A month since Qatar 2022: what was it like to be at the World Cup?

Some of my impressions from five full-on days in Doha during last year's tournament

It has already been a month. The World Cup came to an end in spectacular style on December 18th with Argentina’s thrilling win over France in one of the most exciting football finals of all time. But it somehow seems longer ago.

The timing of the tournament probably explains that. Usually, there is an extended break after a World Cup: players go on a long holiday and it is a while before football kicks off again. But since Qatar 2022, we have had Christmas and New Year, plus a return to domestic league and cup competitions across Europe and beyond.

This World Cup was different in so many ways and the fact that it took place in November and December was just part of it. By the time Argentina played France, I had already returned. And since I have been back in Europe, everybody has asked me the same question: what was it like in Qatar?

First of all, my own circumstances were different. I have been lucky enough to work at three World Cups in the past as an accredited journalist. This time, I did some work while I was there, but I was not sent to report on games. In fact, I had not really been bothered about going at all. Then the World Cup started – and I changed my mind.

So I went on a whim really: to experience this unique tournament for myself and to get my own idea of Qatar. Had I not gone, I would probably be regretting it now.

Everything is shiny and new

On arrival, it is impossible not to notice that everything is new. The airport is new. The roads are new. The buildings are new. It’s all new. A friend of mine who had lived in Qatar told me that Doha was unrecognisable now compared to the place she knew a few years ago. And a Qatari filmmaker I met later said that even in the weeks before the tournament, the infrastructure had been transformed. “There were so many new roads and new areas we had not been to before,” he said.

Qatar won the right to host the World Cup in 2010 and set about reshaping its entire infrastructure. Of course, the cost of that has been well-documented, with inhumane conditions for migrant workers leading to many deaths in the build-up to the tournament. Whatever numbers you believe (the figure of 6,500 reported by The Guardian was a projection and is almost certainly too high, while Qatar have admitted that their original estimate of three deaths was way off the mark), the human rights concerns are genuine and a bit of a stain on this tournament.

Meeting migrants

While in Qatar, I spoke to many workers. To taxi and Uber drivers, waiters and waitresses, shop employees and hotel staff. None were Qatari. I met many from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. All of them said they were content in Qatar. Some would come for seasonal work and return to their families. The opportunities were better here, they said, than in their homeland.

But their Qatar is different to the one I experienced. In an Uber one night, a friend asked the driver how he was treated by the locals. He grunted in a response which seemed to suggest: ‘not very well, actually’. That was after dinner in a hotel restaurant which was literally on its own island. Dropped off there by another Uber, I wondered what the driver thought of it all.

There was, however, a sense of pride from other people I met from the Middle East. Coming off the plane, an Israeli guy assured me that Doha was amazing. And a journalist from Oman told me he loved Qatar. It seemed as if they took pride in having the World Cup in their region, in seeing everything sparkling and new. Most of the workers I met were also happy to be involved in some way, even if they could never afford tickets to see a game.

‘Like a World Cup in Cardiff’

Qatar is not a big country. It is around 21 times smaller than the UK, which is not exactly huge itself. And really, the tournament took place in one city: Doha. A friend who lives in Wales told me her sister had said: “It’s like having a World Cup in Cardiff.” (I looked it up and the comparison is very accurate: Doha’s total area is 132 km², Cardiff’s 140 km²).

That made covering the World Cup much easier for journalists. The friend who I stayed with went to 21 matches at Qatar 2022. Another journalist told me he had been to 26 games. In vast countries like Brazil or Russia, that would have been impossible. At those two World Cups, I had been based in one venue until the latter stages and went to seven fixtures each time. At Germany 2006 I had attended 19 matches, but spent much of the month taking overnight trains in order to get to them all. It was tiring.

But the pressure to attend so many matches in Qatar was tiring, too, my media friends told me. And everyone got sick. At a World Cup, journalists work extemely hard and days off are rare. The tough schedule and the high prices also make eating healthily a challenge. And there was air conditioning at the stadiums, even when the temperatures dropped. Many struggled to adapt to that air quality and to the changes of temperature. In my short time there, I did too.

Environmentally, Qatar’s claim that the World Cup was a carbon-net-zero competiton was hard to believe. The stadiums were built at a huge cost. The lights seem brighter than anywhere I have seen. On the streets of downtown Doha, normal buildings are lit by lights that look like they have come from a concert show. How sustainable is all that?

And what about the locals? I didn’t meet many. I was told that many Qataris left town during the tournament. That surprised me. It was an event that had changed the face of their nation. Did they not want to experience it?

Walking around downtown Doha, I was also struck by how few places were showing the games. This was a cultural thing, no doubt: I was told that in Qatar people watch football in their homes. But at previous World Cups, there had been screens at every café and every restaurant during the tournament.

Where are the fans?

I had never seen so few fans at a World Cup – especially from Europe. Perhaps it was the expense of travelling to Qatar and the prohibitive prices of accommodation. Maybe it was the bad press the tournament had received in the weeks and months before. It was probably a mixture of the two. I was not at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea, but remember others saying that the costs involved and the distance put off many fans from making the trip.

Fans were brought in from elsewhere, even paid in some cases: Qatar ‘ultras’ had come from Lebanon, Pakistani ‘supporters’ of other nations were remunerated with $10 and three meals per day. It was all a bit bizarre.

Nothing against any of those people, I hope they enjoyed themselves, but it is not exactly authentic. And my overall impression of Qatar was similar: it seemed somehow artficial.

What is Qatar like when a World Cup is not on?

I would love to know what Qatar is like when a World Cup is not on. In Russia 2018, I had wondered the same, but in the cities I had met more locals and I had seen some more of everyday life. Some journalists compared Qatar to Disneyland and I understood that reference. Certainly, I don’t feel I experienced the real Qatar and friends who spent the whole month there have said the same.

And what is life like for women in Qatar? While many ex-pats insist it is absolutely fine, it may be that they are living in a bit of a bubble. Surrounded by Westerners in The Pearl or West Bay, their experience is probably good. Like in any other big city. But for visitors, Qatari women are not very visible. And after I had returned, I was sad to read a thread on Twitter from TV sports professional Sophia Walker on her negative experience as a woman in Qatar. She says that, as a black woman, she was treated terribly – and insists she will never go back.

I did meet more men from Qatar. Some were gay and did not seem to be hiding it particularly, either. Is that the norm? Or did they feel secure in a World Cup, with less scrutiny from the morality police, and surrounded by Westerners? It is hard to know.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of visiting Qatar. And I would go back, although I would want to dig deeper next time. It is a country with many issues to resolve, clearly. But human rights laws are improving. Hopefully, conditions for women and for LGBTQ+ people will too.

Every nation has its problems and its challenges, of course. Nobody remembers now how we built our cities in the West, while a lot of corruption is swept under the carpet and there is discrimination too. That doesn’t excuse the human rights and environmental issues in Qatar, but there was much hypocrisy in the reporting of this World Cup. And in television coverage (in the UK at least), there was no representation for journalists with a Middle-Eastern background, which was a shame.

So I’m glad I went. The football was excellent and the match I went to, Argentina-Netherlands, was hugely entertaining. I came away from Qatar with good memories made and new experiences lived, but also with more questions than answers on what the place is really like. Perhaps I can return for a fuller picture in future.