2022 World Cup Diary – Part One - Arrival in Qatar

Home sweet home… until December 3rd checkout    

First missive from Qatar 
Friday 25th November 2022

So, early in 2022, before the draw for the finals, I decided to attend the World Cup in Qatar and applied for eight games in the eight different stadiums over eight days. Got absolutely nothing in the initial ballot, but then there was a first come first served phase in which I managed to secure eight group games in eight days, still before the draw was made. 

As it turned out, I am starting this evening with England v USA at the Al Bayt Stadium. I was umming and aahing about coming – more because of the likely cost of the trip rather than ethical considerations. And trust me, I am doing it on the cheap as much as is possible. Match tickets are the unavoidable major expense. Ultimately, the Middle East is the Middle East – when it comes to it Qatar really isn't that different from Dubai or Abu Dhabi. There are places where Westerners can indulge in the stuff that is illegal for the locals, but for the most part, the place is a world away from any concept of human rights as we recognize it in the UK and many parts of Europe. Exploitation of the migrant and poor indigenous workers is what built the Middle East, and I am well aware of this because my grandfather was a rabble rouser back in the post-war years, forming a union in Saudi Arabia when they were starting to drill for oil to ensure the rights of his fellow workers – and he was English. 

I’ve attended at least a few days of seven World Cup final tournaments beginning with Italy in 1990, missing out only on 1994. I enjoy them for the experience of watching matches in the flesh in all kinds of different stadiums, from the ramshackle (Ellis Park in Johannesburg comes to mind) to state of the art (so many incredible places, with special mention for Ibaraki in Japan and St Petersburg in Russia). Much as my view on how things should be done might differ from Arab culture, I have been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi to visit friends, and am totally aware of how exploitation of migrant workers in those places (in terms of control and disrespect) works, not least because one of the people I visited was suffering exploitation (long story). It left a sour taste in the mouth, and given the choice of holidaying there or somewhere else, I’d go elsewhere. As it is, the 2022 World Cup is only happening in one place, so you take it or leave it. I am here and will hopefully enjoy the matches, the food, the warmth and the experience. 

The BBC spent most of the hour before the opening match discussing the politics of Qatar. Completely ignoring what I assume was a spectacular opening ceremony. Fair enough if we were going to learn anything new – but when we had football pundits just saying it was unacceptable, I thought – this could have been wrapped up in five minutes. Everyone already knows. The Middle East is a place where life is cheap, human rights are negligible, but where was the discussion about how we could have stopped being reliant on petrol decades ago, and why – at the cost of the earth’s climate – we still pump money into the Middle East? There are people in the western world that have done very well out of maintaining the status quo when it comes to the decision not to develop alternative forms or power way before the turn of the century. It all comes down to money.

And the one lesson this World Cup reminds us of is that everything has its price, be it David Beckham’s principles (spoiler alert – increasing his personal wealth is the main one) or the right to host major sporting events. There was a moment in the opening match when I thought the VAR panel had been bought, but mercifully the final result was beyond such simple engineering. The hosts forgot to buy the opposition. And let us get one thing absolutely clear. Even if the debate about migrant workers’ rights, climate change and the legality of homosexuality had been as prominent in 2010 as it is in 2022, the voters on the venues for the 2018 and 2022 final hosts would have still voted for Russia and Qatar, irrespective of the quality of the bids. And there’s more – if they knew the 2022 finals would see stadium beer sales banned and the tournament being moved to the winter months it still wouldn’t have prevented Qatar being awarded 2022. They simply had too much money to pay voting individuals and even bought the French government into the picture with trade deals. 

So ultimately, it’s FIFA who are to blame for us all being here in the middle of the football season. And there are aspects about any of the countries that have held the previous three tournaments (South Africa, Brazil, Russia) – be it corruption, inequality, lack of rights, freedom of expression – that gave me enough reason to boycott the tournaments and stay at home. But I went to them all and enjoyed my time in each country. It was actually an education to experience them myself, rather than rely on the media for my sole source of information.

So I flew out yesterday (Thursday) and arrived at my accommodation in time to watch the Brazil v Serbia game on my iPad (VPN allowed me to tune into the UK TV coverage). I am doing the trip as cheap as I can, although I did bring the Mrs, and we are staying in $87 a night basic accommodation over half an hour’s drive from Doha. We caught a free bus from the airport – so the Qataris are making this as convenient as they can given we are in the middle of nowhere. My base for the next week or so is a huge complex south of Al Janoub where the three storey blocks which were evidently used to house construction workers before the tournament. And it is not only stadiums that have been built for this event – there is a lot of infrastructure (metro system, roads, hotels etc) that has been put in place as Qatar attempts to gatecrash the market currently dominated by the aforementioned from Dubai or Abu Dhabi. I watched a 30-minute promo video of David Beckham wandering around meeting various Qataris on the in-plane entertainment when I flew in yesterday (Qatar Airlines – after British Airways cancelled my original flight and put me on that one). They were pushing the idea of doing stopovers in Doha and what you could get up to in a couple of days. Beckham looked awkward and his non-feigned interest in the local culture was restricted to eating food and riding a motorbike. So yes, Qatar will be a potential holiday destination with specific (expensive) areas where Western visitors can do what they like – much like elsewhere in the parts of the Arab World that have decided to seek more income from the West than petrol already gives them – and hey, they have to do something with their money, aside from buying football clubs (but paying migrant workers a fair wage is more philanthropic than this culture can go).

So in the room we are in there are two metal-framed beds – they’ll do the job. It’s ironic given the laws here that for the most part it will be two males sharing such rooms during the tournament. I slept ok last night on a no-nonsense firm mattress (which would likely be too hard for some, but I used to enjoy sleeping on a futon). However, you can see from the wear on the flooring that this place has history, and my guess is there were at least four bunk beds in these rooms (so eight people sharing), and I suspect the aircon is new. What will they do with this place after the World Cup has moved on? Probably get the construction workers back in and mothball some of the blocks. Or house the migrant workers that are going to work in Doha’s hotels and the like going forward once they do start attracting visitors. It’s just unfortunate for that plan that the build-up to this tournament has been a PR disaster, highlighting the aspects of Arab culture that many will find less appealing.

As for the football, given I am here until my return flight on Saturday 3rd December, there’s plenty of time to discuss that. However, talking points will be the mixed quality of the matches – there have been highly entertaining ones and real pig’s ears, the increased injury time, the empty / emptying seats  and the growing influence of VAR. The first round of group games have been completed and I am typing this as I watch the second half of Wales’ match with Iran, which as it stands (0-0) is putting England’s performance on Monday evening into perspective.

Before I watch my first match in the flesh later, the hosts will play their second match. Maybe Senegal could be persuaded to underperform to prolong the hosts’ interest in the tournament. It would certainly be cheaper than buying the right to host the whole thing.