Soccer fans from Kerala to use Muscat as a base for Qatar
With less than a week left for the 2022 edition of the Football World Cup, many fans from the south Indian state of Kerala will be visiting the Sultanate of Oman and shuttle to Qatar to the world’s most-watched sports tournament.
“I will be travelling to the Sultanate of Oman next week using my World Cup fan visa and then fly into Qatar on the match days of my interest”, said Abdul Hameed, a die-hard fan of Brazil.
Hameed, a native of Ernakulam in the central district of Kerala, was buzzing when he said he would be at the World Cup in Qatar beginning November 20.
Kerala happens to be among the few states in India that possess a craze for football, even more than the popularly watched game of cricket.
“I understand Oman is one of the major gateways for the fans to reach Qatar. I can utlilise the facilities offered by Oman Air which will ferry spectators from Muscat to Doha every day”, he said.
More than 1.5 million people are set to flock to Qatar for the biggest sporting event, with its neighbours including are expected to reap the benefits of a sharp increase in visitors to the region.
The Sultanate of Oman is hoping to make Muscat one of the preferred destinations for football fans from across the world, with attractive offers from airlines and hotels.
Football fans who hold a Hayya card that acts as a visa and fan ID for the tournament and their immediate family members will be eligible for a free 60-day multi-entry visa to Oman.
There are short-haul flights to the host country as well as bringing a carnival World Cup atmosphere to the streets of Oman.
“I am very satisfied to have decided on Muscat and the shuttle to Qatar. I explored many places in the region. Oman stood out for its natural landscape and tourism potential”, Naushad Ali, a businessman who is a hard-core fan of Argentina. He said he wants to have a glimpse of Messy as he has a special place in his heart for the player.
With Kerala coming under the grip of the World Cup fever, giant cutouts of Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo popped up at different locations in the south Indian state.
The fans have used his widely shared image of him preparing for a free kick at the 2018 Fifa World Cup. Fifa tweeted a picture of the cutouts, saying the world cup “fever has hit Kerala”.
Last Friday in Doha, thousands of migrant workers from Kerala wearing the colours of Argentina, Brazil, and England staged a World Cup rally. Interestingly, a fan group of the Indian sub-continent showed their support to Messi’s Argentina in Qatar by playing the drums.