It'll be interesting to see how European leagues handle their 2022/23 season for this world cup. Wonder what will happen?
Qatar ruining the next world cup. I hate its going to be in December. That is not world cup. Thanks.... A boycott from the big leagues in Europé? Can that happen?
They already won the first battle before this World Cup, forcing Infantino to cool it with trying to rush the creation of the FIFA Nations League and the expanded Club World Cup.
Which of course, defeats the whole purpose of going to the WC in a place like Qatar (the potential to go to multiple matches in a day and/or large numbers of matches over a short period of time). The only reason I'd even think about going to the WC in Qatar would be the possibility of going to 10+ matches in a week. And you can't do that if you have to fly in/out every day (expensive in and of itself) because there are not enough hotel rooms and/or they are all priced through the roof.
So match tickets will be easy to get, but hotel rooms and flights will be incredibly expensive. Will this be a World Cup just for rich locals, rich foreigners, and royalty?
Having been to Russia and Brazil I am dreading Qatar though like some here, I'm too die-hard of a WC fan to miss out. I lived in Qatar as an infant and my folks said there was absolutely nothing to do there at the time. Today I hear much of the same. Its a place to go and make a ton of money which you can use to travel elsewhere but isn't much of a tourist destination itself. As others have said, a huge part of the WC experience is immersing yourself in the local culture. In Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Korea/Japan, etc you had an endless array of cultural options to choose from in between games. In Qatar you'll be able to do anything you want as long as its walking around a shopping mall. I'm not too worried about the drinking since I'm not a huge drinker myself and I do expect them to announce they will open things up closer to the tournament. I'm purely speculating here but I imagine they'll succumb to the pressure but don't want to receive too much criticism from their religious establishment so will make the announcement when the tournament is around the corner. Also, given how much FIFA gets in sponsorship from beer companies I can't see them being willing to forego all that money to appease the Qataris. The logistics does worry me as Qatar is obviously tiny and we've all been to very crowded cities that have far better transportation and housing than Qatar. Yes it sounds great to have fans of 32 countries in the same city but will Qatar be equipped to absorb double its population during the WC? Finally, I'm willing to bet that tickets will be as difficult for Qatar as previous WCs. The Gulf Arabs have a lot of disposable income and will buy tickets and secondly, because of how close all the cities are, fans will be able to buy tickets for more games. Now from a sporting perspective, I wonder how long FIFA will mandate the training camps will be. Typically, teams spend 3-5 weeks prepping for the WC but with Qatar being mid-season, teams might only get a week or so to prepare which I think would compromise the quality of the tournament. A lot can change in 4 years but I think i'll go there for the KO stage and travel around the region during my trip. There's no way in heck I'd spend a full month there.
Attendance from elsewhere in the Gulf may depend on relationships between nations. Particularly Saudi Arabia with Qatar. Unless that improves substantially it will impact on regional demand. I'm expecting two weekends off between the leagues going on break and the World Cup starting. So just under 3 weeks for national teams to get together. That is an educated guess at what the minimum acceptable time will be deemed to be. In terms of quality players might have more stamina than during the usual (northern hemisphere) summertime slot. Lack of time training together and warm up matches could well be an issue.
The negatives outweigh the positives and have since day one. There's really no solid reason anyone can give me to go on with this tournament.
I am sure for publicity Qatar will also have the migrant workers at some of the games as they cough up blood and sneeze their tears away.
Somewhat bad luck that Christmas falls on a Sunday. That causes the WC break to be even longer in a way. I mean, if it fell on a Monday or Tuesday they could've had the final on the 23 December and maybe not have to start as early as 21 November. Anyway, I suspect the September and October FIFA breaks would be cancelled. And the November int'l break would essentially be the 10 days before the WC kicks-off. That way you can fit 3 UEFA CL matchdays in September, 2 in October and 1 in early-November. Plus you get 2 extra weekends and 2 extra midweeks to squeeze-in league matches. From that, we gain back 3 of the 5 weeks that are "lost" because of the WC. So you can just have the league seasons extend 2 weeks deeper into May/June. The other option is to start seasons 2 weeks earlier in August (or July even). Possible since there will be nothing going on that summer anyway.
Qatar beat Ecuador today in a friendly. I know it is just a friendly but it is still surprising to me. I guess that is a positive thing they can build on as the cycle goes on.
Yeah in fact I was going to go to that game but wound up at Oktoberfest instead. Was this a full string Ecuador squad? Qatar are a funny team, they beat Russia last year then lost to Curacao + Liechtenstein so it's hard to say what to read into this result. Will probably go to see Ecuador vs Oman here in doha later this week. Will see how they do then.
I'd wait to see how they fair in the Asian Cup. They have a group that I would expect them to make it out of, Saudi Arabia should finish top. But Lebanon and North Korea aren't the strongest teams.
They just lost to Uzbekistan 2-0 in Tashkent... see what I was saying about the inconsistency... also Ecuador drew 0-0 with Oman in another friendly so maybe Ecuador, or at least the team they sent weren't all that tbh... went to the game last night and couldn't believe to see that Ecuardorian fans actually outnumbered Omani fans in the stadium in Doha lol.. there was probably just barely over a hundred people. Got to meet Hernan Dario Gomez and some of the players afterwards due to hanging out with the Ecuadorian community. Anyhoo... yes, 2019 will be a big year for Qatar with the Asian Cup + the Copa America.... yes, Qatar and Japan will play in Brazil this summer... let's see how they do!
Any chance Qatar gets FIFA to grant them an official participant status for the Copa América (as opposed to being a guest)? If not, and they go as a guest with no power to coerce clubs into releasing players, than their B-team will almost certainly get shelled in Brazil.
I don't think it will matter... pretty much the entire team plays locally and trust me no way will those clubs deny their players to leave during the summer off season. There's a couple of players playing for Eupen in Belgium which is ironically owned by Qatar's Aspire Academy + some lower league clubs in Europe but don't seem to be playing an important enough of a role there to be withdrawn from their clubs. Will they get shelled? I don't know, I think it might wind up being a similar thing to Jamaica back in 2015 where they were able to lose all three of their games but hold on to a narrow loss. Either way seeing Qatar play in the Copa America is just going to be downright akward.
anything is possible. back to qatar world cup, we are getting FIFA council meeting this week, who knows, maybe there will be some news related to the world cup itself! maybe even 2026....
New focus on expanding 2022 World Cup to 48 teams- Qatar can’t cope with 16 more teams- But infantino wants an expanded WC - Infantino spoke to Qatar’s emir about possibility of sharing games across region- Human rights assessments of new co-hosts key https://t.co/u3JCBVlqIh— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) November 1, 2018
Saudi Arabia: we'll even help by centralizing all the press accreditation pick-ups right here. FIFA: ...isn't this a slaughterhouse? Saudi Arabia: Don't worry about it. Want an extra billion for your Nations League? Done and done.