Around 30% of the Stands Empty Near Game End
Foreign Media: "You Can Buy Spectators with Money, But Not Passionate Cheers"
On the 20th (local time), the opening match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup between Qatar and Ecuador was held at Al Khor Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar. Despite the start of the second half, as the home team Qatar was trailing 0-2, empty seats began to increase in the stands. Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] Suspicions have been raised that Qatar may have mobilized spectators after many attendees left the stadium before the end of the opening match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
On the 21st (Korean time), the US sports media outlet ESPN reported, "Many Qatari home spectators left the stadium after the first half of the opening match," adding, "Considering the score was 0-2 with a possibility of a comeback and the special nature of a World Cup opening match, this is unusual."
Qatar lost 0-2 to Ecuador in the Group A match of the Qatar World Cup opening game held at Al Bayt Stadium that day. This is the first time in the 92-year history of the World Cup that the host country has lost its first match. In particular, Qatar showed below-expectation performance, failing to record even a single shot on target.
Qatar conceded the first goal in the 16th minute of the first half and allowed an additional goal in the 31st minute. The stadium was packed with 60,000 spectators before kickoff, but empty seats began to appear at halftime. By the end of the match, about 30% of the seats were vacant.
Some interpret this as evidence that those who were not originally interested in football were mobilized as spectators. Especially, concerns had been raised even before the World Cup opening that Qatar's ability to mobilize spectators would be relatively weak, as only about 300,000 of Qatar's approximately 2.8 million population are Qatari nationals.
ESPN analyzed, "Qatar has only about 300,000 nationals, including elderly and infants, making it difficult to fill the 67,372-seat stadium with fans supporting the Qatar national football team. Most of the attendees were probably people with little interest in football."
ESPN also pointed out, "Qatar spent over $220 billion (about 296 trillion KRW) preparing for this tournament, which is more than twice the cost of hosting the previous eight World Cups combined," adding, "Qatar can buy spectators with money, but cannot buy passionate support."
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