Long lines and lack of water mark Qatar World Cup stadium test

“Stop! Can’t you see that the subway station is full? Stop!”, shouted an exhausted supervisor as police dressed in green joined hands to contain thousands of fans leaving the stadium where the final of the Football World Cup will be played in Qatar.

It was past midnight on Friday (9), and for hours nearly 78,000 people left the stadium after an almost packed match tested the readiness of the small Persian Gulf country for the tournament, which starts on November 20.

“Let us through! We have children,” shouted a man carrying a sweaty baby. “We need water. Do you have water?” shouted a woman further back in the line.

Did not have.

The stands in the stadium were without water at halftime and there was none outside where the temperature in late summer was 34°C but it seemed much higher because of the humidity.

Friday’s match, called the Lusail Supercup, was the first time that Lusail’s new stadium received a crowd. With 80,000 seats, it is the largest of Qatar’s eight World Cup stadiums and a gold-plated gem designed to host the final match on December 18.

Qatar is the first country in the Middle East and the smallest nation to host the World Cup. Although it has spent billions of dollars on infrastructure, it has never organized an event of this scale, which will be held in or around a single city, which is unusual for a World Cup.

There will be four matches in Doha every day during the first 12 days of the tournament. FIFA says 2.45 million tickets out of a total of 3 million have already been sold, and an unprecedented 1.2 million people, equivalent to nearly half of Qatar’s population, are expected to visit the country.

Organizers said exactly 77,575 people passed through the turnstiles on Friday, the largest crowd ever recorded in Qatar. Families took children to the stadium, arriving before a performance by Egyptian singer Amr Diab. Hundreds of Saudi fans wore the blue shirt of Al Hilal, the Saudi team that defeated Egypt’s Zamalek on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

With migrants often brought in by bus to fill empty arenas, hundreds of Asian and African workers were also there together in one part of the stadium, wearing identical white, blue or red shirts. They left en masse at break to board buses.

Asked about the initial problems, a spokesperson for the organisers, the Supreme Delivery and Legacy Committee, told Reuters the game was designed to identify operational issues and learn lessons for a “patchy” World Cup.

“All teams involved in organizing the event have gained invaluable experience that they will bring to the tournament this year,” the spokesperson added in a statement.

‘This is a mess’

In the post-match chaos, a fan leaving the stadium cursed, elbowed a police officer in the neck and broke the cordon, followed by several others, trying to reach the subway.

The entrance to the station is 400 meters from the stadium, but fans waited in a 2.5-kilometer line snaking back and forth across an empty lot. Authorities said it was to prevent a stampede.

“This is a mess,” said Eslam, an Egyptian fan who has lived in Doha since 2004 and had his arm leaning on an exhausted, vacant-eyed friend in line. “I don’t want to go to the World Cup anymore. Not if that’s the case.”

Some caterers, food vendors, security personnel and medical staff had difficulty accessing the stadium, a caterer told Reuters.

“Even a couple of ambulances were circling, trying to figure out where to position themselves. They gave the wrong directions over and over again, and the parking passes we had were for land that didn’t exist,” said the supplier, who declined to disclose his name.

The stadium’s cooling system, which Qatar described as state-of-the-art, had trouble keeping the stands cool. Humidity and temperature levels will be lower once the tournament starts, but there will be other challenges.

Unlike Friday, ticket holders will be able to drink beer outside the stadiums before and after each game.

Friday’s game was also a test of stadium safety. Near the field, guards in dark clothing and baseball caps were stationed every few feet in the hallways, monitoring the fans, who were excited but well behaved.

Outside, guards patrolled the perimeter in groups of five men or five women, each with a hooked staff hanging from his belt. Some carried handfuls of plastic handcuffs.

Preparations go far beyond the stadiums.

To prevent traffic on its only land border – with Saudi Arabia – from congesting the roads, organizers are leveling a section of the desert where fans will park their cars and board buses for a 100km journey down the desert road to Doha.

Authorities will limit cars on the streets by ordering schools to close for the tournament, banning vehicles in areas of the city and asking companies to keep employees working from home.

A former airport is back in operation to handle extra flights, and new passport control counters are being set up to triple the number of passengers Qatar can handle. Qatar Airways is changing 70% of its flight schedule to create more landing slots during the cup.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves