The American newspaper “The Wall Street Journal” monitored 3 scenes that disturbed the peace in Qatar on the night of the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, an event that Doha eagerly awaited 12 years ago.
After the opening ceremony, which the newspaper called “luxurious” with the participation of American actor Morgan Freeman, these three scenes reduced the aesthetics of the opening of the World Cup for the host country, which seeks to amaze the world .
“we want beer”
In the night that Qatar has been waiting for since 2010, the World Cup opened with the defeat of the Qatar national team, the first match of the World Cup in its history, 2-0 against Ecuador, inside the Al-Bayt Stadium, which was built in the Bedouin tent style.
For the Qatar World Cup, which has been associated with controversy for more than a decade, the opening night was not as planned by the organizers, as no visitor lost their first game since the host countries started playing the opening match of the tournament in 2006.
Despite months of intense technical preparation under Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, who has followed the players’ training from a young age, the host team has been slow and more nervous than Ecuador from the first whistle.
In the 16th minute, the visitors advanced after Ener Valencia scored a penalty, following a mistake by goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb. Fifteen minutes later, Valencia themselves doubled their lead with a brilliant header as a large group of yellow-clad Ecuadorian fans celebrated in Spanish chanting “we want beer”.
Qatar finished the match without taking a single shot on target.
Quit country fans
The mood soured further as the evening wore on as several thousand fans left with Qatar trailing at half-time.
The second half of the match shows large swathes of empty seats despite an announced attendance of 67,372 at kick-off.
And international news agencies have published images of empty seats during the second half of the match, which is an unusual phenomenon for World Cup tournaments, as fans scramble to take their seats in the stands of World Cup stadiums.
Chaos in the fan area
In the center of the capital, Doha, huge groups of fans poured into the city’s largest fan zone, only to be told it was completely full, forcing security to remove the crowds in a “chaotic scene”.
And the Associated Press said tens of thousands of fans had pushed police lines to enter the main fan area in Doha, which seats nearly 40,000 spectators and serves beer.
Riot police armed with clubs and shields stood guard at the entrance. Some fans pleaded with officers to let them pass.
“It’s a big risk,” said Hatem al-Bari, an Iraqi who works in Dubai, describing the general scene as the fan zone after he tries to enter; Because his family was inside.
“People can die. Old people and women, they can’t handle crowds like this,” she added.
Fans were trying to get into the enclosed area which has a giant screen for watching games, places to buy beer and more.
According to the newspaper, the scene in Doha was a reminder that Qatar is still trying to host a major event of this size: the World Cup is a completely different event from the Asian Games that Doha hosted in 2006.
The Wall Street Journal said that the departure of fans at halftime, confusion in the crowd area and a 2-0 loss to Ecuador marred the host country’s opening night for the World Cup.
He stressed that it is not possible to prepare to receive more than one million visitors in a country whose population does not exceed 205 million.
