Like so much else in Doha, the exterior of the Qatar National Museum is an architectural spectacle. Its contents might also be said to be finely engineered. They culminate in a homage to the ruling Al Thani family, some of it from themselves to themselves, all of it glossing over messy details.
It was this population that was thrust into the spotlight before the World Cup following reports that around 6500 of them had died in pitiless conditions while building the stadiums and other infrastructure for the tournament. Qatar demurred, saying the true figure was around 40, most of those not on building sites.
Traditional boats, known as dhows, against a backdrop of skyscrapers on the Doha corniche. The city has seen extraordinary growth in the last 20 years.One of the vast shopping malls around which life revolves in Doha is stylised as Venice, complete with canals and gondoliers. It is apt. Venice, too, was tiny yet hellbent on global domination and enrichment.
Previous major events lured here by the cash splash - including the 2011 Asian Cup and the 2019 athletics world championships - were also shunned. Qatar is not football-mad; it’s mad for the status that football brings. It’s not sports-mad, it’s mad for sportswashing.The stadiums are in themselves extraordinary works of art, but that does not change the fact that they are extravagances on a scale even the Olympics have abjured. They dot the flat landscape like latter-day pyramids.
FIFA got more than it bargained for in this dream World Cup . Like the International Olympic Committee, it usually assumes sovereignty of its latest host country. Qatar was having none of that. FIFA staff were marginalised in formalities, ambassadors were appointed but scarcely seen and never heard -The accidental deaths of two more migrant workers during the tournament were not announced until days later each time and accompanied by scant detail.
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