Tag: Qatar

A video from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup tent village has fans making Fyre Fest comparisons

It’s gonna be Fyre!

There are so many reasons to avoid attending the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which officially starts on Sunday. There’s Qatar’s terrible human rights record, discriminatory laws, state-sponsored surveillance and the bribery scandal that brought the tournament to the tiny nation in the first place.

But from purely a fan-experience standpoint, thousands of fans are going to arrive in a country that is totally unprepared to host them.

In the lead-up to the World Cup, the organizing committee presented fans with alternative options to staying at hotels (because there were not enough hotel rooms). Those options included fan villages that were advertised as luxurious desert getaways when in reality they’re a series of storage-container cabin and tent cities located off highways and near airports. At the Fan Village Al Khor, a tent starts at around $424 per night, and the renderings looked pretty nice!

The reality, however, painted a far different picture.

A video hit social media on Tuesday, showing a World Cup tent village that consisted of hundreds of tents with nothing but a couple beds and a nightstand in them. The barren accommodations aside, the tents were hardly holding up to the strong Qatari winds, and the sounds of helicopter/jet noise didn’t exactly make for a tranquil retreat.

Visitors will be arriving at these villages in the coming days, but that video was enough to have fans making Fyre Fest comparisons.

Australia players make pre-World Cup call on Qatar to advance human rights

Professional Footballers Australia is “seeking to embed reforms and establish a lasting legacy in Qatar”

Ahead of the 2022 World Cup, players on the Australian national team have called on Qatar to “establish a lasting legacy” by making progress on numerous human rights issues.

Professional Footballers Australia, the union for Australian professional players, distributed a video stating their desire for Qatar to firm up existing reforms, and to make further moves to protect human rights. A resource center for migrant workers, the decriminalization of same-sex relationships, and a remedy for those who have previously been denied their rights were among the specific items the PFA cited.

“We’re not experts, but we have listened to groups such as Amnesty, FIFA, the Supreme Committee (Qatar’s state-run arm for World Cup infrastructure and planning), the International Labor Organization, FIFPRO, and most importantly, the migrant workers of Qatar,” said the statement, which was read by numerous Australian players. “We stand with the likes of FIFPRO, the Building and Woodworkers International and the International Trade Union Confederation in seeking to embed reforms and establish a lasting legacy in Qatar.”

Qatar has drawn criticism from numerous countries for various human rights shortcomings, including a lack of rights for women, criminalizing homosexuality, unsafe work conditions and a lack of freedom of movement for migrant laborers.

The U.S. men’s national team says it has been “educating” players on the issues at hand and giving them the chance to speak out if they so choose. Denmark will wear kits designed by manufacturer Hummel as a visual protest. Multiple European team captains have sought permission to wear #OneLove armbands instead of the FIFA-mandated neutral version.

The statement from the PFA comes just one day after the Qatari head of state, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, railed against critics of the country’s track record on human rights.

“Since we won the honor of hosting the World Cup, Qatar has been subjected to an unprecedented campaign that no host country has faced,” the Qatari emir told the country’s legislative council.

That pushback comes despite in-depth reporting pointing to thousands of migrant workers dying in the 12 years since the country secured World Cup hosting rights. Last year, The Guardian reported that over 6,500 migrant workers had died since FIFA selected Qatar as its destination for 2022.

Australian players call for human rights in Qatar

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Qatar would like to thank Putin for his World Cup hosting tips

“I am very happy to see you, Mr. President,” the emir told Putin

In a move that could charitably be called ill-timed, Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani thanked Russian president Vladimir Putin for his help with staging the World Cup at a meeting on Thursday.

Just one month before the 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar, the monarch and Putin met at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit, in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Al Thani was full of praise for Putin, whom he said “provided great support to Qatar” in the lead-up to the World Cup.

“After Russia made a great success in organizing the 2018 World Cup, Russian friends have provided great support to Qatar, especially in terms of organization, with the organizing committee of the 2022 World Cup,” the emir said.

“We thank you for this and we are proud of this relationship. This will continue until the end of the World Cup. I am very happy to see you, Mr. President. Thank you.”

Putin, who oversaw Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup, wished Qatar luck in its staging of the 2022 event.

“We are also doing everything we can in terms of transferring the experience of preparing for the World Cup, you know this, we just had the opportunity to talk about it with you,” Putin said. “I would like to wish you success in holding this major event. I’m sure that it will be (a success).”

Russia’s staging of the 2018 World Cup was controversial at the time, in part because of Putin’s crackdown on dissent and his 2014 annexation of Crimea. FIFA’s decision to award Russia that tournament now, of course, has been cast in a much more negative light after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine this year, which has been followed by a bloody war that is showing no signs of ending.

That invasion saw FIFA ban Russia from participation in the 2022 World Cup, among a host of other sanctions from the global governing body and UEFA.

Like Russia, Qatar has been a highly controversial choice to host the World Cup due to the myriad of human rights issues within the country.

For FIFA, the meeting between the two nations on Thursday was a reminder of the countries it’s recently done business with, and photo-op it probably could have done without.

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Los uniformes de Puma para el Mundial 2022 están todavía peores que los del USMNT filtrados

Conforme nos acercamos a la patada de inicio de la Copa del Mundo invernal en Qatar , los uniformes del los quipos nacionales participantes están siendo presentado finalmente. El lunes, en particular, no fue un día tan bueno para las selecciones …

Conforme nos acercamos a la patada de inicio de la Copa del Mundo invernal en Qatar, los uniformes del los quipos nacionales participantes están siendo presentado finalmente.

El lunes, en particular, no fue un día tan bueno para las selecciones patrocinadas por Puma.

El mismo día que Adidas presentó una colección completa de elegantes uniformes para el mundial, Puma develó uniformes que parece que les tomó 10 minutos diseñar. Si pensaron que el uniforme que se filtró de la selección varonil de EU era malo, pueden sentirse mejor sabiendo que la USMNT no tendrá *el peo* uniforme en Qatar.

El título en realidad será de cada una de las selecciones usando el uniforme de Puma.

Soló… ooops!

Traducción.- ¿Qué opinan de los nuevos uniformes de Puma?

Ahora, estos son los uniformes de visita de Puma  para el Copa del Mundo, así que los uniformes de local están un poco menos igualitos.  Pero híjole, Puma ni siquiera trató con estos uniformes de visita. Cada uno sigue el mismo patrón, y Suiza va a entrar al campo básicamente con una estampa de Hola, mi nombre es.

Los fanáticos están obviamente desilusionados con estos uniformes. Casi no sentimos mal por las selecciones nacionales que tienen que usarlas — están terribles.

Así reaccionó Twitter:

Traducción.- Uruguay no se merece un uniforme así de basura.

Traducción.- Esta es su protesta para la Copa del Mundo.

Traducción.- Lo peor es tener a Puma produciendo el uniforme de tu club o te países. Consistentemente producen playeras que dan pena.

Traducción.- Parece que puedes encontrarlos al 2 x $5 en el mercado.

FIFA to start 2022 World Cup a day early with Qatar vs. Ecuador

The World Cup is closer than you think

The World Cup is coming up even faster than it seems.

FIFA on Thursday confirmed reports that it would move the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar up a day, with the hosts now set to host Ecuador in a standalone opener on November 20.

Originally, the World Cup was set to open on November 21, with Senegal facing the Netherlands in the opening game of the tournament, and Qatar vs. Ecuador coming up later in the day.

That would have marked a break with tradition that has long seen either the host or the defending champion participate in the World Cup curtain-raiser.

However, FIFA—after what it calls “an assessment of the competition and operational implications, as well as a thorough consultation process and an agreement with key stakeholders and the host country”—has opted to return to that pattern, with Qatar now playing in the tournament’s first game, which will take place at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.

To go along with the change, FIFA has also changed the start time for that Senegal vs. Netherlands match, moving it from 1:00pm local time to 7:00pm. That will leave it nestled between the Group B doubleheader set for the same day, with England playing Iran at 4:00pm, and the U.S. men’s national team taking on Wales at 10:00pm.

FIFA added that there will be no change to the final date that clubs must release players to join their national teams, which remains November 14.

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World Cup 2022 futures odds for title and group winners

World Cup betting favorites.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup draw was Friday afternoon, revealing the group stage pairings for each country in the field.

While three groups still have one team each to be decided, including the USA’s Group B with Iran, England and a fourth team that will be determined in the future, we largely know who each team needs to go through when play begins in November in order to reach the knockout stage.

Below are odds via Tipico Sportsbook for who advances from each of the completed groups, and top-10 odds for which country wins the whole thing later this year in Qatar.

[tipico]