32 teams face Qatar heat in fight for top trophy

DOHA: One residential complex of squat three-storey buildings near Al Janoub Stadium coming to life over the past two days cannot be the most definitive statement of the world converging for football on a tiny west Asian peninsula famous for falconry. But increasing frequency of vehicles swooshing through the streets of a place that has 10,000 rooms, the chatter of wheels on cobbled pathways as people drag bags into lodgings, footfalls in its supermarkets and shuttles, often full, to and from the Al Wakrah metro station and airports do convey a sense of the World Cup starting here on Sunday.

Thirty-two teams, an expected visitors’ count of 1.2 million, eight stadiums where the maximum distance between two venues is 55km holding 64 games in 29 days — instead of the usual 32 over five weekends--make this a never-before kind of World Cup. As do the conversation of compensation for migrant workers who died transforming Doha into a theatre of dreams — the numbers swirl between three and thousands depending on whom you speak to — discrimination of people based on sexual preferences, and since Friday, the prospect of a largely dry World Cup.

Well, a lot of top football countries do that at their stadiums too, said FIFA president Gianni Infantino, referring to the absence of beer sales. His monologue on introspection and inclusion notwithstanding, this is a never-before World Cup in terms of protests as well.