The world is REALLY watching........
I would first of all like to send my utmost salutations to "lincolnpirate" and his captions, “Qchris” and his blog and the like for their article pieces and to contributions in previous threads providing an insight and the prominence about the sad situation about the football and sport situation here. To be honest with everyone here, I am still yet ghastly appalled with the FIFA decision not too long too, yet though I was expecting it! I am no sour loser, on contraire I am in fact happy for the country (barely) but I am merely expressing my opinions!
The sour losing dramatis personae that included the USA, Australia and their overconfident entourage of media, speculators and sports fans, are definitely having a laugh at the dismal portrayal of the “football” scene here. They thought they had it in the bag, (Qatar who? what? No way it’s ours!)Do not get me wrong here, I am more oriented to the fact that they would indeed provide a more credible hosting stage, but that is old news! Little did they know and including us that indeed it does not mean that if you are an immense country with almost bountiful resources that are not restricted to just money, that you will be granted hosting rights, but not so because this is the complexity of politics and oh yes a theory that I would like to call “sugar-coating the reality”. Catchy words of the like, “Middle East world cup”, “Center of the World”, “Prime Time Heaven” etc:
Yes, I agree that football by far here is the most preferred subject of discussion and also viewership, but does that mean it is in tandem with a rich and strong “football culture”? Does the fact that being blessed with world class sports facilities and even deeper pockets per capita entitle the honor of the world football organization to an almost NOW synthetic and soul-less fervor limited to home and café viewing crowds? Qatar’s history in football WAS indeed strong not too long ago, but now? I would like to quote what a game commentator on AlKass had said on the match with China when he said “…..and now here he comes, ooooh that was a strong tackle with Lawrence ..oops I mean Anas Mubarak…!”
This is a clear and depressing and heartbreaking depiction to the almost contractual nature of almost EVERYTHING here. Nothing is “natural” my dear friends “Tinkerbell” and “Timebandit”. For crying out sake even the people bearing the national colors have to be bought and “contracted” with! Weight lifters, football players, sprinters, long distance runners, etc: I believe there are people who deserve that type of recognition even though the notion of being a second class citizen is almost certain. It’s been some time since I have not been here in this forum but I had happened to have gone through a topic discussion on WHO EVENTUALLY IS GOING TO LIVE HERE? That’s a very good logical question, and the answer is simple. The few “elite” thousands plus a million or more professional “nomads” who would be here for a short time! A city fit for millions of people is being built, but it’s for millions of temporary residents.
Going back to my main subject, here comes the ticketing official who says he is “shocked!” This guy seriously gave me the stitches out of laughing so profusely! SHOCKED……. Are you kidding me??? Did this guy land from a spaceship to be an official with the organizing committee without any knowledge about the football scenario? I mean the guy sitting in the Arctic fishing in a frozen lake knows that! A perfect example to my theory of sugar-coating the reality and finding scapegoats to blame! Your “football passion” has to be so bad that even you would have a “rival” country (Iranian Coach) actually advising and warning you that indeed the world is watching so yeah get your act together and get some people to watch your games. Um no thanks we won’t because simply we don’t care and we are too lazy!
In other countries organizing committees are trying ways to provide maximum benefit for the maximum people, while here it’s getting the maximum crowd! Mind you the crowd has to be and ONLY INCLUDE “Families”! Hmmm crowds of families*although easily attainable, but families that are preferred are the ones that they would find in their dictionary!
* (Definition of “FAMILY”:- Any group of people unless they are NOT a group of south Asian or African males. “Families” SHOULD be well dressed AND SHOULD have at least one of any members either a locally dressed male or a western individual. Women groups or groups that include at least one female member of any nationality are taken as “family”.)
For those of you newbie’s and “wanna-be” football fans reveling in the glory of the world cup win, here’s a bit of insider info before you bash on me about the fact that the past Qatar matches have been sell-outs in the Asian Cup.
There are various organizations that are employed in bringing in fans and people to stadiums and in due course provide “incentives” for those who do make it. No, they don’t bribe them with money to come and see the games, but they have their ways! Each sports club has its own fan supporter’s base that is linked to the club. These clubs are then in turn contacted and “rewarded” in order to bring their fans. Many and many calls later, each club would have a substantial amount of “fans” that would show up for these games. Now of course I have no idea what these “incentives” are. Also to mention the various voluntary organizations who deploy their “armies” of volunteers not just for the organizing committee but for also creating this sort of giving a local flavor to the “pseudo-camera friendly spectator atmosphere”! Schools both public and private are contacted for a slice of these “incentives”. My niece got a brand new shiny mobile phone when the Asian games were done 4 years ago, to which she proudly quipped she gathered it by attending the various games through the school. She told me that every time she passed the entrance an official would pass her an envelope with some amount of money after counting the number of students and the head teacher producing their school ID’s! Desperate!
Not to mention the “contracts” that is awarded to companies by bringing their labor force for different games. I kind of liked the style of the coordinator of the last Emir Cup. Towards the last games of the quarter-final, there were two teams namely “Um-salaal” and “Ahli” that were playing together. I happen to have been near the Qatar sports club stadium for the fact that I was invited to a café nearby. So I and my friend decided to take a look at the match. On the practice pitches side we saw a huge number of busses the ones used to haul laborers to their work sites being parked all around. And as we went inside the stadium my thoughts were right! There were rows and rows of these poor laborers some of them still in their work gear, “supporting” teams that they don’t know, care or want to know about! A large number of them were even given “thobes” and Arabic head-gear “ghutras” to make it look like from far that they were genuine supporters, as long as the camera-men do not zoom towards them!
I mean come on I am not a globe trotter but I have not seen or heard anything like this anywhere else! I might write and bewail about it all, and it would fall on deaf years. I might even deviate from it so I might as well stop right here for you all to digest and comment on what I have just said.
??????????
people here are busy in their lives, and dont have enough time to face the music waiting in a queue for long hours & to struck in the traffic at end of the match!!
s_isale they have never been held in my country before :(
I have watched all the football matches of our city's local league from 1992 to 2006 except a handful that I had to miss for various reasons before I left the city if that counts for anything :(
whats your point s_isale, whats that got to do with anything?
How many of you have attended previous editions of Asian Football championships?
Elaph you fill stadiums by creating an environment whereby fans want to travel and be part of the games, both pre and post match. This is something Qatar does not understand and comprehend. They need to get their act together big time by 2022.
@ Elaph,i 'm no expert in crowd statistics but football games around the world even local league games let alone the national team playing, do fill out stadiums & have been for years...how do they do it?...
actually it is the west news speaking in our language.
that is why i didn't post the link for 2 reasons:
1- it is in arabic.
2- the credibility of this net is 0 for me.
that is why i said:I HEARD :)
i gave my staff free tickets but i knew we have lot of work to finish and most of them won't bother to go even myself could not attend all matches except weekends, some of you here are posting nonsense,Qatari population is like 400,000 max and most of the foreign workers are working for private business which means too many long hours or 2 shifts,so how do you expect to fill those stadium ?
@ one shot,'lungi news' may not always be true eh?! *wink*! :)...
very well said indeed! I actually thought of the same thing when the 2022 bid winner was announced. Oh well, since the INEVITABLE will happen, we might as well just go with the flow and benefit from it, right? ;-)
i heard it was a story of virtual companies bought all the tickets to make this asian games look like a failure
is this a thread for long posts and comments?
i heard there's reward of 50qr for occupying per seat,as there were not much spectators righT??
can u make it shorter than i ll caome back to u....cyaa
@ Genesis,it is much more than a mere 'flaw' that needs to be corrected...a question if i may,come 2022 & every Qatari who thinks he is important or a 'VIP'(which is about half the local population by any conservative estimate.) will want free corporate tickets for himself & his family of 20plus people,NOT because he can't afford tickets for all of them but because he feels he is 'worthy' enough to be given those free tickets,even if 4 or 5 of those 20 plus tickets will actually be used...
Now,if all the corporate sponsors give out tickets by the bucketload like they're used to doing here,in keeping with 'local culture',the same thing is going to happen,tickets will be 'sold out' but the stadiums won't be full & thousands of genuine fans will be denied an opportunity to watch the game, but if the corporate sponsors don't give out those thousands of tickets,there will be thousands of offended locals claiming "World Cup in MY country & I can't get a free ticket? Shameful!" THAT is the attitude that needs to change...
The World Cup is not being hosted here as a private performance for a few thousand locals,Qatar has been granted the privilege of hosting this tournament for football fans from AROUND THE WORLD so let's hope in 11 years some sense will dawn on this issue...& certain people realize,appreciate & understand that the whole world doesn't revolve around just them...
bryane now you are getting annoying. Stop posting the same thing on all the threads and start your own!
2022 will be rammed regardless. All the stadiums and indeed Qatar will be full. That is a completely different tournament with a massive following that will travel at any cost.
is it okey to work with regency group? coz i was hired by them. and its my first time to go in qatar.
Almost everyone I know criticize the way the ticketing was handled in this tournament, and that includes Qataris. the way sponsors receive excess of free tickets, while spectators struggles to find any is clear indication of a flaw that needs to be Tackled In future tournaments
As for the OP, its Much Ado about nothing!
Don't you people get it, Qatar never responds to bad press
no matter how much you write, nothing will change the fact that Qatar will host the world cup on 2022. Regardless of How good or bad the organization will be or how much spectator will attend the matches
One of the gas companies (and I'm sure all the others did the same) was giving away thousands of free tickets to its employees, which is fair enough. But they ask the employees to book a maximum of 6 tickets to any game on the company's website, but when you go to pick up the tickets, they just throw 6 random tickets at you, regardless how many you booked and which games you wanted to watch!! and a lot of people who got these tickets, didn't even use them, while you get people lined up on ticket booths trying to buy tickets to "sold out" games?!
They should try cricket matches like UAE, Sharjah had packed stadiums for close to 20 years twice an year before match fixing caught up with them.
I am sure we can fill up stadiums here too, for India-Pakistan games anyway ;)
Nice thesis..facts or fiction?
I repeat: Now I am not an expert, but could this be because there are not enough football fans in Qatar?
And I will add: Expensive air fares and extortionate hotel rates too much for most travelling fans.
Good Post, I rather enjoyed reading it there was a hidden meaning in it, yes I agree it was long but what the heck its a holiday today.
Here is the short version from Gulf Times:
Good organisation, poor crowds typify Asian Cup
Doha: The on-going Asian Cup has put the spotlight on Qatar after its controversial success in winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup, but a glaring lack of atmosphere and fans has done it no favours.
Qatar has thrown plenty of money at the Asian Cup—the stadiums are shiny and modern, the organisation is excellent, facilities are top-notch and communications work flawlessly.
But the fans have been missing and it is sorely lacking atmosphere.
A criticism of Qatar being awarded the World Cup was its lack of football pedigree and Asia’s premier football tournament is being played in front of half-empty stadiums. There were barely 2,000 supporters to watch powerhouses Japan and Saudi Arabia, while less than 4,000 witnessed China’s thrilling showdown with Uzbekistan and a similar number saw Australia beat Bahrain on Tuesday.
Few of them were Qataris.
More people turned up to watch an English non-league match between Luton and York on the same night an Australian team boasting players like Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer booked their place in the last eight.
Even more worrying was the failure of Qatari fans to fill the stadium for the host nation’s crucial final group match against Kuwait—their biggest game in years.
They came through it 3-0 to make the quarter-finals for only the second time in their history, but there were reams of empty seats for a game that was said to have been a sell-out.
It followed thousands of fans streaming out of the hosts’ opening game with 30 minutes left, leaving Khalifa Stadium eerily quiet at the final whistle.
Asian Football Confederation competitions director Tokuaki Suzuki put a brave face on the poor turnouts.
“We are satisfied with the crowds in stadiums, not only numbers but the atmosphere,” he said.
“Of course, we need to improve. If all matches were a full house, it would be better.” Working in Qatar’s favour has been the compact size of the capital Doha, making it easy to get to stadiums despite negligible public transport and few taxis, while there is little crime. World Cup planners say they will build a new metro system to shuttle fans to games in 2022. The current tournament has been notable for its smooth organisation, with a leaf clearly being taken out of FIFA’s book on how to run a high-profile event.
“Our target is not only an excellent competition in terms of the Asian level, we are looking at the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Champions League and Euro level,” Suzuki told reporters.
“We want to do it on the same level as FIFA and UEFA and we believe we can achieve that.”
I believe, they cannot achieve this.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=411066&version=1&template_id=49&parent_id=29
Hats off to Gulf Times to publish this.
But the Asian games was very good.
Very thought provoking review.
Thanks for taking trouble to write. On the positive side I strongly feel this turn of events will help people grow up. The issue is not a football culture, but a thought process and attitude of people, the very people who wear three piece western suite in the scorching heat of the desert and criticise everything of west, or the very people who cant live without the 'Gay ef zee' or 'Bebsi' but declare war on everything of west.
This new venture will give more opportunity for people of different cultures to mix and in the process will help people grow up, understand other cultures.
A great beginning for Qatar.I am so happy or the new development in Qatar.
@ cabbage,perhaps there is a new definition to the term "fantastic" that we don't know about!!!
For the record,as Raven correctly stated,the LEAST attended Asian Games in the HISTORY of the games,the rest is immaterial,no matter how well it was organized...A tournament is about the fans,first & foremost...no fans no fantastic!...
Qatar has a LONG way to go in terms of hosting a TRULY successful tournament,perhaps they will change that in 11 years but as things stand today...FAR from it...
Sam95 it was the least attended Asian Games in history. yeah they did great, get a grip? Just because they built a few stadia doesn't make it great, the public and fans voted with their feet....Qatar does boring and does it well!! What Qatar has'nt yet relaised or is to thick to understand is when hosting a event its not just about building flash stadiums and putting up some flash signage around town, you have to generate an environment where fans want to come and be part of! Quite frankly Qatar is not a welcoming country and there is bugger all to do. Qatar needs to engage a good event management company to work with for the next 11 years otherwise the 22WC will be the most boring WC in history.
Yup Cabbage. I was here for the last Asian Games. Many people were surprised that Kuala Lumpur lost to Doha then. They did great. Hope they do well for 2022 too.
Qasaman kulluna Qatar.
Hehehe... that's what my son blabs when he gets home from school...
It is 11 years till the world cup comes here.
Look at photos from even as little as four years ago and Qatar has grown and expanded.
Was not here for the Asian Games, was it 2005??
That was fantastic according to people who were here.
Anybody that hosts anything is open to criticism and abuse; we all have different ideas of what should be done.
Qatar will get it right, but they may fail. But that failure IMHO will not be down to the effort they put in, it will down to people wanting them to fail.
I can understand jamalx's sentiments regarding the patronage of the Emir Cup. But the same stigma for the AFC Asian Cup & 2022?
Well maybe just not. I was in Villagio earlier this evening, trying to contain my usual impatience lining up in a long queue at the AFC ticketing booth. Rewarding my "patience' were 5 Category 1 tickets for the Finals.
It made me smile. But what made me smile more then was the fact that I saw scores of Qataris being turned away as the Japan-Qatar QF match was sold out.
Perhaps they are making up for their apathy shown during the Emir Cup and making amends here.
Smiling coz the so-called apathy was non-evident.
Long live soccer! Wherever & whoever you are!
actually I disagree with everyone complaining about the post being too long. at least it is a refreshing change and something substantial to read aside from the usual 1 or 2 lined "copy and paste" articles submitted with the usual responses ranging from "you don't like..get out", race bashing or changing the subject and taking over the thread.
Unfortunately as time bandit stated, there are not enough football fans here to fill the seats and for us non football lovers, there is not much pre or post match entertainment to coax us out of our warm comfortable homes, brave the traffic to watch a game we don't really understand, merely to support a country we do not call our own. Some friends of mine attended a match and although they got to the stadium in good time and had good seats they said it was worse than attending a boring easter church service as they could not even get a cup of hot coffee afterwards!
There has to be some sort of incentive involved to draw the crowds of non football fans to the stadiums.There are 12 years ahead of us and although the majority of people complain about their existance in this country, obviously it is better than where they come from. So with this in mind and the opportunity of staying and reaping the benefits of being here for the 2022 world cup, surely we, as expats etc can come up with ideas on how to change the situation with due consideration to the non alcohol laws. In other words, instead of always pointing out the problems, how about suggestions of resolving the issues that could be beneficial for everyone.
For example, I have family and friends back home that are football fanatics that would love to come to the world cup. If I could accumalate a certain amount of incentive points that could add up to airfare and final match tickets for X amount of people, I would quite happily sit in the stadium for an hour or so in order to give them an oportunity they would otherwise never be able to afford.
Does the Qatar football Association have a suggestion box or open forums to discuss these issues?
whyte exactly ! It does not happen often that somebody actually makes an effort posting on QL. Except for bashing, of course. And self righteous BS.
I was recently writing a sort of preview to the Cricket world cup to be held next month and it turned out to be almost as long as this post, I think even longer. I didn't post it in the end thinking nobody will read such a long post. So read his post to appreciate his effort :-P
The OP needs to come with an abstract.
naughty ;-)
WK did it for him
and too long. It could have been summed up in a paragraph.
jamalx, good write up. One question though...do you live in Qatar? ;)
Now I am not an expert, but could this be because there are not enough football fans in Qatar?
He is commenting on the lack of fans in the stadiums for Asia cup and the measures (or lack of) taken by the organisers to fill them up.
True, this is the longest Non copy paste post I have ever seen as well.
Didn't bother reading it, just thought I would point out that for a non copy and paste, that is one heck of a long post. One of the longest I have seen. However couldn't be bothered to read, I would have dozed off. Respect to all those who take the effort to read and digest. Please tell us in one paragraph what it says when you have done so.
TB - what is the bottom line? it hurts my eyes seeing that long post :(
I am a bit skeptical about the "contracts" that you claim are awarded for bringing in the labourers. I think that's a bit too much of a reward for such a simple service.
too long...cant read all, pls summarize :(
what is the bottom line?
Holy ravioli that is one long post.