Qatar Restricts Entry to FIFA World Cup To Manage Inflow Of Traffic Ahead Of The Games
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Roshan Amiri
- . September 22, 2022
- . Update: September 23, 2022 4:48 pm
Qatar is not opening its doors to non-world cup ticket holders from November 01. It has made it clear that only citizens, residents and workers would be allowed to enter the viewing of the final FIFA tournament, preparation for which is now to begin.
The Qatar FIFA 2022 tournament is to begin in the next 100 days. Preparations are in full swing despite the human rights organisations and many conglomerates having pulled out their sponsorships from the World Cup.
The suspension of visits by people not attending Fifa World Cup matches will continue until December 23, five days after the showpiece final in Doha. Restrictions apply to all air, land and sea borders into Qatar.
Most ticket demand came from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Mexico, the UAE, England, Argentina, Brazil, Wales and Australia.
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Of the 520,532 tickets sold in the July 5 to August 16 sales window, the biggest number of allocated tickets were for group-stage matches.
They included Cameroon versus Brazil, Brazil v Serbia, Portugal v Uruguay, Costa Rica v Germany and Australia v Denmark.
Those exempt from the restrictions commencing from November include Qatari citizens, residents and GCC citizens holding a Qatari ID card, holders of work entry permits, personal visas and approved humanitarian cases.
According to FIFA, the governing body for world football, 2.45 million of the three million tickets have already been sold. According to the FIFA World Cup organisers, the event should spur $20 billion boost to Qatar’s economy, in an conservative estimated. Qatar has already altered the school schedules and closed borders to maintain the inflow of visitors and eager FIFA enthusiasts.
For the first time in the quadrennial tournament’s 92-year history, it will be staged in November and December instead of the mid-year months.
The FIFA World Cup Qatar is perhaps the world’s biggest sporting event, with the mega-tournament set to help raise Qatar’s global profile. as strong government support and growing commercial maturity are helping to raise the Gulf’s profile in the sporting world.
