2022 World Cup Diary – Part Ten - Departure Day

 

The Clusters, Barwa Barahat, Al Janoub – Once stayed, never forgotten   

Homeward Bound   

Saturday 2nd December 2022   

Fairly brief one today (this is being penned on the following Tuesday). Just kind of wrapping up the physical trip to Qatar before I simply write about the football of the knockout rounds. I’ll also do some posts with more photos as well, once I work out how exactly to do that in Blogger. So firstly the good news is that I departed Qatar without the powers that be spotting my critical comments and deciding to deport me ahead of time or some other fate. In fairness though, even if you can’t wear a rainbow t-shirt to a match, when it comes to freedom of speech, there does seem to be something of a short term amnesty for the duration of the tournament. The PR for Qatar has been so bad in the build-up to these finals, even they are not going to consciously do anything to make it worse. So political pitch invading protestors have not faced any punishment beyond the removal of their Hayya (Fan ID) card that allows them to attend future matches as far as I am aware. Which is a surprise, but a welcome one. 

We were up far earlier than normal on Saturday morning (7am local time to be precise) and after finishing my packing, I had 25 minutes to go out into the Clusters and take some photos. The site is about a mile long and 500m wide, with a large number of uniform accommodation blocks. The exceptions are some mosques, a few shops, restaurants in the shop units and takeaway wooden food huts. And a few rectangles of sand come grass between certain of the blocks. Often the temporary accommodation reception buildings have been placed on a corner of these. There are also some areas where it looks as if further construction will be taking place, as if they don’t have enough already. It’s been called the prison camp by members of a WhatsApp group I am in of England fans that travelled to Qatar, and the nature of the blocks and the sparseness of the rooms may well be reminiscent of a large prison. More than anything else, it’s miles and miles from anywhere. Remembering that when all’s said and done, the place was erected as migrant workers’ accommodation, the Qataris don’t want these types mixing with the locals, and given their working hours, they just need somewhere to sleep. So doubtless they are bussed to and from their place of work just as we were to the stadiums. 

Even early in the day, the sun was hot. Yes, the temperature may have only been in the low 20s at this time, but there is something about the intensity of the sun in this part of the world. For a short time, it’s quite comforting, but eventually your body tells you to get into the shade. We checked out and headed for the airport in the free bus that is laid on for the purpose. Fortunately, these are so frequent that there was plenty of room. Once you accept that you are staying in the middle of nowhere, and that it takes a minimum of 20 minutes to get anywhere, it has to be said that every effort is made to assist you to get to wherever you are headed – although if it is not a stadium, the airport or the nearest souk, that means a ride to the last Metro station on the line, from where you can access Doha proper. Given the sheer numbers staying at the Clusters, there really was no other way of handling the transport issue. Yes, some got cheap Ubers – although at different times, supply of cars was far from plentiful. A few even hired cars to drive. They could have charged for the buses, but the policy of providing free public transport to stadiums for fans seems to be the norm at World Cups now, and I certainly made use of this plenty of times during my 10 days in Qatar.

At the airport, what a contrast to London. No shortage of staff to help you. Very clean, check-in desks all open and an efficient process, right down to boarding the Qatar Airlines flight (booked as a BA one, but hell, they served alcohol) and the very sensible method of boarding the passengers at the back of the plane immediately after the first class lot. So logical, but so unusual. I was even able to watch the Holland v USA game on the flight by connecting my laptop to the on board WiFi free of charge. I’ll spare you details of chilly London, but we eventually reached home in one piece.

So Qatar. Can’t really see myself going again. Things will revert to normal and although the Metro system will still assist visitors, the accommodating nature of these finals will be reserved for the visitors that can afford the hotels. The cheap options provided for the World Cup will no longer exist, so no money, no welcome. It’s a luxury destination and if you pay enough money you can probably have a nice time in the more westernized environments of the hotels, the shopping malls and the beach clubs. And drink to your heart’s content in the hotel bars, budget allowing. England fans seemed to be able to cope with the average £12 price for a pint, although I imagine some will be paying off credit cards for months to come. At those prices though, I don’t think too many got drunk. 

Underneath it all though is the stuff that has been well covered already in this blog and pretty much all of the media. But the personal experience of restriction as a human being simply wanting to be able to go where I would choose – symbolized by the thousands upon thousands of FIFA and Qatar logo’d fabric covered crash barriers – is something that will remain with me from this tournament. A country of strict hierarchy where people know their place and if you aren’t prepared to accept it, then we don’t want you here. The freedom to better yourself does not seem to be an option. 

For all that, I can say positive things about the stadiums – at least once you reach them. All state of the art, and for the tournament itself, well utilized. A game every other day for each, meaning a minimum of seven matches played. At other finals, brand newly constructed stadiums have seen four games and then become white elephants – I mentioned Brazil’s Manaus in yesterday’s blog. Of course, what happens to the Qatar stadiums after the finals is another question. It does look like the Khalifa (the long established athletics stadium) will continue, albeit with the top tier removed. The Al Janoub stadium will also lose its top half, and be used by the local club. We know 974 will be deconstructed and there is talk of Uruguay buying and reconstructing it if their 2030 World Cup Bid in conjunction with Argentina, Paraguay and Chile wins the vote (spoiler alert – the Americas are not going to host two finals in succession). As for the five others, let’s revisit that in a couple of years’ time. The bottom line is that the stadiums are not required for local sport and it’s difficult to imagine converting them to anything else. Don’t rule out worker’s accommodation though… Al Bayt (where England will play four times if they reach the semi-finals) is certainly far enough away. 

It’s not been good use of money in the respect of legacy, but you know what? The Qataris can afford it. What else are they going to do with it? Philanthropy? Dream on. They made a good organisational job of hosting a tournament and ensuring that if you followed the rules and did what you were told, you’d have a good view of a match in a state of the art modern stadium. No danger of the fiasco at the Champions League Final in Paris, even if the odd bus driver lost his way. 

Ultimately though, this tournament should not have been played in such a small country. If you want an Arab World Cup, then at least spread it over a few countries. This idea of ‘this is a wonderful World Cup because it’s all in one city’ (it isn’t by the way – Al Bayt is a long way from Doha) doesn't wash. The idea of going to more than a game a day has been trumpeted by the media who don’t have to walk half-marathons to connecting transport. It’s exhausting enough going to one a day and I am glad I made no attempt to do two. Granted others have and good luck to them, but it distils the experience when you try to do too much in my book, and often, chunks of a match were missed in the rush to get to the next one. 

And for the lunacy of awarding the finals to such a small country – albeit one that could afford to come up with the necessary infrastructure in 12 years – we have to thank FIFA, an organisation as corrupt as they come. Gianni Infantino was supposed to be the clean broom that would transform FIFA, but all he has demonstrated is that power corrupts. Ultimately he’s been made to look a fool by Qatar with the necessity to change when the tournament would be played, the moving of the date of the first game and the late, late ban on Budweiser selling their beer in the stadiums, with the exception of the not even commonly available Bud Zero – many stands didn’t offer it. 

Sadly, when Qatar moves onto a thing of memory, FIFA will continue. It’s time for the European and South American associations to break away, form their own organisation and invite the rest of the world to an alternative World Cup, leaving Infantino and his cohorts presiding over nothing but history.

I’ll write again in the next day or two on the round of 16 once that has concluded.