DOHA, Qatar | For all we can fault Qatar for a month they have been more than efficient in running this World Cup and handling the crowds and their movements. That was until Sunday.
While the top organizing committee sent us a press release praising the organization from David Beckham, it was the local guerrillas.
The organizing committee bluntly dropped the ball in the hours leading up to the final.
The city of Doha is completely disorganized, making access to the Lusail Stadium almost impossible.
Overcrowded subway
Several hours before the game, the subway was stormed by fans wanting to get into the stadium, both with and without tickets.
A single subway line serves the stadium, which seats almost 89,000 spectators. Even at the closing ceremony, an hour before the start of the game, it was half empty.
And this subway line also stops at Fanfest, where tens of thousands of fans watched the game on a giant screen.
Results? Completely overcrowded subway stations with hundreds of people who have to wait more than hundred meters outside to finally be told that the station is no longer operational because it is too crowded.
Msheireb Station, the equivalent of our Berri UQAM, was overwhelmed more than four hours before the meeting. It was even closed for an hour because the security forces could no longer handle the influx of passengers even crossing the security barriers.
And culmination of the disorganization, an excuse of the technical problems to make the partisans dismount two stops before the one that is near the stadium. A short walk of 11.8 kilometers…
traffic jam
What we haven’t told you yet is that we had the brilliant idea of presenting the World Cup final on Qatar’s national day.
Remember that Sunday is our Monday here. The working week is in fact from Sunday to Thursday. That means it was a long weekend.
With roads already closed due to World Cup activity and all Qataris deciding it was a good idea to drive and stick your head out of the sunroof to wave a flag, it wasn’t just downtown , but also fast to hell on the freeways too.
And when the royal motorcade headed for the stadium, things only got worse.
Many fans were either late or couldn’t make it to the stadium at all.
The nail
We saved the climax of the story for the end. Yes, the Journal rep got caught.
As the subway was very efficient up until this point, even on the busiest of days, we left our hotel room at 3:30pm for a total journey of 35-40 minutes.
After a few minutes walk when the National Museum subway station was in sight, we thought something was wrong when we saw all these people standing outside around the entrance.
We are quickly told that it is impossible to board, that the subway is not working. Hop on an Uber to a subway station closer to the stadium. The car will be here in less than three minutes, which is a good sign.
Once in the car, it doesn’t move. We consult the phone to see that all subway stations have the same problem. We then consult maps to see that all the roads are red.
Change of plan, we go to the media center in the Qatar National Convention Center.
So this text was written in an amphitheater in front of a huge screen and we were forced to watch the finale that was supposed to be the apotheosis of a month spent in Qatar.
All for that.