Yes sure a load of England supporting Indian blokes travelled over a week before anything actually happened in order to spend £200 a night kipping in a shipping container.
It’s got bells on mate
Qatar WC | Fans and Atmosphere Watch
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
It’s got bells on mate
Following a PL club when your local team is in a lower division is vastly different from being a hardcore fan of both.
I support Wednesday but I also follow United, I read about them online, I watch them when they're on tv, I want them to win, given that (2016 aside) one of the big six is going to win the Premier League, I'd like that to be United and I want them to do well in Europe.
Does that mean I wear a Man United shirt, no, does it mean I hang around Old Trafford hoping to catch a glimpse of Harry Maguire's head, no, do I sing songs about the wonder of Scott McTominay, no, do I have a poster of Ronaldo on my bedroom wall that I kiss every night, no, if they drew Wednesday in the FA cup would I want them to win, not an effing chance.
Being a hardcore fan of two football teams is weird, being a hardcore fan of two national teams is something else again.
But bung us a few rupees and I'll even kiss a poster of Luke Shaw.
Obvious reasons?
Not sure if this is just a high thought (though it almost certainly is), but I have a sneaky feeling that things will be captured by journalists on camera as the World Cup goes on that are abhorrent enough to the wider world that this tournament ends up getting stopped or paused as part of the fallout.
Things despicable enough that result in public/media outcry becoming so overwhelming that FIFA concede they must take their own PR stand (ironically) and stop/pause things to give the necessary facade that they give a damn.
Things despicable enough that result in public/media outcry becoming so overwhelming that FIFA concede they must take their own PR stand (ironically) and stop/pause things to give the necessary facade that they give a damn.
I'd be willing to give you massive odds on this not happening.
Yeah, agreed.
Most if not every world cup is always full house. Tickets are gone within hours. You dont need to pay fans to travel. Even if most of the west seems to be boycotting this.
How credible is the tweets about paid fans? There are already enough topics to boycott Qatar without labeling fans that some wasted a lifetime of savings to enjoy the moment most of us took for granted.
For you seeing united live is a weekly chore, for some Asian fans that's a pilgrimage we only do once in a lifetime. The whole festivity experience is one in a lifetime it's more than simply rooting fanatically about 22 men kicking football.
How credible is the tweets about paid fans? There are already enough topics to boycott Qatar without labeling fans that some wasted a lifetime of savings to enjoy the moment most of us took for granted.
For you seeing united live is a weekly chore, for some Asian fans that's a pilgrimage we only do once in a lifetime. The whole festivity experience is one in a lifetime it's more than simply rooting fanatically about 22 men kicking football.
I really think we should just Qatar losses and just wait for the next World Cup.
Yeah until this World Cup, a lot of people in Canada - even ones who watch Canada in Qualifying - are big supporters of their parents', grandparents' or even great grandparents' country or even the domestic league they watch be it Serie A, Bundesliga or the Prem.
My 7 aside team for instance has a Portuguse/Italian who massively supports both, a guy with an English dad who loves England, an Asian muslim who will cheer for any Asian or African team, couple South Americans and Eastern Europeans who cheer for their own countries (though Eastern Europe didn't do well in qualifying this time around).
I used to cheer for England until about the Hargreaves tournament and lost enthusiasm afterwards, will just gamble now and cheer for Canada despite being half Moroccan and quarter Dutch and the teams I'm betting on to overperform, like Denmark and Iran. Might root against nations with anti-semitic histories (am a Jew) and I find Japan and Korean football quite likeable and have enjoyed playing on some predominantly Korean/Japanese (they mix here in football more than you might expect) teams because they tend to pass it shorter than most of the teams in Canada and so be more fun to play with and a good fit for me as a Sunday league footballer (though we don't call it that).
To me being a fan of Sheffield Wednesday and spending time on a Manchester United (2 teams who played in the same division for many years in recent history) forum is much weirder than someone from India supporting Brazil at the World Cup
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These are also expat communities from Morocco and Cameroon living in Qatar
I assume we will start to see videos of fans arriving from abroad now
I assume we will start to see videos of fans arriving from abroad now
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There are so many posts about people who know about things in middle east saying that, there are millions of people from India living there. Still people go on about them being fans who travelled for the WC.
Middle east is The destination for migrants from places like Kerala from South India. Kerala is crazy about football. Especially WC football. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to them. I don't know if that particular video is staged or not. But it is a fact that, there are millions of Indians in middle east. And they support various teams, including England (Mainly due to PL).
Wait a minute, where's the proof they're paid?
I'm missing something here, why would they pay people to go there? Surely enough people want to go to the world cup of their own accord
They're not paid to go there, as such, but to "spread positivity on social media", etc.
More precisely (as it now turns out, hilariously) they were supposed to get paid for this.
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Qatar is an obscenely expensive place to travel to and stay in? And Qatar isn't exactly an exciting tourist destination with a rich and varied culture.
More importantly, Qatar is very autocratic, and very determined to both maintain its image and control things that happen at the world cup. People are basically being paid to make sure they don't complain about or criticise the world cup, because the aim of the tournament is not about football, it's to make Qatar look good.
damn I’ve missed out there, I’m going and would happily get paid to not criticise it
Anyway they’re not going to achieve their aim, I reckon
They have been caught paying thousands of other fans to go, so it would be no surprise if there were others
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/qatar-world-cup-influencers_n_63614c55e4b039b01e1fcb45
They withdrew the daily allowance
Qatar is u turning more times than the Tory government
Few Indians have the money to cough up for tickets and flights to Qatar, even if it's fairly close. These are all expats that happen to be there. I'm sure they've been egged along by the organisers. Just seems too choreographed a week ahead of the world cup.
Huge stretch going from paying expenses of supporter clubs of countries qualified for the WC (to take part in official on ground fan events) to accusing resident South Asians of being fake paid fans just because their behaviour is 'strange' to people not acquainted with them.
Thinking back to the scenes at Wembley last year, not selling alcohol isn’t the worst idea in the world.
I remember they stopped selling alcohol near grounds at France '14 due to trouble
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36513700
But the bigger issue here is Qatar doing a last minute U-turn on what was promised to fans
What do people actually think is going to happen in Qatar? It’s already home to 70% expats and alcohol is very much legal there in daily life. There will no doubt be a little bit of trouble like any big event that will be dealt with and that will be that. The rest of the focus will be on the football pitch.
I’m flying tomorrow so I’ll let you know…
Perhaps not but changing the rules for some of the match going fans (the ones who didn't buy the really expensive tickets) a day before it starts is shitty.
Ive just read this and cannot stop laughing
FIFA president having an absolute meltdown.
To weigh in on the international team discussion and supporting another international team, here in Trinidad most, and likely close to all football fans, support an international team alongside our own, because we never really get anywhere. These are people who are as passionate about these teams as they are about the clubs that they support, because by and large it's a similar concept. You find a team that you like for whatever reason and you support them. It's probably hard for fans of the bigger countries or countries where their teams are actually present on the global stage but in countries where our teams have very little presence in international football its really not that unheard of.
I think there's more than enough people wanting/willing to go. Qatar"s issue is probably infrastructural around the potential of this happening/available size. It's a fecking tiny country - smaller than the Falklands and Vanuatu! - in the middle of the desert.
There's simply no way they could provide acceptable accomnadation/experience to descending crowds from around the world. This should have been the issue that meant any bid for them to host the WC was disregarded immediately.
I know. It was a huge joint, I'm now suffering from the mother of all stoneovers. Don't smoke and post, kids!
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It all sounds rather joyless (and that’s before I have to watch Gareth’s brave lions next week). Glad I skipped this one in favour of the RWC in France next year.
I mean it hasn’t started and nobody has turned up yet, what are you expecting at this stage of proceedings?
I don't think I've ever seen a more poorly organized and subdued World Cup. I was planning to go, had my World Cup tickets but flight ticket to Qatar and every single hotel has skyrocketed ridiculously high. Even hostels and airbnb owners are charging like 500 to 1000 euro a night. Fecking exploitation. 
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Mainly the lack of accommodation (I don’t want to sleep in a tent/pre-fab hut) and, if true, the story about needing a wristband to buy water in that temperature and humidity. The alcohol itself would be less of an issue in practice but the principle still feels wrong (if you are hosting a global event, you should be more accommodating to the norms of about 90% of the countries attending).
wrist-bands to buy drinks at events is pretty common nowadays, the report moaning about it seems a bit off given the thing hasn’t started yet - if there are no wrist bands once the games are on that would be weird
agree on the accomodation it’s a shit show, but I’m sure the atmosphere will be good once the fans show up
I doubt it will be hard to get a beer, you just can’t at the stadium
You mean the lads singing three lions to a totally different tune and signing “Gareth Southgate super coach boom, boom, boom!”?
It’s hard to tell to be honest…
Let me introduce you to a thing called ‘sportswashing’?
This whole thing is giving my Fyre Festival vibes so far