Is Qatar ready for FIFA World Cup 2022? Long Queues And Water Shortages In Stadiums!!
The biggest football event will take over the world in a couple of months, and the excitement and expectations are sky high. The FIFA world cup 2022 edition is scheduled to be hosted in Qatar, and the preparations have been going in full force.
The gulf country is about to host its first-ever major global event, and they are looking to make a statement of standard and quality with this opportunity.
Many checks and mock runs are being carried out to test the function of all the infrastructure up to its very limited functionality.
Qatar Stadium Not Ready For FIFA World Cup 2022
Multiple brand new stadiums have been constructed over many years for this world cup, and these venues are yet to experience an actual event. The trials that are being done have faced some critical issues lately, and Qatar’s preparation for the world cup might not be going as smoothly as we think it is.
In the recent mock runs that have been performed, problems such as issues related to water shortage in the stadiums and long queues at various service stations are being reported. In a recent event in one of the stadiums selected for being the world cup venue, 78000 fans showed up for the Lussail Super Cup matchup between AL Hilal SFC and Zamalek SC.
Qatar Stadium Faced Long Queues And Water Shortages
The atmosphere in this event was very similar to what these stadiums will experience during the world cup. Numerous reports of fans finding it difficult to enter the stadium came into the spotlight, and even the water services were poor as the water allegedly ran out by the match reached its halftime mark.
The natural temperature during the event was 34 degree Celsius which is relatively cool, but because the air conditioners in the stadium were not functioning up to the standards and the stadium wasn’t cooled appropriately, the humidity level inside the venue rose exponentially, which made the thirst of all the fans even worse.
All of this made the spectating of the match inside the stadium almost physically impossible for many spectators. Humidity and thirst, coupled with the congestion inside the stadium because of the presence of so many fans, made the conditions horrible.
Metros And Infrastructures Are Failing
The rush inside and outside the stadium was elevated because of these awful conditions, and even access to metro channels was very difficult as they were extremely crowded. Getting in and out of the venue was unnecessarily time-consuming, and the crowd coming into the metro station was so constantly overwhelming that the officials were seen shouting and telling people to stop rushing in because the station was full and couldn’t take in more people.
This was happening because the metro functioning wasn’t efficient enough to deal with such a huge crowd of people, and the infrastructure was failing. People were heard shouting and begging for water because the thirst was becoming uncontrollable, and the situation was even more perturbing for the individuals with their children.
The struggles of management were somewhat expected because Qatar is the smallest country ever to host the tournament, and any small nation would find it somewhat difficult to deal with such a crowd for the first time.
As per the event organizers and managers, this event was organized to find the various faults and weak areas in the entire event management system.
More Changes And Improvements Needed
All the difficulties faced by the visitors at the venue are being reported sincerely. All of these issues will be irradicated completely to provide a seamless experience for spectators during the 2022 World cup.
During this entire ruckus, many fans were spotted saying that if this is how the world cup will be managed, they don’t want to come for the tournament. It’s fair to say that this will be the thought process of everyone who had such an awful experience.
All of this points in the direction of only one conclusion that Qatar is not yet 100% ready to host the FIFA world cup, and a lot more changes and improvement needs to be made to the functioning of this huge event management infrastructure to deliver an event similar to the standards which were promised when the gulf country won the bet for hosting the 2022 football world cup.
We can assume that this might be the situation in all stadiums. Therefore the improvements made after this incident will have to be efficiently implemented at all the venues for the world cup.
