Qatar WC | Fans and Atmosphere Watch

Any particular reason why?
Because their teams never qualify. Plus they are poor countries, I don't think some westerners realise how good they have it economically/politically which allows them to travel freely.
 
Are these locals dressed up?
Qatar has a huge Indian population, many of them from Indian state of Kerala, where there are are crazy football fans of every major team. If you have seen the pic with huge cutouts of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar on a river, that pic is from Kerala.
WC is one of the ridiculously followed tournament of Kerala. Brazil and Argentina fans would go for war over it
 
Qatar has a huge Indian population, many of them from Indian state of Kerala, where there are are crazy football fans of every major team. If you have seen the pic with huge cutouts of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar on a river, that pic is from Kerala.
WC is one of the ridiculously followed tournament of Kerala. Brazil and Argentina fans would go for war over it
Seems a bit set up to me mate, not buying it at all. No doubt Kerala people love football but this is obviously some kind of staged celebration to start the World Cup.
 
Qatar has a huge Indian population, many of them from Indian state of Kerala, where there are are crazy football fans of every major team. If you have seen the pic with huge cutouts of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar on a river, that pic is from Kerala.
WC is one of the ridiculously followed tournament of Kerala. Brazil and Argentina fans would go for war over it

Are you referring to Brazil and Argentina fans from Kerela ?
 
Paid actors, all of them. Paid to watch football.

Its truly bizarre. Why not have actual fans from countries with teams at the WC show up and film them instead of renting a battalion of south asians with no connection to any of the tournament's actual participant nations ?
 
Seems a bit set up to me mate, not buying it at all. No doubt Kerala people love football but this is obviously some kind of staged celebration to start the World Cup.
A bit setup maybe, but may not be totally fake. But that is not something new for big tournaments. There will be fan clubs encouraged to come out in numbers and paid for to make sure there is festivities all around.

What I mean is the guys on the road may not be a bunch of people who have no idea what football or WC is.
 
Its truly bizarre. Why not have actual fans from countries with teams at the WC show up and film them instead of renting a battalion of south asians with no connection to any of the tournament's actual participant nations ?
Your assumption that traditional WC nations have fans only in their countries is bizarre or naive. A south Asian German NT fans celebrating is as valid as Germans celebrating.
 
Your assumption that traditional WC nations have fans only in their countries is bizarre or naive. A south Asian German NT fans celebrating is as valid as Germans celebrating.

I suppose you could make that point at the club level, but it strikes me as a bit odd to make it at the national level, given that the purpose of the WC is for rival football nations to compete with one another with the support of fans from their respective nations.
 
Feels like a fan cosplay convention paid for the Qatari authorities. Plastic as pheck.
 
Reading some posts here you can see many in this thread have never travelled outside their own countries. Zero interest in other cultures.
 
Why can’t South Asians simply travel to wherever the WC is held ?
I cant believe people still ask this question. Europeans and Americans does not understand the severity to obtain a visa from 3rd world countries.
 
All kidding aside, people in here pretending that this is normal and not totally staged are taking the piss, right?
 
What the hell did I just watch? Even russia didn't go to these lengths of propaganda, I really worry for the Qatari state thinking they can spend their way to interfering with the world cup itself and the matches to try and manufacture a tournament that they think will be to influence football fans in perceiving it as the greatest word cup.
 
Your assumption that traditional WC nations have fans only in their countries is bizarre or naive. A south Asian German NT fans celebrating is as valid as Germans celebrating.
This is not club football. It is about nations. Those people you call fans are usually fans of a certain player and can support players country. We can all do that. Support someone for fun. It is normal. But supporting other country for real? I find it strange. Question woud be if their own country played against country they "support". Who would they actually support?
 
This is not club football. It is about nations. Those people you call fans are usually fans of a certain player and can support players country. We can all do that. Support someone for fun. It is normal. But supporting other country for real? I find it strange. Question woud be if their own country played against country they "support". Who would they actually support?
Jeez. Some of you lot are so convinced that there is only one way of being a football fan. While there are a hundred reasons you would follow a team and be passionate about it. I am curious to know what makes club football that unique to have overseas fans, but not national teams. Do you think the United fans in India were approached by marketing teams from Manchester for support. People became United supporters by watching United on TV. Reading about United history. Following their favorite players, and so many other reasons. Everyone has their own
 
Something I haven't considered yet, but with the tournament being in Qatar, will there be a babe watch thread :nervous: ?

Babe watch threads require babes, which isn’t likely in a place like Qatar.

I was wondering about this. If female fans showed up clad in the outfits they did at Brazil, for instance, would anything be done? Is there some kind of "dress code" for fans at the stadiums?
 
Is having your nation qualify a prerequisite of obtaining a tourist visa ?

Tourist visas for people from poorer countries are really hard to get. I hate the Qatar WC but it will be much better for Indians, Asians and Africans to attend. Europe, North America and weirdly South America are really hard for most of the world.
 
I was wondering about this. If female fans showed up clad in the outfits they did at Brazil, for instance, would anything be done? Is there some kind of "dress code" for fans at the stadiums?

Given all the talk of respecting Qatari customs, I wouldn’t think many visiting females from the west would wear bikini tops or the like.
 
Its truly bizarre. Why not have actual fans from countries with teams at the WC show up and film them instead of renting a battalion of south asians with no connection to any of the tournament's actual participant nations ?
They need to make this WC to look as good as possible considering how controversial it is. And propaganda is the only thing they know and are used to. The other problem might be, if they actively approach and film actual fans the fans will run back to their country due to fear of spies.
 
Events like these are a good time to travel on top of actually watching the matches. And yet they banned dating? what are they thinking? I know there is a stupidly huge amount of money to be made just by letting couples be couples at World Cup venues. Matching outfits, merchandise and the fact that two tickets cost more than just one. If you limit the amount of interactions they can do, they might as well not come.
 
I knew that us Indians were one day going to take over England in a reverse colonisation move. Didn't think I would get to see it my lifetime.

This is what you get for claiming vindaloo as your own!

:D
 
 
Jeez. Some of you lot are so convinced that there is only one way of being a football fan. While there are a hundred reasons you would follow a team and be passionate about it. I am curious to know what makes club football that unique to have overseas fans, but not national teams. Do you think the United fans in India were approached by marketing teams from Manchester for support. People became United supporters by watching United on TV. Reading about United history. Following their favorite players, and so many other reasons. Everyone has their own

Idk, but i think is kinda weird to be a fan for other NT that isn't yours.
To the point of organizing a musical parade, i can understand wearing the shirt of other NT for fun, cause i have done it....but organizing a parade with chants for other NT it's kinda too much for my taste.

I remember a chinese friend told me that one if the reasons (not the only one) Football is struggling to become popular in China, it's cause there aren't Chinese top players, and most chinese don't care about sports where there isn't any chinese between the top performers and they would feel weird watching a game with a full set of players that look completely different to them.
You can see that some top players have fans in China, but Football as a sports in China is still minuscule in popularity.

Anyways to each it's own, but I'm not a fan of organizing parades and doing chants for other NTs that aren't mine.

I think the situation with clubs is different, as clubs aren't a full set of national players anymore like in the 70s and 80s.
 
Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

Some real DDR-Truman Show stuff, Honecker would be proud:
When Helmut Schmidt (at the time german cancellor) came to visit east germany the Stasi faked a whole christmas market to the point that even Honecker thought it was real.
 
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I suppose you could make that point at the club level, but it strikes me as a bit odd to make it at the national level, given that the purpose of the WC is for rival football nations to compete with one another with the support of fans from their respective nations.

Yeah, i can get wearing a t-shirt from other NT, i have done it.
But organizing a parade and signing chants on the streets for other NT that aren't mine, it's too much for me.

Anyways, i think the fact that many southasians will never see their NT at the world cup have a lot to do with it probably.

I will still wait for the actual fans from Argentina,Germany,France,Brazil, Spain, England, etc to show up.
 
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Idk, but i think is kinda weird to be a fan for other NT that isn't yours.
To the point of organizing a musical parade, i can understand wearing the shirt of other NT for fun, cause i have done it....but organizing a parade with chants for other NT it's kinda too much for my taste.

I remember a chinese friend told me that one if the reasons (not the only one) Football is struggling to become popular in China, it's cause there aren't Chinese top players, and most chinese don't care about sports where there isn't any chinese between the top performers and they would feel weird watching a game with a full set of players that look completely different to them.
You can see that some top players have fans in China, but Football as a sports in China is still minuscule in popularity.

Anyways to each it's own, but I'm not a fan of organizing parades and doing chants for other NTs that aren't mine.

I think the situation with clubs is different, as clubs aren't a full set of national players anymore like in the 70s and 80s.
But many south Asian countries never had a chance to see their home nations compete on a big stage like the WC. Their only access to the outside footballing world was through radio and television. People literally grew up idolizing the big teams from Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Italy etc. People look up to the likes of Pele, Maradona as footballing gods.

Coming to the parades, you should know that south Asians are loud and pompous in any celebrations. When a political party wins even a small local seat, there are drums, fireworks, dance and parades. Celebrating with loud noise is quite natural. So there is no surprise if any fan clubs indulge in drums and shouting and dance.

And also Qatar is so accessible from South Asia. Flights are cheaper. Visas are so easy to get. Already so many fellow countrymen work there.
 
It's a different mindset in South Asia.

Football has never been on their doorstep but other sports have.

Just look at cricket. The English and Aussie players have huge followings over there and get a lot of support.

Football is loved there and you get shrines in some places of players like Messi and Beckham etc. These people will watch all games and just be vocal and enjoy an experience they are having for the first time that is accessible.
 
Qatar is also paying 50 Dutch fans to go there, though they also made them sign a contract that says they have to post positive messages about Qatar on their socials and have to report negative replies to them directly.