Panaji: At the last FIFA World Cup in Russia, 19,352 tickets were given to Indians, making the country among the five participants who did not participate with the United States and China lead chart.
When the next edition of the World Cup starts in Qatar – a year from now – the figure is expected to increase significantly.
“Because of its proximity, Indian fans will be the main fan base that will travel to Qatar,” said the CEO of the World Cup organizing Committee Nasser Al-Kheater to TOI during online interactions with certain media on Saturday.
“We know, seeing numbers from 2010 (World Cup), 2014 and 2018, the number of Indian fans at the World Cup is increasing.
Add to it, and given closeness, we hope to see a large number of Indian fans coming to Qatar for the World Cup.” India was eliminated in the first stage of qualification for the World Cup when they were third behind host Qatar and Oman who were in second place.
However, it almost did not stop fans from planting plans to travel to the biggest sports spectacle on earth.
At this time next year, Doha is expected to welcome more than one million fans.
The challenge is to find accommodation because demand can be stretched in the Tiny Gulf state.
However, Al-Kheater, removes such fear.
“We have made sure there are many accommodations and something is available for all budgets,” he said.
“The Qatar state considers fans.
The main goal is to have a successful World Cup, and you can only have a successful world cup when you have fans.” Unlike most of the World Cup in the past, the next edition does not require flight between matches.
Then there is an attraction to attend more than one match per day during the group stage.
However, considering the request of high accommodation – both at hotels, desert tents or ships – many believe fans can choose to live in neighboring countries and travel for matches.
“We do not anticipate any fans who need to live in Qatar.
We believe that through the different modeling that we have done for the past few years, there will be enough accommodation for them.
We know that fans will want to travel to the area and explore other countries .
We welcome that, “CEO said.
The first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and the Arab world will start next year on November 21.