Crowds in Moscow make Qatar rethink 2022 World Cup plans

MOSCOW — The big numbers of Latin American soccer fans who came to Russia are making 2022 World Cup organizers rethink their own plans for Qatar.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in central Moscow even when their team was not playing. The much smaller city of Doha would be packed for the tournament’s first two weeks in November ’22 if the same occurred.

In the streets around Red Square, fans from Peru, Mexico and Argentina were a vibrant presence from days before the World Cup started.

“What we saw in Moscow, which has two stadiums, is that a city can be very quickly overwhelmed by big crowds,” senior Qatari official Nasser Al Khater said in the Russian capital.

“The fact you’re going to have the fans of 32 teams pretty much in a city, I think is going to be electrifying.”

With eight stadiums in Doha or within an hour of travel, the 28day World Cup is sure to dominate the tiny emirate of only 2.58 million people.

“We want it to (take over Doha),” Al Khater said, adding one possible change. “Seeing the people and how they move, trying to imagine how the traffic flow will be like in Qatar, we’re reconsidering where we put our Fan Fest.”

A World Cup host city must have a hub for fans to meet and watch games on giant screens. Though Moscow has its Fan Fest south of the centre, Qatar’s was planned in downtown Al Bidda Park next to Doha Bay.

“It’s in the wrong spot,” Al Khater said.

“It would get in the way actually of free flow of people.”