Qatar imports fans from Lebanon to support their team at the World Cup

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Midway through the second half of Qatar’s World Cup match against Senegal, the heat stopped when a man in a bucket hat and sunglasses stood up and called for silence.

Moments earlier, a section of the crowd — more than a thousand people, nearly all of them men wearing identical burgundy T-shirts with the word “Qatar” in English and Arabic — chanted in unison under the direction of four cheerleaders. But the sea of ​​men understood what was expected, followed the order and fell into an eerie silence as the noise of the game swirled around them in the Al Thumama stadium.

So a sign was made. And the crowd exploded back to life.

“Toca, Bordô!” they chanted nonstop in Arabic, a reference to the nickname of the Qatar national team. The men linked arms in long lines and jumped. The ground beneath them shook.

The scene was more reminiscent of football stadiums in South America and Europe than Qatar, and the crowd evoked that of the ultras, a highly organized football fan culture with roots in Italy that can be found all over the world. , including in North Africa and the Middle East.

That was the point. The noise of the crowd filled the stadium, as it had five days before, during Qatar’s opener against Ecuador. Their numbers conveyed strength. His relentless energy was infectious. But the body art on many of them gave them away.

The tattoos, which are extremely rare and highly frowned upon in Gulf societies, seemed to suggest that the fans were not from Qatar. So who were they? And where did they come from?

imported sound

The plan was drawn up in early 2022, when the World Cup was finally approaching. Qatar has been the target of criticism since it won the right to host the World Cup: because of a corrupt vote that decided it, for the treatment given to migrant workers, for the capacity of the small country to receive and host more than a million visitors. But deep down there was also another common criticism: that the country had no football culture.

Qatar has never qualified for a World Cup on its merits. The Qatar Stars League is one of the richest in the region, with state-of-the-art air-conditioned stadiums. But audiences for teams like Al Sadd and Al Rayyan tend to number in the hundreds, not thousands, of people. Who would fill the stadiums at the Qatar games, asked the organizers? Who would provide the soundtrack?

The answer was to exploit the region’s already fertile ultra culture and import it.

But that same culture hardly fits the commercialized reality of the Qatar World Cup. The ultra culture code is antagonistic, deeply anti-authoritarian and is in constant conflict with the police and the media.

In the Middle East and North Africa, ultras also have political clout: Egyptian ultras played a key role in the 2011 Arab Spring that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, and their power and popularity on the streets were such that ultras were shunned. by Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi after he seized power in a coup.

The songs created in the stands in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon also served as a soundtrack for anti-government protests. But inside stadiums they can fill even the most sterile spaces with passion, color and sound.

Thus, in April, a test event was organized in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese students and supporters of a local club, Nejmeh, were recruited to shoot a proof-of-concept film at the Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium, recreating the atmosphere that an ultra group can provide. The video shows hundreds of fans singing, displaying banners and setting off fireworks.

A “capo”, a term used for the supporter who commands the chants, was taken from the main group of ultras at Turkish club Galatasaray to give direction. Galatasaray was also purposefully identified, as it has one of the most respected ultra scenes in the world. But the Lebanese said they didn’t need guidance.

“No! We showed them!”, said an ultra Lebanese fan last Friday (25). He refused to give his full name, a common practice in the ultra scene, and bristled at the idea that he needed to be taught how to organize a hardcore supporters’ group.

The video impressed the right people in Doha. By word of mouth, young Lebanese fans were offered an extraordinary deal: free flights, accommodation, match tickets and food, plus a small scholarship, to bring a bit of ultra culture to the Qatar World Cup games. Fans arrived in mid-October to rehearse their choreographed actions and practice their newly written chants. And to learn the national anthem of Qatar.

Participating in the tournament would be an unattainable experience for most ordinary fans in the Arab world. Lebanon, for example, is in a deep economic crisis. According to the World Bank, youth unemployment is 30%. Thousands of citizens are fleeing the country. Without Qatar’s help, almost none of the men wearing burgundy shirts would have been able to attend the games in the Gulf.

Going to a World Cup is a dream, said the Lebanese ultras fan. But it wasn’t just them who joined the effort: the group of around 1,500 supporters also includes Egyptians, Algerians and some Syrians. Money, according to the ultra fan, was not the only motivating factor.

“It is our duty to support an Arab country,” he stated. “We share the same language. We share the same culture. We are fingers of the same hand. We want to show the world something special. You will see something special.”

in the stands

At kickoff at Al Thumama Stadium on Friday, Qatar’s 1,500 adoptive ultras gathered in their designated section behind one of the goals, wearing identical burgundy jerseys: “Qatar” on the front, “All for Al Annabi” on the back. The national anthem played, and the ultras sang it as if it were their own. When it ended, the Lebanese capos beat their drums and led the ultras in an “Icelandic applause”.

“The people of Qatar really don’t support the team like that,” said Abdullah Aziz al-Khalaf, 27, Qatar’s human resources manager, who stood in the lobby as the ultras performed with a mixture of pride and amazement. “Because in Qatar we don’t go to matches very much.”

Another Qatari, a 16-year-old student and Al Rayyan fan, Ali al-Samikh approved of the atmosphere. “I like this,” he said. “It’s exciting!”

Would he like to stay there with the others?

“No, I don’t,” he replied, shaking his head with a shy smile.

Qatar World Cup organizers did not respond to questions about the fans, or efforts to identify and bring them to the tournament. A man wearing a polo shirt emblazoned with the logo of the Aspire Academy, Qatar’s billion-dollar talent nurturing project, filmed the crowd for 90 minutes.

However, the passion felt real. The disappointment too, as Senegal scored twice. In the stands, every few rows apart, cheerleaders in white T-shirts shouted and urged the crowd to sing harder, mimicking a phenomenon often seen in crowds of ultras in Italy, Germany and Morocco: you sing louder and do more. noise when you’re losing. The drums beat louder. The chants are back.

The whole crowd, not just those behind the goal, finally came to life when Mohammed Muntari scored Qatar’s first goal in a World Cup match. But not everyone got the message: amid the pulsating cheers, a security guard rushed forward in a futile attempt to ask the ultras to sit down. But the joy was short-lived when Senegal scored the third goal. The game ended 3-1. A few hours later, Qatar became the first country to be eliminated from the World Cup.

This Tuesday (29), they lost 2-0 to the Netherlands and closed their participation with three defeats in three games.

“I’m sad, of course,” said the Egyptian Ahmed. He joined the group at the game and wore the same signature burgundy T-shirt, but said he actually lives in Qatar.

“We are a group of Arabs working here to support Qatar,” he said, adding: “If we were working in England, we would also support England.”

The crowd dissolved. The Qatar ultras were only in the country for the knockout stage. Most of them packed their bags to fly to Lebanon after the Dutch game. But before leaving they made their noise once more.

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