Inside a fan zone for migrant staff: ‘Our World Cup too, our stadium too’

ON THE big display screen erected on a platform on the observe nets of the Qatar Cricket Stadium, Senegal’s Kalidou Koulibaly scores off a free-kick to take his group to the last-16 of the soccer World Cup. Below the display screen, Samuel and his pals burst into an impromptu dance. They are quickly joined by the opposite Senegalese among the many 1,000-odd spectators, most of them on the grassless grassbank or scattered within the gallery and on the picket planks.

As the celebrations fade, Samuel clutches a rosary, praying the following 20 minutes go with out Ecuador equalising. When the ultimate whistle blows, Samuel attracts a cross within the air and shortly calls a buddy to rearrange for a celebration. “One of the happiest days in my life. I was a kid when Senegal last qualified for the pre-quarters (in 2002),” he says, beaming.

Welcome to Asian Town — and this particular Fan Zone for Qatar’s migrant staff, one of many two arrange within the nation, with the opposite in Al Khor about 70 km away.

Far from the dazzling skyscrapers of central Doha, that is the place the labour power converges to bury the day’s hardship and fill their lives with some pleasure. The disparity between the plusher Fan Zones, arrange for individuals who have flown in from all around the world, is clear.

Here, there are not any beer stalls — lest brawls erupt, a policeman says — no frisking, no McDonald’s retailers, no faces with welcome smiles, no ladies followers, and no t-shirts and shorts, solely flowing kurtas and pale shirts. At half-time, Nineteen Nineties Bollywood chartbusters set the temper, and a lady organises a quiz competitors with the winners receiving t-shirts and different merchandise.

“I don’t have a QID (Qatar Identification Card), I can’t apply for a Hayya (stadium entry permit) and buy a ticket because that will be expensive. We are barely making ends meet,” says Samuel, the tone of jubilation making a gift of to hopelessness.

He landed in Doha with goals of turning into a safety personnel. “Africans are in demand in this profession,” he says. But he ended up as a painter — and is a part of a 20-member group portray a 10-storey constructing close to the Old Airport, incomes round 1,200 Qatari Riyals (Rs 26,000 approx) a month. The cash is “just enough to sustain” although Samuel stays with 10 pals in a two-room condo on the outskirts of Asian Town.

Behind this Fan Zone is a medium-sized shopping center and some semi-rundown theatres that largely display screen Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali motion pictures. There are packed tea-stalls with “kadak chai” for a riyal and “samosa-kachori” for 2 riyals. Deep inside Asian Town, they declare you could even get low cost alcohol in black or home-made nation liquor, which was in “huge demand during the lockdown”. “It’s a different world from Doha,” says Samuel.

But then, not all those that collect listed below are soccer diehards. Many come to spend a night with pals, to soak within the second, to get a second-hand expertise of what the world that has descended in Qatar is experiencing. Says Riyas from Peshawar, who works at a building website for a month-to-month wage of 1,100 riyals, simply above the minimal wage of 1,000 riyals. “I don’t understand football. I don’t get time to watch any sport, not even cricket. But I stay near the Fan Zone so I thought I would just take a look. It has a festival kind of a feel, mela jaisa (like a fair),” he says.

Now, he’s ready for the day Pakistan qualifies. “When I heard about the World Cup, I thought Pakistan would be there. Then, a friend told me you need to qualify. One day, God willing, we will also qualify,” he says. The pleasure round reminds him of the cricket he used to play underneath streetlights again dwelling. “I haven’t been home in three years. They are happy I am here because I am sending money,” he says.

Everyone narrates the identical story — of money owed and wars, of joblessness and hopelessness again dwelling.

Baba Ali, a carpenter from Nepal, has been in Qatar for 30 years, and says he has seen the town being constructed from “mere sand and dust”. He says a number of of his pals and kinfolk have labored on stadium websites. And that’s the explanation he comes right here each day, though those that helped construct the stadiums and infrastructure are removed from the revelry rolling out throughout the nation. So shut, but so distant.

“Yeh hamara bhi stadium hain, yeh hamara bhi World Cup hain (This is our stadium too, this is our World Cup too),” says Ali.

On the way in which out of this Fan Zone, on the gate, there’s a FIFA message printed in Hindi. It reads: “Thanks for your contributions for delivering the best ever World Cup.”