Our World Cup Experience
Flags on the Corniche :: Doha, Qatar
When we arrived in Doha for the World Cup last November, it was with few expectations of what the week would hold. I had intended to blog daily with updates about the matches, the city, the feeling of being back out in the world again, very far away. What I hadn’t expected was to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the experience; to be at a loss for words (and time) as the week marched on. The energy, the late nights, the miles we covered, and the mental surprise at everything we were seeing and exploring left a massive impression. I finally realized mid-week that it was going to take some time to put the whole experience into words. (Spoiler! This is a VERY long post.)
Here I am, three months later, with the official FIFA World Cup soundtrack playing in the background as I write – a conduit that takes me right back to that feeling, that energy, still buzzing in my mind from a true experience of a lifetime. It was about nine months ago when we attempted to get World Cup tickets through the first FIFA ticket lottery. We nearly missed the deadline but entered all the required details and registered online. About a month later, we received a notification: the lottery had randomly selected two tickets for us to the Costa Rica vs. Germany match.
We asked ourselves… would we go all the way to Doha for just one match? Probably? Yes? But there was more to consider than just getting tickets.
At about this time, media was lighting up with stories about migrant labor in Qatar. More specifically, thousands of deaths reportedly occurred during the 12 years of construction between when the 2022 World Cup was awarded to Qatar and when the event began. The Middle East’s kafala system and Qatar’s working conditions, in particular, have been under intense scrutiny as a result. In addition, and to the dismay of some critics, such a hot and Arab country as Qatar had never been chosen as a World Cup host nation before. (The heat was addressed eventually by moving the event from summer to fall and matches from day to night, but the sentiment about the Arab location still stings for anyone who thinks better of sport and life.) The historical corruption of FIFA has led some to believe the organization was bribed to award Qatar the honor of hosting the World Cup.
Some football fans chose to boycott the World Cup for the reasons above. Others chose to boycott because Qatar is a dry country and alcohol would be strictly controlled and not served in stadiums (a decision announced just a few days before the event started). Others chose to boycott because Qatar is under Sharia law which is antithetical to the personal freedom of expression and lifestyle accepted in many countries around the world. Throughout the controversy Qatar maintained that during the World Cup, “all are welcome.”
Doha Skyline, Qatar
Ultimately, we decided to go to the World Cup and purchased our tickets. From the extensive traveling we’ve done, we know that human rights issues are not limited to a single country or event. They are everywhere, and we’ve learned more about them by traveling than we have by staying home. I would rather go, observe, learn and share my perspective than choose absence as a means of expressing my opinion. Also, for me as a woman, attending the World Cup was an act of defiance by some standards. Only as recently as 2018 were women in Saudi Arabia allowed to enter football stadiums for the first time EVER. Only just last August, women in Iran were finally allowed to attend domestic football matches after being banned from stadiums for more than 40 years.
From the date of our first match (Thursday, December 1st), we built out the rest of our trip in the next phase of the ticket lottery. On a sunny morning in June, Jay entered the online queue and waited for EIGHT HOURS to get to the ticket selection process. His patience paid off and we were able to get four more pairs of tickets, filling the week with a match each day from Monday through Friday. The average ticket price was $218 and we bought the following:
Serbia vs. Cameroon
Ecuador vs. Senegal Iran vs. U.S.
Denmark vs. Australia
Costa Rica vs. Germany
Serbia vs. Switzerland
We bookended the matches with a flight from Madrid to Doha on Sunday and Doha to Istanbul on the following Saturday. We would have loved to stay longer but accommodations were exorbitantly expensive and hard to secure amid the mad rush of people all over the world trying to book the same thing, at the same time. With Doha being a relatively small city, the few Airbnbs and private accommodations available were offered at thousands of dollars per night. Doha has quite a few upscale hotels which were similarly priced far beyond our budget. Another option was booking at a FIFA Fan Village, but there was little information about how comfortable and secure that would be, not to mention the Covid risk of close proximity and shared restrooms. Finally, we found a room at a boutique hotel in the old quarter of Doha called Souq Wakif. It suited us – expensively but perfectly.
Souq Waqif, Doha
With tickets and accommodations booked, we began the process of getting our Hayya cards. Because Qatar is small geographically, the country shut its borders to everyone except World Cup attendees for the months around the event. To get into the country, Jay and I each had to have a digital Hayya card, entry permit to Qatar, and our tickets and accommodations all linked together through two apps on our phones. Needless to say, when we checked in for our flight to Doha, made it through security, boarded the plane and then landed during the dusky sunset of early evening on Sunday, November 27th, it was with extreme relief that our planning had paid off. After all, none of it was refundable.
Upon check-in at the front desk, Ansar (from Sri Lanka) drove us in a golf cart through the souq to the Al Jasra Hotel. The souq bustled with football fans. It felt like we were arriving late to a very big party. The atmosphere was lively, everyone wearing jerseys, face paint, wigs, flags and the colors of their home team. Groups were singing and chanting on their way to matches, while others sat in the plaza eating dinner and smoking hookah pipes. After living in a world of such extreme social and political divisiveness, as we’ve all been doing for years now, this atmosphere of communal joy and celebration felt almost unusual.
We dropped our bags, had a quick meal at a Moroccan restaurant, and ventured out to the Corniche – a miles-long promenade around the bay between Souq Wakif and downtown Doha. Throughout the World Cup the Corniche was open to pedestrians only, decorated with lights, framing the most spectacular view of the city skyline. I found the experience of seeing this a lot like seeing the marina in Singapore for the first time – a gigantic, cosmopolitan surprise in a tiny nation I knew very little about at the time.
FIFA Fan Zone
FIFA Fan Zone
The Corniche and the warm evening temperature compelled us to keep walking to the FIFA Fan Zone about two miles away. We snaked our way through security, showed our digital Hayya cards and joined thousands of other fans watching the Spain vs. Germany match at 10:00 p.m. on the big screen. The energy was electric, everyone riveted, cheering for the teams with collective spirit from all over the world. The match ended around midnight and we walked the Corniche back to the souq, finally getting to bed around 2:00 a.m.
Monday / Serbia vs. Cameroon
Our first live match was at 1:00 p.m. at Al Janoub stadium, designed by the late great Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. We left the hotel two hours early and walked to the metro station near the souq. After a 15-minute ride, we arrived at the Al Wakra station where an armada of buses waited to take people onward to the stadium. From the drop-off there, we walked about half a mile to the entrance, marveling at the elegant curves of the white roof of the stadium and that we had arrived at our first World Cup match!
Quickly through the Hayya card check, ticket check and security, we found our seats for Cameroon vs. Serbia. Our view was high and spectacular, close enough to the opening in the roof to feel the cool current of air flowing into the stadium. Serbia fans belted out chant after chant, while Cameroon fans in red, yellow and green played drums and horns relentlessly through the match, which ended in a 3-3 draw.
Monday night we ventured to the Four Seasons Doha for a World Cup watch party arranged by a colleague of Jay’s – because with four matches every day during the group stage, if you weren’t attending a match, you were watching it somewhere in Doha. The outdoor terrace had two large screens and a full bar – a rare find in a dry city. Portugal beat Uruguay 2-0. We talked with the bellman as we caught a cab back to Souq Wakif. He was from India. In my head I listed the nationalities of all the people we had interacted with just in the past 24 hours: Sri Lanka, Algeria, Zanzibar, Nepal, Iran, Japan, Serbia, the U.S., Bangladesh and India.
Tuesday / Iran vs. U.S.
About a month before we left on this trip, the FIFA ticket resale market opened. We decided to give up our Ecuador vs. Senegal tickets and try for the Iran vs. U.S. match. FIFA didn’t allow people to have tickets to more than one match on one day (unless the matches were more than three hours apart), so it was a bit of a risk to give up one match without being sure we’d get the other. After trying for two weeks and refreshing my browser hundreds of times to snatch up a rare pair of tickets together just released for resale, I finally succeeded.
National Museum of Qatar
We started the day with a hot walk to the east of Souq Wakif. With glorious sunshine and a clear sky, we meandered through the streets to the National Museum of Qatar. More than any other building I’ve seen, this museum is a sheer marvel of architecture and creativity. Designed to resemble a “desert rose” which forms from sand crystals in the desert, the lines and forms of the structure fit together in a way that defies logic and tradition. The interior was equally stunning with beautiful exhibits about nomadic life in Qatar, tribal dress and patterns, pearl diving, the discovery of oil, and all the nation building that’s happened in the last 80 years.
Iran Fans!
Tuesday afternoon we wandered through the souq before returning to the hotel. The Iran vs. U.S. match wasn’t until 10:00 p.m. at Al Thumama stadium, but the pre-game activity had already started with groups of Iran fans drumming and chanting as they walked through the souq.
We left early for the match, dressed head to toe in red, white and blue. Needless to say, this was a HUGE match – not only because of the greater relationship between the U.S. and Iran, but also because of what was happening in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini. Sports, politics and women’s rights were intersecting in real time, with Iranians rising up and demanding change.
The bus dropped us off about a mile from the stadium where we started the walk, along with thousands of other fans. Not knowing what to expect, we were elated to see the sportsmanship between people. American and Iranian fans walked side by side, taking photos with each other and wishing each other good luck. Sports has such a powerful ability to unite us, even when playing against each other. We felt this at every match we attended but especially this one. The atmosphere was lively and positive, the outcome less important than enjoying the experience together.
USA vs. Iran
Al Thumama stadium was a giant white mass looming in the distance like a marshmallow. On arrival we could see the monochromatic texture of the exterior, an intricate pattern of diamonds with clear panels interspersed. It was pretty and bright, and unexpected in comparison to other stadiums of concrete and steel.
USA vs. Iran
USA vs. Iran
Entering the stadium, we felt the intensity of the match – an atmosphere charged not only with the desire to win but the desire of two teams to be recognized on a world stage for entirely different reasons. The U.S. was trying desperately to win its way out of the group stage as a step forward in world football, while Iran was stepping forward on behalf of a nation in turmoil. From start to finish, the stadium thundered with drums, chants and cheers.
Women Life Freedom
Three rows in front of us, a couple wore t-shirts with a message printed on the back: Women Life Freedom. This Kurdish slogan has been adopted around the world after the death of Mahsa Amini. About 30 minutes into the match, a stadium security guard confronted the couple with an ultimatum: cover up the t-shirts or leave the match with him. After a valiant show of resistance and a few choice words, the couple each put a second shirt over their t-shirt and stayed until the end of the match. They had planned for this moment.
Seated next to me, an Iranian from California briefly waved Iran’s old Lion and Sun flag, incensed that the lion had been removed and replaced. After the match, another person was chased down among the rows of seats while waving a rainbow flag, which was quickly confiscated and concealed by security. I hadn’t expected to see these quiet acts of resistance within the stadium or even in Qatar in general. But the World Cup is a world stage like no other – one of the biggest, watched by billions of people (some estimate 5,000,000,000 for the 2022 tournament). Sharing a message of resistance can have meaningful effect, among people in attendance and people around the world. Sharing these stories with you is proof of this – from them to me to you, like ripples in a pond.
In the end, the U.S. won 1-0 in a well-played and respectful match, our favorite of the week.
The Corniche, Doha
Wednesday / Denmark vs. Australia
Wednesday morning we walked to the Mandarin Oriental for breakfast as there wasn’t much open early in Souq Wakif. We sat on the terrace outside and tried to order mimosas but were told we’d have to move inside (out of street view) if we wanted to drink them. After breakfast, we met Akhbar (from Zanzibar) for a quick tour of Souq Wakif, which included a visit to several falconry shops and a falcon hospital. Falconry plays a large part in traditional Qatari life. Competition can be fierce but a winning falcon can change a person’s life. Souq Wakif is also home to royal stables of Arabian horses and a pen with more than two dozen camels. We visited both and ended the tour with lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Doha skyline.
Wednesday’s match was back at Al Janoub stadium, this time at 6:00 p.m. Denmark and Australia played an uneventful match – quiet compared to the match the night before! Australia prevailed 1-0. We caught a bus back to Souq Wakif where we walked on toward the FIFA Fan Zone to watch the 10:00 p.m. matches. Along the way, we stopped to watch the fireworks and drone show that played nightly throughout the tournament.
The Corniche, Doha
The Corniche, Doha
That evening Argentina was playing Poland in a must-win match that would advance them to the Round of 16. Mexico was playing Saudi Arabia in a similarly important match with their World Cup future at stake. With such an important match for Lionel Messi and Argentina, we were surprised to find the Mexico/Saudi Arabia match on the big screen and Argentina/Poland on the smaller screens. It was simple geopolitics at play, with Qatar’s powerful neighbor pulling rank.
The Fan Zone was PACKED, and while watching the matches we talked to people from the Philippines, India, Mexico, Sudan, the U.S. and of course Argentina. With five goals scored between the two matches, crescendos of cheers rippled through the crowd late into the night. Argentina won 2-0 and advanced, while Mexico missed the cut based on cumulative yellow cards even though they won their match 2-1. Latin American fans are generally some of football’s most fervent, and this particular win and loss for Argentina and Mexico was a duality of happiness and disappointment in the same moment. But with 16 teams soon dropping out after the group stage, we could feel the support for Argentina growing.
Thursday / Costa Rica vs. Germany
The match on Thursday was at 10:00 p.m. at Al Bayt, about a 30-minute bus ride north from Doha. Lusail, the main stadium and village of the World Cup, was along the way so we left mid-afternoon to explore it before going on to the match.
Designed like a “golden vessel,” Lusail was the biggest stadium of the World Cup with a capacity of 80,000 people. A famous line came to mind: “Build it and they will come.” It was true of Qatar and true of Lusail. We had come to explore, along with many others who had the same idea; all of us walking the boulevard so beautifully enticing with national flags stretched above the west end, the Lusail Plaza Towers in the distance, a whale shark art installation suspended in between and the waterfront just beyond. We stopped to see the Katara Towers nearby (Fairmont Doha), with a curved design representing traditional scimitar swords. Not far from this was an outdoor dining plaza with kitchens housed in old shipping containers. We enjoyed some quick Indonesian food before returning to the station and catching a bus to Al Bayt.
The visual effect of arriving at Al Bayt was fantastic. The stadium made a bold, graphic statement in black and white with a design of a traditional bedouin tent. The structure defied any expectation of typical stadium design, and this continued through the interior with an Arabic sadu pattern from floor to ceiling. Such architectural creativity was marvelous to see and feel, compounding the excitement of being there for a match. We sat high in the top tier of Al Bayt, up close with the decorative stripes, while Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2.
Germany vs. Costa Rica
We bussed back to Lusail and transferred to the metro to Souq Wakif. It was well after midnight when we pulled into the station, packed with fans on their way home from the two evening matches. As we went up the escalator to the exit, we suddenly heard loud clapping. We turned around to see that everyone in the station had stopped to applaud and cheer for a group of Japanese fans. Japan had beaten Spain in a 2-1 upset and secured their place in the Round of 16. Scenes like this of fan support and goodwill gave me a little more faith in humanity – a mental souvenir I hadn’t expected to take home.
Friday / Serbia vs. Switzerland
Before we headed to the match, we had a delicious al fresco lunch overlooking the Corniche and enjoyed a long walk back to the hotel on our last afternoon in Doha. We wandered out to the dhow harbor, filled with traditional Qatari boats, where a man named Bindu offered to take us out for an hour-long cruise for $100. With the entire dhow to ourselves, we climbed to the top and floated out to the middle of the bay where the city skyline stretched out even closer in front of us. It had been an exhausting, exhilarating week exploring Doha, watching football late into the evenings and feeling the intense energy of one of the world’s most popular events. Leaving the next day felt too soon, like we had only just hit our stride.
On the bus ride to Al Bayt the night before, we had talked with a Swiss guy living in Dubai. When we mentioned we were going to the Serbia/Switzerland match, he explained the significance of the pairing. Switzerland knocked out Serbia in the 2018 World Cup group stage. It was a match of lasting controversy involving national pride and a questionable hand gesture on the pitch. In a twist of fate, tonight was a rematch, four years later, with both teams again in the same group (G). It’s easy to think the World Cup is only about football but, as we had been learning all week, there are many other forces at play well beyond the start and finish of the event.
We rode the bus to Stadium 974 for the 10:00 p.m. start. Built of 974 shipping containers, this stadium was designed to be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere for other events. Bright red and yellow accentuated the steel boxes, with massive numerals marking each entrance. We climbed the stairs to our seats in the top tier and again found a fine view of the field and interior. All week our seats had been high up and wonderful vantage points of the action.
Women Life Freedom
The match was intense with both teams playing hard, but Switzerland again pulled off a victory that eliminated Serbia from the tournament. As we exited the stadium, we lingered a little bit and reflected on everything we had experienced that week. In that moment, I turned to see a young woman standing bravely by herself with a huge banner for all to see: Women Life Freedom. People (including me) ran to stand with her and photograph her, inspired by her obvious courage paired with the power of these words. Surely her banner was confiscated eventually but the impact was made and the message still emanates, even now.
We departed Doha on Saturday, with tired feet and expanded minds. We had watched a lot of football, met a lot of wonderful fans and learned a lot about the world. Of our World Cup experience, one of the things that most impressed us was the flawless coordination of transportation, entry and exit for each match we attended. With hundreds of buses and a metro system built for the World Cup, we never waited more than two minutes for any form of transportation. Walking – the amount of it to and from the stadiums – was a surprising but productive method of crowd control. (By the end of the week, we had gotten more than our share of exercise.) The World Cup was orchestrated by thousands of wonderful volunteers from all over the world (16,000 according to three sources). Every single volunteer who directed us, answered our questions, scanned our tickets, checked our bags, drove our buses and helped us enjoy our experience was friendly, smiling and happy to help, even late into the night.
One of our favorite things about our World Cup experience was the small-scale setting of Doha and the infectious fan energy flowing between Souq Wakif, the Corniche, the FIFA Fan Zone and downtown just beyond. Knowing the next World Cup is spread across North America (Canada, the U.S. and Mexico), will it feel as connected? Will it be as intense and wide-reaching, with as many fans from around the world? One thing I know is that immigration policies will certainly affect who can and cannot attend, at least for the matches in the U.S. – another unfortunate example of sports and politics at a crossroads.
Souq Waqif, Doha
Through our week at the World Cup, I gained a deeper understanding of football’s massive, worldwide appeal. In every town of every nation, there is always a football pitch – grass, dirt, concrete, sand – and there is always someone kicking a ball. Football is sport in its most basic form. Add to that… a dream of being the best and playing on a world stage, and you can see why boys and girls, men and women, keep playing and keep dreaming. To dream is free and the best will succeed. The best carry us with them into those fleeting but graceful moments when a pass across the pitch times up perfectly, a foot meets the ball, and the net exhales with the impact of the goal. Maybe this is why football is called “the beautiful game.”
In the end, the lasting joy created by the World Cup cannot be denied. Pride runs deep and fans never give up hope that their team or their country will someday be recognized as the best in the world. For that one winning team and all of its fans, the joy of winning extends for days, weeks, months, years. We saw it begin through the stories about the days-long parties taking place in Argentina (and around the world) after the team’s win of the World Cup final against France. Watching this final match (with family, while back in the U.S.) reminded me of a conversation we had with a cab driver in Doha. He was from Bangladesh and he was an ardent Argentina fan, hoping desperately that Lionel Messi would lead his team to victory. He explained how everyone in Bangladesh was rooting for Messi, how deeply an Argentina World Cup win would be for all of them, and what it would mean for him personally. The truth and purity of his words have stuck with me ever since: “Money is nothing. This happiness I cannot buy.”
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Such a glorious account of your World Cup experience, even though I have heard some of it before, this rounds it all out just beautifully! I could have read on for hours and hours if you had written it…. I am so proud to know how well you both represented our country and the lasting connections that you made. Your experience is now given as a gift to everyone reading about it and with that you have given us new pride of country and a new hope for humanity. I cannot help but feel better after reading this! Thank You Kelly!
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I can’t claim to be any kind of football fan, but there’s no doubt that this was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience, so well done for making it happen for you.
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Oh wow Kelly! It sounds amazing in so many ways.
Given the issues of the workers’ deaths and working conditions, and Sharia law, I can see why you’d hesitate to go. I have no doubt FIFA was bribed, or at least offered a shit load of $$$. The Russians having invaded Ukraine complain that they should not be banned from sport (as they are from many sports since the invasion), because sport and politics are separate. Sadly, no, they never are.
Oh but what an amazing experience it was for you and for the thousands of fans who were able to attend in person – truly bringing the world together. It’s at this grass roots level that politics disappear and people find common good and enjoyment. It’s why we travel isn’t it?
Your description very much reminded me of Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics – a VERY big party. Magical!
Wonderful post. I had no trouble imagining being there. I’ve been in stadiums when the roof has been blown off by the crowd – awesome! People are awesome. How wonderful you got to experience that again.
Hugs to you both
Alison xo
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My heart was filled with warmth as I was reading every word and paragraph in this post, Kelly. Despite the controversies about this particular FIFA World Cup, I’m glad you decided to go so that you could feel the atmosphere on the ground, connect with ordinary football fans from different countries, and share your stories with us. Nothing beats the feeling of being at a place where people from all over the world come together and have fun.
I’m never, even remotely, interested in watching a football match. But you have convinced me that at the right event, this might turn out to be one of the most memorable things one can experience.
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Fabulous!!!!! Thanks, Kelly, for your vivid sensory description, your emotional responses, and the deeper understanding about what connects us all.
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It sounds like a very intense and exhausting experience. And points out, once again, that politicians and religious leaders are often much more poorly behaved than the people they claim to lead. Amazing how travel tends to reinforce that notion.
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You know how your infectious love for this sport and event affected us! The post fleshes out what I already knew about your experience, but thank you most of all for your explanation of why you decided to go, given some of the ugliness behind the choice of the event location. “I would rather go, observe, learn and share my perspective than choose absence as a means of expressing my opinion;” you said it all here. There are those who quickly stake out a stance when things are not exactly as they would like, but I can’t help but feel that kind of simplistic decision benefits only them and their self-assessment, not any of the people who were actually hurt by the political or other (admittedly poor) choices in the past. As you also note, sharing stories of resistance itself can send tiny ripples of change or at the very least, knowledge, out into the world and show that sport can transcend some of the bad stuff we humans are capable of. Beautiful photos and stories – thank you again for sharing!
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Beautiful post, Kelly ~ such an experience you put into words and especially into the photos… how awesome this must have been. I enjoyed watching the World Cup, and all I could think of was how great it would be to share in the atmosphere, especially the different cultures and people. The surprises and flexibility of such an adventure are precisely why it is great to get out and explore.
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