Here we go and fans walked out

FROM NEIL SQUIRES at Al Bayt Stadium THE BILLION dollar question is no longer what is the World Cup doing in Qatar – but what are Qatar doing in the World Cup?

It may be possible to buy a World Cup and with it a place alongside the global elite but, inconveniently, football matches themselves are a meritocracy.

However large your natural gas field is, if you defend as if you have never met each other before, the game will put you in your place.

Five months spent training together in preparation went out of the window as a ragbag performance, riddled with openingnight nerves, saw them crash to limp defeat against Ecuador.

Freezing in the desert is not easy but Qatar managed it last night in becoming the first host nation to lose an opening game at a World Cup.

Qatar were so bad before the break that thousands of their fans who had packed out the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium didn’t bother returning for the second half, the traditional white thobes and black abayas replaced by empty red seats (above).

The highly choreographed maroon-clad Qatar ‘ultras’ sang on until the bitter end but they did not have a single shot on target to cheer in 90 minutes. Maybe Qatar should just stick to the hosting duties. There was a good deal more energy in the opening ceremony, a fusion of Arab and western music, than the team’s performance.

It delivered the lofty message of football bridging distances and uniting the world.

Given this World Cup is the most contentious in history, that is the very definition of optimism, but it was a sharp show and particularly strong on mascots.

All the previous tournaments’ oddballs back to World Cup Willie were on parade plus this edition’s one, La’eeb – a flying white headdress.

La’eeb has unnerved some with his ghostly appearance but his take-off moment drew a thunderous cheer from all corners of the Al Bayt Stadium.

It was a big gig for Morgan Freeman telling the story of football – not soccer – but when you have played God, MC of the World Cup is small beer. Non-alcoholic, obviously.

The booze ban at the pristine stadium, erected like a giant bedouin tent 30 miles into the desert north of Doha, did not seem to be an issue for the Ecuador fans who thoroughly enjoyed their evening.