Camel racing is so traditional in Qatar that there are even television channels dedicated exclusively to broadcasting it. At Camel Race Track, one of the main tracks in the country, located about 40 km from the center of Doha, the races will not be interrupted even during the World Cup.
Anyone who can go there, in addition to following a dispute, will be able to get close to the animals. They are docile. Even when they are eating, they often allow themselves to be touched.
The 10-kilometer route they run on is right in the middle of the Qatari desert, next to the headquarters of the Al Shahaniya Club, a second-division team that will provide its facilities for the Portugal national team to train during the World Cup, in the city of Al Shahaniya.
“Are you a guest of the federation?” asks a security guard at the entrance to the venue. “Sorry, I like Brazil a lot, but here you can only enter with authorization from the Portuguese federation.”
The team led by Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the five that opted for facilities further away from the center of Doha. Germany, Belgium, Mexico and Saudi Arabia will also stay in the desert.
Next to the University of Qatar station, buses leave at two-minute intervals. They are small, in pastel tones (like almost everything else in Qatar) and differ only in the notices on the front window: “only for men” or “only for women”.
He takes Qatar University students to either the female or male dormitories. Others do the same for classrooms spread across the 8.1 square kilometer campus in the far north of Doha, where another star is staying.
“Messi stays here, but no one will see him. Argentina is in an isolated part. We won’t have access. In recent weeks, several students had no other business than Messi being here,” said Fahad (he did not give his last name). , who works security near the library.
The two stars who have dominated world football over the past 15 years will bid farewell to the World Cup in very different venues.
The choice of where a team will stay is usually made months in advance of the Cup. But the option made by the Portuguese matched well with the current moment of the biggest star of the team.
Cristiano Ronaldo arrives in Qatar in the midst of the chaos he created at Manchester United, with harsh criticism of the club and Dutch coach Erik ten Hag. The player’s future is uncertain, especially in relation to staying in the English team.
At least the star player will have enough peace of mind during his stay in Qatar. Less than ten kilometers from Al Shahaniya is the hotel where the Portuguese delegation will be staying, the Al Samriya Autograph Collection Hotel. Everything is new on site, as well as most of the facilities built for the competition.
The luxurious five-star hotel was built with raw material taken from the Al Samirya farm, which is very close to the building. It has 62 rooms, 26 villas, a spa and a restaurant.
A few kilometers away are the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani museum, the Al Samriya Equestrian Center and an iconic reserve area for oryx, a mammal from the same group as antelopes.
It is a very different area from the hustle and bustle of downtown Doha, where the 974 stadium is located, stage of Portugal’s debut against Ghana, on Thursday (24), and also where Cristiano Ronaldo’s main opponents are, such as the Argentine Lionel Messi .
The Argentine national team arrived in Qatar at 4 am this Thursday (17). Since the beginning of the week, they had been concentrated in Dubai, where they thrashed the United Arab Emirates 5-0 shortly before leaving for Doha. On Thursday afternoon, held the first training session at the university, closed to the press and fans.
The peace of the university was broken with the arrival of Messi. Not because of the approximately 20 thousand students (70% of them are born in the country and 30% are foreigners). The Argentines who disembarked to watch the World Cup went to the university’s main entrance and stayed until the early hours of the morning singing songs of encouragement. Television stations were also in the region, but there was no contact with the athletes.
“No one will bother [Messi] here. If Argentina is looking for peace, this is what it will find. But I think most university students would like to see it. It’s a unique chance,” says Sunil Faisal, a student at the department of economics and finance.
The South American delegation booked a building with 90 rooms in the men’s wing of the university.
“Liverpool trained here in 2019, during the Club World Cup. It was a fever because everyone wanted to see Salah. If there was a possibility of seeing Messi, it would be the same thing”, observes Faisal.
Despite being Egyptian, Salah is the biggest football idol in Qatar due to his Muslim faith.
The building underwent adaptations financed by the AFA (Argentine Football Association) to try to imitate the environment of its training center in Ezeiza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. One of the most important items was remodeling a space to install a barbecue.
Argentina will have at its disposal two fields of official dimensions with artificial lighting, Olympic swimming pools, a weight room with sauna, the university stadium (with capacity for 10 thousand people) and 30 smaller outdoor or covered fields.
Choosing the venue for the World Cup was seen as a fundamental item by the AFA directors. They regret to this day their stay in Bronchitis, on the outskirts of Moscow, during the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The complex with hotel and fields was far from everything, too isolated, and players complained about the lack of any contact with other people.
The opposite happened in Cidade do Galo, in Vespasiano (37 km from Belo Horizonte), where the Alviceleste squad remained in the 2014 tournament. The players loved the place on the way to the World Cup final.
Qatar University is a public research center that houses ten faculties, with courses taught in Arabic and English. It is one of the top sites in the country for studying environmental issues and the energy industry.
There’s so much space available that Argentina won’t be the only World Cup-qualified team staying in the complex. Spain will also be staying in the area.
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