Not a day goes by without the organization of the 2022 World Cup being criticized. There have been the fan zone controversythe last minute coaster regarding the sale of alcohol in stadiums and yesterday a journalist demonstrated that a computer hiccup made it possible to attend a World Cup match without having to pay for a ticket. In short, it may be 30 degrees in Doha, but the Qataris are dressed for the winter. And it’s not over !
FIFA announces crowds higher than stadium capacities
If you have followed the first matches of this World Cup, one detail has probably struck you: the stadiums are sparse. During the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador, the stands were already well emptied. Monday, on the occasion of the match between Senegal and the Netherlands, the Al-Thumama stadium was far from full. A notable finding when you know the ability of Dutch supporters to fill an entire enclosure to support the Oranjes.
In today’s edition, The Team also tells us that the announcer for the Argentina-Saudi Arabia match announced an attendance of 88,012 spectators. An announcement that was strange to say the least for two reasons: in view of the images on television, there were empty seats and above all the capacity of the largest stadium in Qatar is 80,000 seats… The newspaper adds that this surplus of spectators has also been announced for the Senegal-Netherlands match. 41,721 spectators according to FIFA in an enclosure with only 40,000 seats.
Empty seats despite record ticket sales
Same observation for the Guardian which reveals that FIFA has magically updated the capacity of Qatari stadiums on his official page these last hours. Why such a sudden change? To justify itself, FIFA has indicated that the capacity of these enclosures could be increased by several thousand places in “event” mode according to The Team. But then how to explain all these empty seats when FIFA announces full stadiums and no less than 3 million tickets have been sold (more than in 2018)?
For the Guardian, the absence of the people who bought these tickets is undoubtedly the main reason. That The Team tends to confirm by explaining that most tickets are generated digitally, making it very difficult to resell to people present in Qatar. Finally, the French daily recalls that FIFA announces its attendance based on tickets sold, and not on the actual count of spectators in the stadium.