be in heavy demand.
“That’s the hardest (place) to get a seat,” he said. “They
are more for the resident patrons who are always there and everyone knows where
to sit.”
Not all the demand will come from European fans, at least
until the knockout rounds when fervor at home typically kicks in.
The Belgian soccer federation has reported selling hundreds,
not thousands, of tickets from the 8% quota of stadium capacity each team gets.
In Switzerland, one of the wealthiest European nations,
about half of its quota — 1,500 tickets — have sold for games against Cameroon
and Serbia. More but not all were bought for the glamor game against Brazil.
The Swiss soccer body cited as deterrents the cost of
traveling to Doha, the limited choice of hotels, and debate about Qatar’s human
rights record.
In England, the official group for LGBTQ fans, Three Lions
Pride, will not come to this World Cup.
“We understand from our counterparts, the Qatari nationals
and migrant group counterparts, that our visibility, our presence would render
them vulnerable to systematic institutional and potentially vigilante abuse,”
group founder Di Cunningham said this week. “So, no, we’re not going.”
The lure and a World Cup adventure still drives many fans to
invest the time and money.
In Argentina — home of soccer icon Lionel Messi — fans face
two obstacles to be in Qatar: distance and getting some American dollars.
A tourist package costs about $10,000 for flights, lodging
and tickets for three group games. It’s a lot for most Argentines with
inflation running at 7% and restrictions on access to dollars forcing up the
price of black-market purchases.
Despite this, Osvaldo Santander and his son Julian will
travel to their third World Cup by means of their savings, selling banners and
a TV game show win this year.
Osvaldo Santander won 1 million pesos (about $6,500) with
the best guess of how long the movie Shrek lasts.
“I said 126 (minutes) and it was 93. I won by virtue of
being the closest,” he said at his home in Banfield, a suburb south of Buenos
Aires.
Santander also sells team banners to help fund renting an
apartment with other friends to stay in Doha for one month.
“We are very passionate, crazy fans,” Santander said. “We
feel that we have a duty in displaying our banners, with our name, our city,
our big idols, Leo (Messi) and Diego (Maradona).”
Santander and his son do not yet have tickets for Argentina
games. They plan to sell the tickets they got for other teams’ games, including
Brazil’s, to pay for seats to the games they want.
Their devotion is typical of World Cup fans, who can also be
noisy and boisterous.
Will Qatari people relish such behavior in their socially
conservative country?
“We know we are a minority in our own country,” said Al
Amari, adding when asked if some citizens would take vacation until the World
Cup ends. “There’s a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of people who are going to
leave.”
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