Qatar 2022: what to eat, the prices and what other secrets it hides, 12 days before the start of the World Cup

According to the tradition born in 1930, every four years, between June and July, the planet is focused on the World Cup. Today we should have prepared ourselves to see maybe Ecuador-Netherlands, England-USA or France-Denmark. But no, nothing. The great success of FIFA regarding the 2022 World Cup is to have delayed it six months because of the weather. At first it was thought that it would be unfeasible, now it is seen that it is not serious. If football survived the pandemic, everything is possible. “When the time comes, Qatar will be very well prepared and it will surely be an extraordinary World Cup, a super World Cup for technology, for stadiums and because it is a new city, which grows every day and in five months, at the speed of the works, everything will be much better, they have thought of every detail”, predicts Somocurcio. Is everything as ultragalactic as it seems, we ask.

“Huuummm… no, I didn’t see it that way. Yes very developed, the down town of Doha, with those impressive buildings, is impressive, although there are also poor sectors, hidden, but there are, surely where the Indian workers live. The stadium where we went is refurbished, beautiful on the outside, comfortable inside, but I would say normal”.

One of the stadiums will be dismantled at the end of the Cup, the others will serve to develop communities around it. And the 32 training centers – one for each team – will become sports complexes or recreation areas. And the fan fests will be set up for the fans who arrive. “There are gigantographs and allusions to the World Cup everywhere, there is a lot of talk about it, it is installed.” And they know what it is: the state of Qatar owns Paris Saint Germain, which has three of the aces of football: Messi, Neymar and Mbappé.

When Somocurcio says “it is a city” he is referring to Doha, the capital of this mini-state that stands out like a mushroom in the Persian Gulf. Doha will be the epicenter of all World Cup activity. Five of the eight stadiums that will host the tournament are within or on the outskirts of Doha, just minutes from the string of skyscrapers that rise up in front of the bay. And the remaining three are located “a little further”, about half an hour by highway. But it will not be necessary to drive, the Qatari government invested 48,000 million dollars to build the subway, which leads to the gate of the eight stages. “The subway is fabulous. Now it was empty, I guess during the World Cup it will be full. It works perfectly, it’s luxurious, everything goes underground, even when it goes out into the desert. And it is very cheap, for one dollar and sixty a day you can travel as many times as you want”, explains Omar, who is already planning to return, although Peru is not present.

However, those who go to the World Cup, be it tourism or work, must be equipped. “There aren’t many shops, luckily I found a mini market and I was able to buy some things, like chips, cookies and stuff. Eating or drinking in hotels is almost prohibitive. A small beer costs fourteen dollars, a soda seven, a plate of food, forty-five. Yes, you can drink alcohol, there are special spaces for that in hotels”, adds Negrini.

Despite the prices, the Qatari will know about the devastating force of football. If 16,000 Peruvians came to support the Bicolor against Australia, a human avalanche will befall them in two weeks, when the party begins. Qatar has 2.6 million inhabitants and will surely receive a million and a half visitors, perhaps more. In the third phase of ticket sales, in October, 2,890,000 tickets had been sold. And in a last window the remainder would come out, if any. In total there will be a little more than 3 million locations, but a third is kept by FIFA for protocol, sale to associations and delivery to their sponsors. There were 40 million requests for tickets, 17 million in the first sales phase and 23 million in the second. “I think the request is a record,” said Hassan Al-Thawadi, secretary general of the tournament’s organizing committee, surprised.

The big dilemma is the visitors. How to do with so many guests…? There will be apartments for rent and there are already cruise ships anchored in the bay that offer a cabin, three meals a day and fun in exchange for $4,000 for the 28 days of the competition. Conditioned tents have also been set up. However, nothing is enough and the tourists are nervous: they bought the tickets for the games, they have the ticket, but they cannot find accommodation. And what you get is very expensive. Aware of the problem, the United Arab Emirates is offering lodging with the slogan of proximity and that they do have a place.

Residents of Qatar will be invaded, but somehow they are used to it. Of those 2.6 million inhabitants, only about 250,000 are Qataris, the rest foreigners who have gone to work. And, in addition, it was the objective sought when the ambitious candidacy was presented. The 200 billion dollars that the emirate will invest in the World Cup are intended for that, to put Qatar on the map of international consideration, to give prestige to its name, to increase and diversify its businesses, not just oil and gas. It is the bet that will divide the country’s history into four: before and after discovering oil (in 1940), before and after the 2022 World Cup. What the very rich Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Asian states could not, the small next door neighbor: having a World Cup, the greatest attraction of humanity. And in the election it was taken from none other than the United States and Australia. Qatar fits 790 times in the United States and 668 in Australia. He is a flyweight who sent Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali to the canvas, both of them together…

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