The maroon-and-white clad national team from the host country will open a tournament that has come to define the gas-rich emirate’s image against the team from Ecuador - probably.Īll 64 games over the course of 29 days involving 32 teams will be held in the Doha area, with many more shows and cultural events planned for a soccer-led party in the conservative Muslim society.įor one month, Qatar will relax its strict limits on where alcohol can be bought, including serving beer from World Cup sponsor Budweiser at the eight stadiums and at the official big-screen viewing site in Al Bidda Park. 20, the biggest tournament in soccer will finally get started a couple hours after sunset at the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium - a new venue north of Doha built for the World Cup. The small Arab country jutting out into the Persian Gulf has overcome all of that, as well as hostility from neighboring states who imposed a three-year economic and diplomatic boycott that ended in January 2021. Qatar has faced skepticism about how it persuaded FIFA to vote for the country in 2010 criticism of how migrant workers were treated building stadiums and tournament infrastructure and derision from the soccer world for changing the dates from the traditional June-July period to November-December. GENEVA (AP) - The first World Cup in the Middle East is one month away, nearing the conclusion of an often bumpy 12-year journey for Qatar that has transformed the nation.
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