Flights and hotels for free – Qatar buys foreign World Cup fans
The opening match of the World Cup will take place at the Al Bayt Stadium on November 20th
Source: picture alliance / GES/Markus Gilliar
19 days before the start of the tournament, the Dutch broadcaster NOS reports that a trip to Qatar for the World Cup will be fully financed by the host for a few selected supporters. What looks like a dream of many fans turns out to be a questionable advertising campaign.
EA free trip to the World Cup – for a select few, this dream will soon become a reality at the tournament in Qatar. Because the desert emirate, which is hosting the World Cup from November 20th to December 18th, is currently hitting the fan market.
As reported by the Dutch broadcaster NOS, around 50 Dutch fans are traveling to the tournament in Qatar, which is paying for the flights and hotel accommodation.
The desert state’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy has confirmed Qatar’s viewer purchases. A spokesman for the committee told Reuters: “As the tournament draws nearer, we have asked our most active SLOs to personally nominate a small selection of fans to join us as guests to thank them for their involvement.”
Network of around 400 fans
The “collaboration” of the fans takes place mainly in the social media. In exchange for the free stays in Qatar, travelers must sign a “code of conduct”. This urges supporters to write positive comments about the World Cup tournament on social media. But that’s not all: the fans are also becoming social media spies. They should report “offensive, derogatory, or violent comments” to the committee, ideally providing screenshots of the comments as evidence.
Qatari fans celebrate their team’s victory over Bahrain. Foreign football fans are supposed to set the mood for the World Cup hosts
Source: picture alliance / GES/Markus Gilliar
On the official World Cup website, the fan program is described as a network of around 400 fans and influencers from 60 countries. They would have offered “insights, research, content creation and amplification of messages”.
The organizers do not give any financial information about fan purchases. Belgian and French media had also reported that Qatar had offered selected fan groups a trip to the World Cup.
The text was written for the sports competence center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in “Bild”.
