At a glamorous ceremony last November 21, some of Qatar’s top officials, including Gulf Prime Ministers, joined FIFA President Gianni Infantino, top football officials and invited guests to the celebration. They gathered at the Corniche, a sprawling promenade that embraces Doha’s glittering waterfront, to unveil an ornate countdown clock to mark milestones. The day they were celebrating was exactly one year before the opening of the 2022 World Cup.
Infantino, who now lives in Qatar, enthusiastically praised his hosts. With nearly $200 billion invested since Qatar hosted the tournament in 2010, preparations for the event have been incomparable. happening here. ”
Infantino’s bullish words may better describe something rarely seen in football so far. It is the growing uncertainty and concern surrounding several elements of the tournament that affect fans, sponsors and broadcasters. At least those? They just agreed to change the date the World Cup actually begins.
World Cup organizers have made an unprecedented and surprising request to reschedule the start date of the tournament in a bid to give host nation Qatar pride in its opening game. Approved by It’s only months before the tournament, and until kickoff he’s hours before the 100-day series of events begins.
Staggering the date of the season opener and staggering the kick-off time of another game to the next day is a loss for the tournament, which has spent millions of dollars to buy teams, fans, sponsors, broadcasters and even advertising space for the tournament. It would disrupt the plans made by the marketing staff. Signs wrapping buses and taxis have been installed in major cities around the world to mark the 100-day countdown to the World Cup. As of Thursday, all of these campaigns have incorrect tournament start dates.
FIFA said in a statement: “This change ensures the continuation of the long-standing tradition of marking the start of the FIFA World Cup with the opening ceremony during the first match featuring either the host country or the defending champions. In the 12 years since Qatar was first awarded the hosting rights, we have not expected any contingencies.
But the late rescheduling is just the latest high-profile question that is fueling an air of uncertainty about the small Gulf nation’s capabilities, both inside and outside Qatar’s World Cup organization. Pull off a tournament.
For example, three months before the Games, Qatar has yet to announce concrete plans for what kind of experiences fans can expect during their visit. This includes what you need for immigration. A place to stay when they arrive. How the police will deal with violations of Qatar law on public conduct. Qatar is a conservative Muslim country, the sale of alcohol is tightly controlled, and public consumption of alcohol is almost non-existent.
It is also not yet clear how the tournament, which is expected to attract more than one million visitors, will be secured. Qatar has police pacts with several countries, most notably Turkey, which he announced in January that he would deploy riot police for a rubbing tournament of fans (some of them bitter rivals) from 32 competing nations. announced that it would provide more than 3,000 of his security personnel, including I’ve been shrugging my shoulders for weeks in an area smaller than Connecticut.
Unofficially, Qatari officials said the imported guards would not have direct contact with fans. Few details have been published about
There are also concerns about accommodations, with rooms being delayed in being revealed, with fans reporting no vacancies on portals reserved for ticket holders. A month long World Cup.
Read more about the 2022 World Cup
- Last minute changes: With just a few months before the tournament, FIFA is considering a request to start the event a day early so Qatar can be featured in the first match.
- Chile’s unsuccessful bid: The country’s football federation had argued that Ecuador should be excluded from the tournament for the benefit of the Chilean team – FIFA objected.
- Golden Sunset: This year’s World Cup will most likely be the last competition for stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and will be a major turning point for football.
- Senegalese pride: Aliou Cissé, one of Africa’s best football coaches, has given Senegal a new sense of patriotism. Next is the World Cup.
Those who manage to find lodgings that can only be booked after fans have paid for their tickets complain of high room rates, even in the rare cases where vacancies are found.
Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, the umbrella organization for fan groups, said the number of official fan groups traveling to Qatar to support European teams was higher than at the last World Cup held in Russia. He said it was likely to be significantly less. As an example, France, the last World Cup his champion, expects only 100 of her fans to be part of her group of official supporters.
Evain said other fan groups are considering traveling to and from Qatar for the match as they have concluded that it is cheaper and easier than staying in Qatar. He has already announced that he will be attending the game. “I don’t think they realize how problematic the accommodation situation is,” Evan said. “Ticket holders are reluctant to book as the entire system for booking accommodation is unclear.”
Qatari officials have acknowledged fans’ concerns about accommodations and said they will continue dialogue with support groups to resolve them.
At the same time, representatives of some participating teams are beginning to realize that finding space for players to socialize outside the hotel in such a small geographical area is a problem. I don’t know if I’ll be there, I’ll be surrounded by thousands of fans,” said Croatia’s team manager Iva Olivari.
“I can’t tell you exactly what we are facing,” she added. “We have to deal with it when we get there.”
Continued uncertainty has been a constant challenge for FIFA’s partners. According to Ricardo Fort, the longtime head of sports marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, the last-minute change to the start date of the tournament is expected to disrupt plans that sponsors made months earlier. increase.
“They invited and confirmed hospitality guests, booked flights and hotels, and contracted all the necessary logistics,” Fort wrote. Twitter post“Imagine changing everything!”
Officials at Qatar’s organizing committee have become accustomed to last-minute, and sometimes unexplained, modifications to plans that have been in place for months. For example, in 2019, a staff member who was preparing a detailed marketing and communication plan to announce the opening of what would be Al Wakrah Stadium, said it would take only a few minutes for the country’s chief to arrive to open the venue. A few minutes ago, he took to social media to say that it would be called Al Janoub Stadium instead.
At another time, Qatar and its ambassador were their own worst enemies. This is a problem that the organizers have faced since work on the World Cup project first started almost ten years ago. , seems to have guessed the number before it was corrected by staff. In April, World Cup officials had to offer an explanation after a senior security official told reporters that the rainbow flag, a symbol of gay rights, could be seized from fans. I didn’t. for your own protection.
To tell that story, Qatar also enlisted a group of former footballers at great expense. Beckham has proven to be a reluctant advocate, preferring to attend events only when the news media are not present. He has never publicly stated why he did so, and his spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
This week brought a new crisis to the opening day of the tournament. In a letter sent to persuade football’s top leaders to agree to the date change, FIFA’s secretary-general said the commercial and legal implications of moving Qatar’s opening match against Ecuador forward by one day. and determined that “any risks were well outweighed by the value and benefits of the proposal.”
But some fans will be disappointed. In addition to changing Qatar’s match, FIFA changed the start date of the match between the Netherlands and Senegal on 21 November from its original afternoon start to an evening kickoff.
The New Yorker’s Martín Bauzá said it meant he could no longer use the tickets he had purchased for the Dutch game. Because he also has a ticket for the US vs. Wales game which starts in an hour after he finishes. And he’s probably not the only one to complain.
Graham Fry, chairman of IMG’s production division and a veteran of major event coverage, said:
“They’d already planned programming for the day and would have scheduled World Cup previews,” he added, adding that such decisions often have to be made months in advance.
Qatari officials said they would work with FIFA to “ensure a smooth tournament for supporters affected by the changes”.
Another issue that many fans are directly concerned with is Budweiser, one of FIFA’s biggest partners, despite months of debate over its plans to serve alcohol at the World Cup. However, it has not yet been clarified. World Cup site.
The latest proposal, which has not yet been made public, is to sell beer outside the stadium after security checks, and not in the stadium itself. Fans can also drink at Fun Park, but for now that perk is only available during certain times of the day. The World Cup organizers have yet to reveal.
As months shrink to weeks and then days, Qatar’s scrutiny is only increasing, as insiders know. But for now they have more pressing issues. I need to find someone to change all the clocks.
