Qatar World Cup 2022: between accelerated construction and doubts about accommodation, as Doha is 60 days before the World Cup

On the streets of Qatar the anxiety for the arrival of the World Cup is felt in the common man and in the landlord. Two months after the arrival of the World Cup, the plot that began in December 2010, when the country was announced as the host of the World Cup, is growing on the basis of two big questions: whether the Arab country will be able to excite fans by living with the severity of its rules and whether it will be prepared to face the wave of visitors that will arrive in its limited geography from November.

Although the Cup formally begins on November 20 with Qatar-Ecuador, the key date to try to clarify these doubts is November 1st. That day will be enabled Hayya card, the kind of visa that all those who want to participate in the World Cup must complete. 40 days before the deadline, the Persian Gulf country leaves the extreme temperatures of summer to start heating up the preview of the World Cup.

After 18 hours of flying and other stops, you arrive from Buenos Aires to Hamad International Airport. The big screens and posters reproduce the slogan of the World Cup: that’s all now (that’s all now). In the free shop, the World Cup merchandising offer is still scarce. The basics: t-shirts, caps, key rings and pens.

Anand drives an Uber but shows the city as a tour guide. 10 kilometers from the airport, turn right. “Stage-nine-seven-four,” he says, separating the words as if they were syllables. Leaning against the waters of the peninsula, stadium 974 breaks with the chromatic and architectural monotony of the city with its containers of colors and port reminiscences.

The eight stadiums are contained in an area similar to that of a Buenos Aires neighborhood. With the luster of the new, they stand out as large masses exhibiting Middle Eastern traditions with their designs of ships, boats or typical dress. At the beginning of September they cut the ribbon on the biggest of them all: the Lusail, where Argentina will play two games; where the grand finale will be played. Although they failed to fill the stands of a stadium with a capacity of 80,000 people, the match between one Egyptian team and another from Saudi Arabia served as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup. Approved, although the demanding searches took up to two hours for fans to enter and caused some unrest.

“If they tell the workers ‘you have to check the entrances and each of the backpacks’, they will do it even if they have 10,000 people pushing. They follow orders until a superior tells them otherwise, ”he explains Clarione María Belén, Argentine who has lived in the emirate for six years. In a country where you don’t see the police on the street, security is a big obsession as well they control it through an advanced camera system by the Qatari Ministry of the Interior.

Doubts about accommodation

In the area of Al Wakrah, 13 kilometers from the airport, is a large village of blue and white twin buildings where they hope to host tens of thousands of fans. The organization announced that the rental of these units for two people, with private bathroom, cleaning service every three days, Wi-Fi and shared kitchen, will cost from 80 dollars. Added to this are hotels, for the most part an expensive luxury, and the possibility that the people of Qatar receive tourists in their homes (www.hostafan.qa).