The faithful readers of the newspaper ‘The Peninsula’, edited by the emir’s stepbrother, Khali bin Thani al Thanihave been forced this Saturday morning to do an exercise of visual acuity to find on its cover the information about the adventures of the Qatar national team in this World Cup. Only a small highlight on the cover, accompanied by the photo of Senegal’s coach, Alou Cissé, and the same size as the one referring to Iran’s triumph, highlights that “Qatar is eliminated from the World Cup”.
Even more striking is what happens in the ‘Gulf Times’, the other major English-language newspaper in the country. The world Cup occupies a good space on the front page of today’s newspaper… but both the photo and the headline are for Iran’s victory over Wales. And already in the lead it is mentioned, in effect, the elimination of Qatar, with phrases from defender Tarek Salman apologizing for it.
There are two possible readings for this news coverage. The first has to do with the fact that Qatar is a dictatorship and, as such, the media write according to the dictates of those who rule the country. And it is logical that the emirate does not want to give much media attention to the fact that Qatar has been the worst host in the history of the World Cups, the second after South Africa (2010) that does not pass the first round and the first that is mathematically left out afterwards. of only two games played.
“It’s a shame, but…”
The second reading is more prosaic: almost everyone in Qatar doesn’t care about the Qatari team. “It’s a shame, but we can continue enjoying the World Cup here, which is the important thing, from Argentina, from Brazil, from France… from Spain!”said a man in a tunic at the exit of the Netherlands-Ecuadorwhose tie consummated the local elimination.
It is estimated that around 80% of the emirate’s inhabitants are immigrants, the vast majority coming from India, Bangladesh or Nepal, also from other areas of Asia, although at first glance they seem to be an even higher majority. During all these days, you had to do enormous visual acuity exercises to find a Qatar shirt among the crowd. And from now on…
Few of those immigrants they feel some kind of connection with the team coached by the Spanish Félix Sánchez. “I support Neymar, Messi and Cristiano,” enthused an Indian immigrant that he is working in the organization of the World Cup when asked which team he supports. Like all those who are asked, either because they think so or because they prefer to avoid some kind of problem, he says that he is happy in Qatar despite having a low salary, but that he does not identify with his team.
Brazil triumphs
In fact, it is common to see many immigrants residing in Qatar wearing the shirt of other teams, with Brazil as the absolute winner of the popularity contest. Days before the World Cup, a parade of fans went viral, which everyone assumed was paid by the organization to give color to the previous days. Perhaps it was (no protagonist admits that this was the case, FIFA and Qatar also deny it), but perhaps it was just an amusement made for the love of art. Because they are passionate about football, but not the Qatar team, but another.
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The support of the locals, perfectly recognizable by their tunics, was already evident in the opening game last sunday. After the break, and already with 0-2 in favor of Ecuador, thousands of Qataris left the Al Bayt stadium in Jor. They just didn’t like what they were seeing and went to do something better. The romantic concept of supporting your team (or your national team, in this case) no matter what has not caught on in this corner of the world.
It was also clear at the start of Qatar-Senegal on Friday. The evacuations of the stadiums are being hell in this World Cup, with queues that can last an hour to access the corresponding metro station, catch a bus or get into a taxi or Uber. But it was not the case. Silence, order and orderly transit to any other place. The reigning Asian Cup champion had been (then virtually) knocked out of the World Cup, but no one really cared.