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For days, videos and images have been circulating online of groups of people celebrating in Qatar the national teams that will play the World Cup, whose first match is scheduled for Sunday. In the videos, many of which are shared by the social profiles of the Qatar Living tourist site – followed by almost half a million users – people often wear the uniforms of the national teams for which they cheer and parade amidst choirs, waving flags and a lot of enthusiasm.
Obviously choreographed with fake fans but I’m just confused about the objective? Was it supposed to be a drill ????????
Cringe pro max from #Qatar #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/NQUN7BoPqF
— Dan Qayyum (@DanQayyum) November 12, 2022
Many of these videos are very similar and in fact the parades seem to follow the same “script”. The fans are probably local, wearing only recently produced jerseys, moving with a certain rhythm and accompanied by drums. Among the flags of the various nationals, then, at least one of Qatar always pops up. For these reasons it is assumed that these groups are actually extras paid to pretend to be fans. All to help create a festive atmosphere which, for many reasons, is one of the major concerns of the organizers.
The Supreme Committee of Qatar 2022, the body that organizes these World Cups, has denied that the people filmed in recent days have been paid to cheer, but doubts remain. Of course, in most of the videos circulated so far, people who live in Qatar cheer, also because generally the most numerous groups of foreign fans arrive just before the debut of their team, and not several days in advance (a fortiori in a country where costs are quite high).
But there are exceptions. In fact, it is estimated that at least a quarter of the approximately three million residents in Qatar are foreigners, mostly workers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the rest of Southeast Asia. Sean Ingle, journalist of the Guardian sent to Qatar, he said for example that to celebrate the arrival of the English national team there were mainly Indian citizens who live in the country. Ingle described them as very lively, carrying trumpets and drums and chanting for the team, coach and star players. Among other things, they have also repeated several times “It’s coming home”, a motto that punctually accompanies England in major international tournaments.
Huge number of Indian ex-pats outside the England hotel, awaiting the team’s arrival in Qatar. Spoke to a few of them, and they insist they are not fake fans. Also have shown us murals of England players they have drawn back in Kerala pic.twitter.com/YlQQMOnPad
— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) November 15, 2022
Ingle wrote that he spoke to “half a dozen” people of Indian origin intent on cheering for England, and all of them said they were real fans and weren’t being paid to do what they were doing. The people he spoke to also showed extensive knowledge of football, especially the English Premier League.
Already at the beginning of November, well before the recent parades in the streets of the capital Doha, Associated Press he had written that Qatar intended to hire about two thousand fans – at least someone from each of the 31 foreign national teams – to go to the opening ceremony of the World Cup and follow the tournament for at least two weeks, with all expenses paid.
Associated Press He also wrote that during the opening ceremony, fans had to sing a song associated with their country in one passage, about five minutes long. The article also spoke of the fact that those fans would then have to post promotional content online for the Qatari tourism agency.
– Read also: The approach of the national teams to these World Cups
