This World Cup is an amusement park. At noon you get on a carousel, get off it in the evening for a giant wheel and at night you can get on the roller coaster. This is how it feels in Qatar, an event where in one day you can see a lot of football because everything is close, everything is well managed and organized, so you can sometimes manage to watch even three games a day.
Qatar is a small country, but it managed to stage – with a huge funding of 220 billion dollars, it should be noted – quite a successful event. It has eight stadiums that are located a relatively short distance from each other and are of the highest level in the world. After a little more than a week I have already visited all of them, something that sometimes cannot be done even in an entire World Cup, and there is no doubt that they are very impressive.
They are special and just the right size, with designs that add more uniqueness to the event or to the visit, with a quality grass surface which is of course very impressive when you look at the surrounding desert and the high temperatures, and everything is conducted in an exemplary order, both outside and inside.
The most magnificent of them is Al-Bait Stadium located in the town of Al-Hur which is located in a piece of Hur somewhere in the north of the country. It takes a 50 minute drive from the city of Doha and as soon as you get to the area you can see small Bedouin tents in the middle of the desert, with white and black fabrics, with small swimming pools and expensive jeeps between the tents. And when you turn your head to the other side, suddenly a huge tent with the same design appears – and that is the stadium. A polished facility with a ceiling designed in an authentic carpet-like fabric. There is no stadium that symbolizes the Arabs more than this one.
Al-Bait Stadium, where the opening ceremony was held, is huge and magnificent. Exactly the right dimensions for the World Cup games in such a country with over 60 thousand seats and a powerful air conditioning system that manages to cool even the harshest summer. But the investment of the Qataris was too much, because a look up reveals that this stadium also has a roof with a roof that can be opened and closed when needed in a few minutes. And what does it exist for? For eight days of rain a year, and barely?
The Qataris poured money like sand into this tournament and also bought what they didn’t need to buy. They spared nothing. They built seven stadiums especially for the World Cup, each with a different concept. The stands and the finish are of high quality as mentioned, except for Khalifa Stadium which is the only one that was renovated and the running track around it remains as it was. He is the only one who does not meet the high standard of the Qataris.
Almost all stadiums have cooling systems under the seats. When the weather is hot, it’s refreshing. When the sun goes down, it’s like being a frozen chicken in the freezer. But the entrances to most of the stadiums are relatively easy and accessible, all the workers on the ground speak English and are polite.
At such events there are usually many volunteers helping the crowd, but the Qataris apparently decided to employ paid workers to direct the traffic. Sometimes my heart goes out to them because they stand for many hours outside on the exact same embankment without moving, so much so that some of them already go crazy and direct the passers-by with humor with comedic moments that have made some of them stars on social networks, because how many can you point to the right and say without pause only “Metro, Metro, metro.”
In every stadium, from the moment you left the metro until you returned to it, there is a special atmosphere with music, street performances and entertainment events, even inside the courts. It adds to the interest because it is not boring for a moment. The problem is that sometimes it seems that there are fans who seemingly do not belong to the event, walking around with the flag of Saudi Arabia and singing songs in English but do not know any of the team’s players. It is not clear if they are there willingly or not, but it is quite disappointing to find such a crowd.
Qatar doesn’t really have a football tradition. When we say goodbye to this country, in less than a month these big stadiums will be irrelevant. Some will be dismantled like the 974 stadium which was erected on containers so that it is easy to pack and ship elsewhere, some will be remodeled to suit the local league. Was it worth it? Obviously not, as long as these infrastructures are not used for the future of local football.
For many people, everything is a show, and they are not necessarily wrong. But there are fans here who come to enjoy football, and it doesn’t matter to them what happens here the day after the tournament ends and they board the flight back home. Meanwhile, they run for another ride at the amusement park. I often think, somewhere in the air-conditioned stadium, what legacy will remain from this event?