The World Cup in Qatar and the dangerous situation: people packed into the festival area

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off on Sunday with the opening match between the hosts and Ecuador. The match venue was Al-Bait Stadium, which is not located in the Doha metropolitan area. The logistics of handling large masses of people are still missing from the race host.

According to Reuters, a serious incident occurred in the festival area of ​​the stadium during the opening match. Twice as many people had crowded into the area, which attracts 40,000 people.

Fortunately, the police noticed the organizational error and began to separate the crowd from the area.

– It was dangerous. They let too many people in. We never made it to the area, but I was happy to leave, a fan who was traveling with a four-year-old child told Reuters.

It took the police 45 minutes to clear the area of ​​extra people.

Huge traffic jams

In practice, the only way to get to the match venue was to go by car, and that was also visible in the street view. The ring roads leading to the stadium were completely blocked well before the start of the match.

Iltalehti reporter Janne Palomäki, who was there, said that the one-hour journey from Doha turned into a two-hour wait.

Other attendees have also photographed long queues of cars on social media. New York Times reporter Tariq Panja shared on Twitter a picture of a completely blocked highway, where the lines of cars continued as far as the eye could see.

According to Panja, the race organizer had recommended spectators to come to the opening match by car.

Instead, the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived at the scene in a convoy of four helicopters, and from there the journey continued in a convoy of cars to the stadium. A spectacular reception was arranged for the Emir at the stadium, as his motorcade passed soldiers on camels.

You can also see the video below from here.