Game-free day in Qatar. Respite, not only for the “best” FIFA President ever. Gianni Infantino attends every match of this World Cup. But now it’s finally time for Christmas. There is decoration and much more in a mall. Santa Claus is also hiding there.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino is not to be envied. He’s seen every game of “the best group stage ever”, stormed his column from Al Thumana in the south to Al Bayt in the far north, overruled all laws to support every team and honor the World Cup. A total of 48 games, he can’t see all of them. Unfortunately, the teams in a group play parallel games on the last match day. But he succeeds because he can.
The picture will be completely different in 2026 when the soccer World Cup returns to the Americas, spread over three countries and several climate zones. Mexico, the USA and Canada will then enhance FIFA’s good reputation and perhaps even be the scene of a comeback for the German national soccer team. As in Italy and Spain, a curse weighs on the DFB-Elf. After winning the title in 2014, she can no longer win a game in a knockout phase of a World Cup, if you look closely, she can’t even qualify for a knockout phase. The Italians, legendary winners of the 2006 Summer Fairy Tale, subsequently fail twice in the preliminary round and fail in qualifying for 2018 and 2022. Have they mapped out the German path?
The Spaniards, title holders in 2010, after a cracking preliminary round in 2014, still managed to make it into the round of 16 in the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. But there they are eliminated: in Russia against the hosts and in Qatar, if you will, too. Because Morocco is the team of hours at this Arab World Cup. They make you dream of the entire Arabian region, from Morocco in the extreme west to Qatar in the extreme east, plus Africa.
An African team has never been in the semi-finals of a World Cup and it would of course be a joke if a North African nation made it, which feels more like it belongs to an area that is not defined as a continent and with its football causes outrage not only among the losers. In his World Cup column, “Spiegel” author Felix Dachsel is also enraged by the success that has led football straight into a dead end, in which people “kick, run, fight and sacrifice” but no longer play football.
However, all the excitement is forgotten on the first day without a match at this World Cup. There are completely different issues. A storm is brewing in the north of the peninsula, and new horror reports of days of rain and blatant drops in temperature are being spread via Whatsapp. A tornado is actually raging near Al Bayt, but only dark clouds are hanging over Doha and the wind is blowing the sand a little harder than usual.
Which at least brings a little variety to the barren dreariness of Doha. It glitters little outside of the central points of the city center. Sand-dusty fire extinguishers watch over long-abandoned industrial complexes on the mighty roads that carry far too many cars in all directions. House skeletons fill the spaces between the streets. Abandoned buildings stand behind high walls alongside those that are already inhabited, with a view of one of the six-lane streets. Sometimes Qatari flags cover the roofs, sometimes the portrait of Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani adorns the walls.
The Emir can be seen eleven times on a building near the stadium of the Qatari first division team Al Sadd SC, which has the most World Cup participants after Bayern Munich, Manchester City and FC Barcelona. So it won’t be forgotten, just like Christmas. Because only a few kilometers further along Mesaimeer Road, which was taken over by a sandstorm and, like so many other streets here, is layered under different names as a half ring around the city center, the destination is on the first floor in the Dar Al Salam Mall of all dreams: Santa Claus playing cool jazz.
He dances like Achraf Hakimi after his penalty, but he’s not on the Education City Stadium square, but in the Dollar Store, which becomes a paradise for Christmas fans in the emirate every December. Sexy elf costumes, plastic Christmas trees, snow-white beards, Christmas baubles and bells are just the smallest part of the extensive range offered for sale here. A few years ago, a few conservative forces complained, but an agreement was reached. Not everyone living in Qatar is Muslim and Christmas is too nice a celebration not to celebrate anyway. Christmas in Qatar is not yet Halloween in Germany, but the festival is on the way.
In front of the Al Salam Mall, the dark clouds of the weather change are clearing. The sandstorm persists, a worker fights it on a side street and walks towards the skeletons of the houses. A green canteen is lying on the sand. The name “Hom Nath” is immortalized with Edding. Did he see all the games in the best group stage of all time?