Qatar, a country where it is difficult to see people walking down the street due to high temperatures, has hosted in recent hours an exceptional and somewhat grotesque march in broad daylight through the main avenues of its capital, Doha, on the occasion of the next World Cup celebration.
In the absence of the arrival of the majority of fans of their respective teams, thousands of residents in the emirate, the vast majority of them immigrants, paraded with flags and shirts of the main countries that will play the tournament, such as Brazil, Argentina, France, England and Spain.
In front of the royal palace, a building from which photos cannot usually be taken, the sounds of drums and unspontaneous chants were heard that seemed to respond to a pre-established script by the organizers of this idea, a strange event in the eyes of the Western fan whose objective was warm up engines for the World Cup. "Foreign workers in Qatar love football and bought many tickets," one of the organizers told AFP to defend the curious scene, especially atypical in a territory where meetings are very limited by law.
Qatar does not reach three million inhabitants, of whom barely 20% are Qataris and the rest are workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, among other countries. This mixture of cultures and nationalities has resulted in a territory lacking in sporting tradition and great hobbies, as was seen in the 2015 Handball World Cup held in Qatari lands.
Given the lack of supporters for the national team, the organizers hired dozens of members of the Peña Furia Conquense from Spain to cheer on the local team from the stands.
"It's a day of joy for us," explained one of the participants in the football parade, while another, a follower of Leo Messi's Argentina, took the opportunity to denounce the "difficult" working conditions. An opinion that links with the position of several NGOs, the main spokespersons for the terrible situation of the workers immersed in the construction of the World Cup stadiums and the thousands of deaths derived from these conditions since FIFA awarded the tournament in 2010 to emirate of the Persian Gulf.
The image of the so-called fans walking freely through the streets of Doha, on a holiday for Muslims, contrasts with the one that occurred on August 14, when dozens of workers stopped traffic to protest, among other things, for several months of non-payment and for having to put up with strenuous work days in temperatures of more than 40 degrees. Most only managed to be arrested and deported for breaking "public security laws."
