In June, Will Ramjass held his breath as he clicked on an email with the subject line “Qatar 2022 Ticket Website: Your Request.” When Ramjass caught a glimpse of the PDF inside, the Toronto-based lawyer almost did a cartwheel of joy right there in his office. His request had been granted in full: Ramjass snagged seven tickets to the penultimate and final matches at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to get seven. Two months prior, he had reached out to six friends with an adventurous and ambitious proposition: If we can get tickets, are you all up for it?As an employee of McDonald’s Canada, one of the official sponsors of the World Cup, Ramjass was able to put in a request for FIFA tickets. He’d been to three previous World Cups, but never with such a large group, and never for such critical games.
The seven soccer fans are still set to fly to Doha on Dec. 11 for nine days. Accounting for flights, tickets and accommodations, the trip rings up to be about $9,000 for each member of the group. Among them, Ramjass is the single degree of separation. He’s known restaurateur Sasha Khan and real estate broker Shaheed Shaw since childhood. “I have no siblings, so these are my brothers,” Ramjass says. All three grew up in the Caribbean and were exposed to a ton of South American soccer, where they became fans Brazil and Argentina’s national teams. They have also been to baseball and cricket events around the world.
Along for the trip are fellow friends and lawyers Merv Allen, a diehard, Jamaican-born fan of the French national team Les Bleus, and Arturo Pugliese, an Italian-Canadian dismayed at the absence of his home team at this year’s tournament. “I’m not sure which Arturo is going to be wearing, honestly,” Ramjass says. Pugliese introduced Oscar Torres, a chartered accountant, to the group, and he will either be representing his Colombian roots , or Portugal for his wife.