Waka Waka by retired Sec
Wales first World Cup since 1958 was not to be missed, well not for 4 of us intrepid travellers. Sods law that the competition we did qualify for was probably the most controversial World Cup ever. The Human rights situation in Qatar is well documented, and the hosts mount an immediate defence of their country and culture whenever it is raised.
In my own mind I did think about it, but I took the easy way out.
My attitude was it was not my fault that corrupt FIFA officials chose
Qatar. And that’s not me being slanderous or provocative. A number
of FIFA officials who voted at the time have since been suspended, and 2
officials on the morning of the vote had to pull out due to concerns around
their integrity.
So off we went with Wonky Dai.
4 of us had an apartment with a shared pool, which worked out a treat for
us. We were warned beforehand that Qatarians have a very laid-back
attitude and are never rushed, and we saw that immediately on arrival when we
were bussed from the airport to our apartment block. There was no rush of
panic, apart from Wonky Dai that is. I don’t know how much he aged over
the course of the trip, but he looked stressed at the airport on the way out
and back (more about that later).
It is often said that the game is the worse part of the trip, and it
was certainly true in Qatar. Wales were pretty disappointing and seemed
rather shambolic at time. Players not fit, players that couldn’t run and
players who seemed to be there for the experience. Not really what we
need. We did have a decent 45 mins v USA but apart from that there was
nothing to write home about.
The country itself was interesting. I was there for 10 days and
I’m not sure if I experienced anything that was authentic Qatar. 99.9% of
the people I saw were not local indigenous people, it was as if they had all
moved out while the footy was on. All the food was overseas food, and you
could have been walking down the street of any European City and seen exactly
the same, apart from the lack of alcohol which you could only get in hotels.
Although the lack of freely available alcohol was probably a good thing
when you think there were fans from 32 countries within such as small space.
There could have been carnage. There were not as many European fans there
as you may have imagined, they largely stayed home. The South American,
Mexican and African teams were the best supported, with Argentina the standout
from the South, and Tunisia & Morocco from Africa. The Tunisian’s
certainly had an interesting song!
The fans park was huge and had everything I could ask for, especially
merch. Alcohol was available after 7pm, but was rather amusingly
signposted and referred to as “International Beverages”. Fans tended to
spend the day at Souq Waqif which was a transport hub with the bus services and
metro system close by. Writing about transport, you would never believe
how many buses there were in Qatar. They were there to take you to all
the stadiums, between stadiums if you had tickets for more than one game a day.
The true legends of the World Cup though were the metro announcers.
“Metro this way” was the sound of the tournament, even more than the
Dreamers tournament song. The metro system coped with the capacity no
problem and had air conditioning. I do wonder though on the usage post
tournament, because everyone seems to drive erratically out there.
Outside of the Wales games we saw 6 others, and got to experience
games in 5 of the 8 stadiums. Rather disappointingly Wales games were all
in the same Stadium. The desert Al Khor Tented Stadium was remarkable and
the best thing about the England 0 USA 0 game (apart from the free tickets I
suppose), but sadly we did not see a game at the Lussail Stadium, where
Argentina deservedly won the final. I say deservedly because I am an
unapologetic Messi fan, and I was glad for his legacy he won. I also
chuckled at Ronaldo being benched as well. A great player, but lots to
dislike about him unlike Leo. The game of the tournament for us was
Serbia 3 Cameroon 3. An unlikely contender for our best game but it was
about as exciting as it got for us, and certainly more exciting than Spain 7
Costa Rica 0.
The tournament ended in a fitting way for us on the field, getting
outclassed by England, it summed the tournament up, a step too far for an aging
squad. One final bit of drama for me, when I got to the airport I was not
on the flight list. Wonky Dai sorted it out for me pretty quickly but it
was a bit of last minute drama I could have one without. And the change
in temperature when we landed in Cardiff was a shock to the system.
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