ith six months until Senegal take on the Netherlands at the Al Thumama Stadium in the opening game, uncertainty hangs over thein Qatar. It extends beyond fears over human rights to practical concerns: how many fans will attend the tournament? And what kind of experience will they have there?
Reports from different countries seem to back up the bigger picture. England have not sold out their allocation for their group games or prospective knockout fixtures. Only the match against Scotland or Wales has got close, with two of three ticket categories oversubscribed. Reports from France suggest their travelling support is going to be less than a quarter of what it was in Russia.
The hunt for promised $80-per-night accommodation is often fruitless, unprepossessing “Fan Village Cabins” start at $200 a night, and AirBnB-style apartments come in at about $1,000. To what extent these options will be refreshed once the second stage of sales is confirmed remains unclear. “It’s clearly difficult for most fans to know how expensive the World Cup is going to be for them,” says FSE’s CEO, Ronan Evain. “To book flights or a hotel you need the tickets first, so you need to pay to know how much it is going to cost. There is a consistent lack of information about the process and what there is is difficult to understand; nothing is written clearly on paper. It feels like Fifa and Qatar are doing their best to persuade people not to go.