Even if the region in general hasn't been super safe in a very long time, I don't think Qatar specifically has any instability issues or has seen an increase in danger levels, but correct me if I'm wrong. Having your plane shot down is extremely unlikely, not to mention that it could just as easily happen if you're flying over the middle-east as opposed to actually visiting the mid-east.
I guess this idea has been floating around for some time.... https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/artic...w5WUyHo3XmDZw5f5Kr0SpNbdBx3myKH_8jwDd9YBmRkM0
https://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc-nations-cup-2020-host-confirmed/ It will be played in June. Qualification round in March. There goes my "proposal". African qualifiers draw to be held tomorrow.
Draw results: Group A: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Djibouti Group B: Tunisia, Zambia, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea Group C: Nigeria, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Liberia Group D: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Malawi Group E: Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda Group F: Egypt, Gabon, Libya, Angola Group G: Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia Group H: Senegal, Congo, Namibia, Togo Group I: Morocco, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan Group J: Congo DR, Benin, Madagascar, Tanzania groups to watch I would say Group D : matchup between Cameroon and CIV Group F : Gabon has outside chance to beat Egypt Group B : If Zambia's youth generation gels they could upset Tunisia Group G : Ghana should beat South Africa but you never know
OFC will eliminate three teams in March. According to Wikipedia, CAF postponed their first two WCQs matchdays because the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations was moved from summer to winter (in the northern hemisphere, it will be in January and/or February), but the only WCQ matchdays moved are in 2020, so I don't know why one affected the other. CAF's Group Stage was supposed to start in March, but it will start over half a year later in October. Matchday 2, which was supposed to in June, was postponed to November. Matchdays 3 through 6 were left alone, with 3 and 4 in March 2021, 5 in late August or early September 2021, and 6 in October 2021. We now have to wait longer for the groups to start, but it will be a year and five weeks from Matchday 1 to Matchday 6 rather than a much longer time from start to end. AFC, CONMEBOL, and OFC are the only confederations with WCQs in March and June.
Probably to finish AFCON qualifying earlier than originally planned due to the moving up of the date?
The article doesn't make it abundantly clear - but that is for OFC2020 only. There is a stuff.nz article that notes that World Cup qualifying starts with "regional matches" in September. J
just saw it, they were talking about cruise ships in the past, I wonder if they gave up that idea? 16 hotels are just a drop in the ocean, won‘t be enough for sure!
How about the CAF third round? Are they going to make a new draw? or just play Winner A vs Winner B, Winner C vs Winner D etc ?
A file from FIFA says OFC will have Round 1 in September, October, and November, Round 2 in June 2021, and Round 3 in September 2021. That is under the heading "current estimations," and it's months old. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it's not guaranteed to be right. If there are three rounds, my guess is a group stage this year that advances four teams, with semifinals in June 2021 and a final in September 2021 to send the winner to the interconfederational playoff.
The NZ article sort of implied something like that for the start. Regardless, no one’s getting eliminated in March J
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/floa...o-qatar-for-the-2022-world-cup-125759254.html Floating hotels. You can't make this stuff up.
I believe for a Super Bowl in St. Petersburgh, FL (Florida Panthers?) they docked cruise ships for extra hotel space. "Currently, hotel stay packages for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar range from $1,500 per night to over $3,000 per night, according to sports travel websites." That is out of my price range. Also from article, it says the hotel can be moved to other costal locations. Maybe St. Pete can have another Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl in Jacksonville between the Patriots and Eagles. A few cruise ships is one thing. Hundreds of floating Hotel rooms in the Persian Gulf???? Different beast.
that's crazy, even if they come down by 75% that's beyond what I'm willing to pay. I thought the Tokyo Olympics were bad and the prices were sky high at first but at least now it's possible to get decent rooms in the $300/night range, which is still pricey. And these are not luxury hotels by any stretch. If that's truly going to be the price point for lodging then it will have a serious impact on attendance, especially considering all the other reasons people have for not really wanting to go.
Just read the article and did some math. It says Qatar now has about 27,000 hotel rooms, but the WC “requires a minimum 60,000 hotel rooms”. 27,000 + 1,616 = 28,616; far short of 60K! It’s not even 5% of the way to covering the shortfall. Not sure how many other hotels are coming on line, but after building these 16 floaters, they will still need another 311 of them to get to 60,000 rooms. This bad joke just gets worse and worse. And what does “a price point on the reasonable end of expensive World Cup stays” mean? In the $1500-$2000 per night range? To sleep on a barge.
In the Technical report that no one who voted read Qatar got a medium risk on hotel accommodation as they had the required rooms under contract even though the majority didn't exist at the time.
I wonder what the numbers of beds comparison is; but yeah, I agree with your point that Qatar is a ridiculous venue. Also, at least cruise ships came with staff, and, presumably went right back to their regular service as soon as the guests left. These hotels will float around until.. well what really? Can they become affordable housing somewhere? Can they even cross oceans, or do they just float around the Persian Golf. Seems like a sci-phi novel.
$1500-2000 a night? We had someone come over to do a survey about the World Cup a couple of months ago and he asked people were interested in renting rooms out for the world cup. I said not really, but at that price - huh, maybe will definitely reconsider....
Naw, there's an easier & cheaper solution: Hand out match tickets to the (surviving) Nepalese, Indian and Bangladeshi workers to fill up the stadia Although their overseers would absolutely resort to "paying" them in WC tickets rather than actual money
if these lodging prices hold, then filling the stadiums with local workers on hugely discounted or free tickets is a real possibility. Neither FIFA or Qatar wants the embarrassment of empty seats at a World Cup.