JOHN BECK FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE, MOHAMED FARAG / AURELIEN MEUNIER / GETTYIMAGES, XINHUA / EYEVINE
attempts to use petrodollars to garner some
much-needed positive PR have backfired.
When last year David Beckham was
announced as a Qatar 2022 global
ambassador and one of the “faces” of the
tournament in a deal thought to be worth
£100 million over several years, fellow
professionals including Gary Lineker
condemned him for taking the Qatari riyal.
Claims that the tournament will be carbon
neutral have also raised quizzical eyebrows,
to put it mildly. Greening the desert and
cooling stadiums — including the stands
— uses a lot of power and water.
And this is all before a ball has been
kicked. When that happens many will heed
Amnesty International’s call to protest.
England is likely to be among many teams
that ask to visit workers’ camps to check on
conditions. England players have been
accused of hypocrisy for taking the knee
before domestic league games in support of
the Black Lives Matter movement while
ignoring the plight of the thousands of
African migrant workers who have built the
Doha stadiums in which they will play.
There are likely to be demonstrations on the
Corniche for women’s empowerment and
LGBT rights: same-sex relations are illegal
in Qatar and carry a punishment of up to
five years in jail. There are concerns about
the treatment of women’s rights activists,
highlighted by the case of Noof al-Maadeed,
23, who disappeared in Doha without
explanation for several weeks last year.Amid all the bad blood it’s remarkable
that anyone can agree on anything, but
there are two things that almost everyone
predicts will happen in November. The
teams that have qualified, including
perhaps Scotland or Wales when the
play-off places are determined, will go and
fans will follow. There have been calls for
boycotts, but players want to play on the
biggest stage and, despite some fans’
political objections, most are so dedicatedto their national side they would follow
them even if the tournament were in North
Korea. The first tranche of the three million
publicly available tickets goes on sale this
month and will be snapped up. Many
corporate hospitality packages are sold out.
British fans who buy tickets will find
getting to Qatar straightforward. Qatar
Airways is one of the world’s largest airlines
and it partners with British Airways, which
means there will be direct services to Doha
from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and
Edinburgh. Qatar Airways’ boss, Akbar
al-Baker, has expanded Doha’s new Hamad
airport to handle 200,000 passengers
a day. Supporters are unlikely to be able to
bring duty-free booze with them. Alcohol
is only legally available in hotel bars and
restaurants in Qatar. However, beer
cheaper than the £10 a pint it usually
costs will be available in fan zones near
the stadiums but not inside them. There
will be alcohol in some of the corporate
hospitality boxes — plutocrats are not
easily separated from their champagne.
Those found to be drunk and disorderly
in public outside corporate hospitality or
fan zones will be “escorted away to sober up
but not arrested or detained”, officials say.
Qatar is working with UK police forces to
make sure any fans with a history of criminal
behaviour do not make it past immigration.
Getting to and from games will be easy.
New 12-lane highways carve giant black
streaks across the sand. The box-freshLeft and previous
pages: the 90,000-
seat Lusail stadium.
Below: players from
Paris Saint-Germain
try out Doha’s new
metro system in
2019; Msheireb
metro stationSupporters found to be drunk and disorderly outside corporate hospitality or
fan zones will be “escorted away to sober up but not arrested or detained”
The Sunday Times Magazine • 11