There are so many reasons to avoid attending the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which officially starts on Sunday. There’s Qatar’s terrible human rights record, discriminatory laws, state-sponsored surveillance and the bribery scandal that brought the tournament to the tiny nation in the first place.
But from purely a fan-experience standpoint, thousands of fans are going to arrive in a country that is totally unprepared to host them.
In the lead-up to the World Cup, the organizing committee presented fans with alternative options to staying at hotels (because there were not enough hotel rooms). Those options included fan villages that were advertised as luxurious desert getaways when in reality they’re a series of storage-container cabin and tent cities located off highways and near airports. At the Fan Village Al Khor, a tent starts at around $424 per night, and the renderings looked pretty nice!
The reality, however, painted a far different picture.
Fans rooms in Qatar 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/tKpg5Z9SMl
— World Cup Updates (@wc22updates) November 15, 2022
A video hit social media on Tuesday, showing a World Cup tent village that consisted of hundreds of tents with nothing but a couple beds and a nightstand in them. The barren accommodations aside, the tents were hardly holding up to the strong Qatari winds, and the sounds of helicopter/jet noise didn’t exactly make for a tranquil retreat.
Visitors will be arriving at these villages in the coming days, but that video was enough to have fans making Fyre Fest comparisons.
This was how Twitter reacted
This WC is going to be Fyre 🔥 https://t.co/NzTeHHKQGc
— American Hooligans 🇺🇸⚽️ (@AmericanHoolis) November 15, 2022
Expecting Ja Rule to pop out of one of those tents at any moment. https://t.co/xmilv5eADE
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) November 15, 2022
Did these guys organize the World Cup this year? https://t.co/dLvx09Oeni pic.twitter.com/cSxKO3j4DR
— ಠ_ಠ (@MattMattMatt_23) November 15, 2022
World Cup gonna be fyre https://t.co/gTCSdlEc3F
— YankeeGunner (@YankeeGunner) November 15, 2022
Fyre festival of World Cups https://t.co/AHL2qsYopc
— Miggy (@Mi66yStardust) November 15, 2022
Don’t want to worry you, but this guy is in charge of the water supply https://t.co/kSY9L7hMu4 pic.twitter.com/gAORNMHsWE
— Michael Scanlan (@ScanlanWithAnA) November 15, 2022
“Whatsgood y’all welcom to the World Cup in Qatar!” https://t.co/jIHuMpoPdY pic.twitter.com/Etbcs74sL3
— 🇨🇩 (@2020Gwoww) November 15, 2022
Fyre Festival 2, brought to you by FIFA https://t.co/hqTg2k0AMX
— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) November 15, 2022
I am sincerely asking you if the World Cup is actually Fyre Festival Part 2 and no one told me. https://t.co/lQewpZeSIl
— Sully (@sullymygoodname) November 15, 2022
If you're going to the Qatar World Cup the *least* you deserve is the Fyre Festival experience https://t.co/WJeg1a4oSv
— Euan Yours (@EuanYours) November 15, 2022
FIFA World Cup (Fyre Fest edition) https://t.co/RbXAfKz6wJ
— Edgar Garibay 🛡️🏆 (@edgurr) November 15, 2022
Qatar gonna be the Fyre Festival of World Cups https://t.co/UGfuYBimQc
— Kurt Rosenfeld (@Krosenfeld49) November 15, 2022
Stay away from this World Cup.
