Thirty Days in Doha The Good, Bad, Weird and Wonderful

By Coen Lammers* in Doha

A man walks outside the Al-Thumama Stadium in Doha. File photo.
Photo: AFP

Analysis – As the FIFA circus is racing to Hamad Airport to get out of Qatar, Coen Lammers reflects on 30 Days in Doha.

The Good

Is there such a thing as too much football?

Having all teams and matches in one city created an opportunity to watch more games than at any other World Cup. One reporter new to the World Cup remarked that he was experiencing three World Cups rolled into one. Some people, including FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Secretary General Fatma Samoura, managed to get to each match, even with four on one day, but may have seen more of the Doha traffic than actual football.

Home sweet home

Instead of endless hours on trains and in airports, packing and unpacking, the fans attending the World Cup in Qatar could sleep in the same room all month and get to know their host city. The flipside of that equation was that there is not much to do in Doha. Once they had visited the Souk Waqif, the beach and the handful museums, fans started wondering what to do.

Safest World Cup in history

One thing all fans have been raving about has been the sense of safety, without ever seeing a policeman with a machine gun like in Brazil or Russia. You can leave your wallet on a bench in a park and it will still be there an hour later. Women and children can walk around town in the early hours without having to look over their shoulder.

Granted, the residents may not have the same freedom of expression we enjoy in New Zealand, but most migrant workers from Africa and Asia will tell you that they prefer the autocracy of Qatar over the volatile democracies in their homelands.

Morocco and the other heroes

Upsets make a tournament come to life and the Moroccan team delivered them in spades, along with the Saudis, the Japanese and other so-called minnows. The gaps in world football are clearly closing and New Zealand Football better keep up with the pace or they may find themselves getting toppled in Oceania before they even reach the next World Cup. The performances by teams outside of Europe and South America has provided a bit more credibility to the decision to expand the tournament to 48 teams.

The Bad

Qatar is still Qatar

You come to Qatar and you play by our rules, however archaic they are. The local attitudes towards people in the LGBT+ community and migrant workers has been well-documented and has left a stain on Qatar 2022 that will be impossible to wash out.

Local expats confirm that worker rights have improved significantly over the past few years under the intense international spotlight, but Ibrahim outside one main hotel in Doha still only get paid $NZ431 a month for directing traffic for 12 hours a day with only Fridays off. That equates to an hourly rate of just over 64 cents. Back home in Africa, however, he said there are no opportunities and his family would be starving.

Brazil supporters drink beer as they attend the FIFA Fan Festival at Al Bidda park in Doha on 20 November, 2022, on the opening of the Qatar 2022 World Cup football tournament.
Photo: AFP

The Big Beer Debate

The late Qatari U-turn around beers in the stadiums caused the biggest sandstorm the Arabian Peninsula has ever seen. Or maybe it was just a storm in a teacup. Doha has plenty of bars and they were packed all tournament with Argentinians, Mexicans, Americans, Dutch, Welsh and English.

The main problem for visiting fans was not the lack of alcohol but the price of beer, ranging from $17 a bottle during Happy Hour to an eye-watering $30 for a drink in some upmarket hotels. But that did not seem to stop anyone from drinking.

Erik from Oslo even commented that the beers in Doha were cheaper than back in Norway and did not understand the fuss over drinking in stadiums as most European stadiums have been alcohol free for years.

It was surprising to see how Qataris were also knocking back their Heinekens in the back of the local bars, which underlines the double standards. Those double standards also include the glasses of champagne and liquor handed out in the VIP sections of the alcohol-free stadiums or at the media function this week, where the alcohol-free host country plied the visiting media with as much alcohol as they could handle.

Where has everyone gone ?

The spectators at many stadiums seemed to be playing hide and seek this tournament, with certain sections empty at the start and suddenly filling up in the second half.

We now know that the Qatari ‘fans’ have a very short attention span and simply leave when they have had enough, while the empty spots in other stadiums have been filled by migrant workers who quickly are offered a free ticket at the last minute to fill a spot.

The empty spaces have been particularly hard on those Moroccans and Argentinians fans who used their life savings to travel to Qatar but could not get a ticket. Even at the final, many seats in the VIP section were empty.

Fans sit among empty seats as they attend the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group A football match between the Netherlands and Qatar at the Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, north of Doha on 29 November, 2022.
Photo: AFP

The Weird and Wonderful

Not sure how I get home

Among those thousands of fans spending their savings, and in some cases selling their car or house, one Argentinian fan on Sunday outside the Lusail Stadium had a sign pleading for donations to buy him a flight back to Buenos Aires. He somehow managed to score a ticket to the final, but did not seem too concerned about how to get back home. That’s what you call priorities.

I just want to go home

Nobody expected Morocco to reach the semi-finals and still be playing for third place on the final weekend. Not even Moroccans themselves. One poor journalist from Casablanca burst into tears when a colleague asked him about his family. He showed a picture of his young daughter and said that he was only supposed to be away for 10 days. The success of the Atlas Lions was clearly bittersweet for this Moroccan scribe who was near inconsolable after being separated from his loved ones for over a month.

Not on my turf

Some eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that the giant World Cup trophy standing on the centre circle during the national anthems suddenly disappeared after the first few games. Apparently the inflatable roll-on-roll-off trophy and it fireworks was too heavy and groundkeepers at several venues started noticing a dip in some pitches. Thankfully, the organisers came up with a lighter version to add a bit flair to the semi-finals and final.

Fireworks go off around a FIFA World Cup trophy replica ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup semi-final football match between France and Morocco at the Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, north of Doha.
Photo: AFP

How little do we know?

Coming to the World Cup has been an eye-opener for many and confirms how little Westerners know about other regions. With many more Arabic and African fans and media at this tournament than previously, other visitors to Qatar had an opportunity to be educated.

This became particularly evident at the Fan Fest when the Africans would start jumping around to the sounds of a huge hit from their continent, but unknown in the West, and Arabic crowds would erupt with other songs that most in the West have never heard. And music is merely the tip of an iceberg of ignorance. The World Cup has been a wonderful chance to mix, listen and learn. It may be a slogan, but football truly unites.

* Coen Lammers is attending the FIFA World Cup in Qatar for RNZ. Qatar will be the sixth Fifa World Cup he has covered.