Man on mission to deliver a World Cup to remember
do is engage with them, too. I am planning a visit to Scotland soon enough to meet some of the supporters over there and learn what they want, find out what it is that they are looking for. Do they need information about us? Is there anything they need to learn? Is there anything we need to prepare specifically for them?”
And what of those preparations? The bottom line for Scotland fans is this: yes, you can buy a beer. Most hotels, and for that matter, the fan zone during the recent FIFA Club World Cup offered two-for-one offers at approximately £11 a go.
However, other hotels near the Khalifa International Stadium did not and there were no fan zones outside the ground during the matches involving Liverpool. Organisers say that by the time the World Cup proper comes around all eight stadiums will have fan zones serving alcohol.
There will be the possibility for fans to travel to more than one game per day in Qatar with a gleaming new metro system – tickets costing around 40 pence – currently serving seven venues which will be further aided by shuttle buses that will link areas of the city to the nearest underground stop.
The pace of change is visible in the ongoing construction of skyscrapers that have sprouted from the desert sands all across Doha and soonto-be-completed multi-lane motorway systems.
Meanwhile, the conditions were noticeably mild during the Club World Cup with rain most days and comfortable temperatures of 26 degrees, rendering air conditioning within the stadiums – once viewed as a pre-requisite when the proposal was to host the World Cup in summer – almost redundant.
There was clear evidence, too, that the Qatari authorities – normally very conservative – were prepared to take a more relaxed approach to foreign visitors following an influx of thousands of supporters during the tournament. We were told of supporters urinating in the streets, saw and heard plenty of raucous singing and witnessed a blind eye being turned to shows of affection between couples.
The Khalifa Stadium which hosted Liverpool’s semi-final against Monterrey and the final against Flamengo is an architectural masterpiece but would have benefited from clearer signage while stewards needed more experience at management of big crowds. There was no mistaking one sign, though, which was set aside for “Ladies and Families” while the image of a thousand or so supporters attempting to