Julia Zonca
SENT TO DOHA
So young as to be defined almost entirely by a World Cup. Qatar has more or less 50 years of history, an anthem written in 1996 and today it is the center of the Arab world, the pride of a population that has often felt more judged than understood and now has the opportunity to host football , so adored and chased. The opportunity to be a point of reference.
From rebel state to center of gravity, looking at the rapid evolution, the 200 billion invested in the World Cup are already well spent: Doha has a first time in hand to discard and remember and days in which to become what it really wants to be . Before all.
Something similar had happened in 2010, with South Africa representing a continent, but in that case the country brought with it the strength of Mandela, the horror of an apartheid overthrown and still everything to be overcome, the desire to be something else and better, cities and stories declined over time. Here everything is fresh and intermittent like the lights that light up the West Bay, the commercial hub of a city with a vertical soul: scratching the sky isn’t enough, you really want to touch it by breaking through all the glass ceilings and prejudices related to latitude.
Having the World Cup at home was an obsession and the mistakes made to collect it at any cost remain, but they don’t tell the whole truth. They are a piece of a much more complex puzzle still to be put together, a section of the road that has already deviated considerably from the initial plans. Just think of the national team, born as an imported product and built on the computer even before the piloted assignment of 2010. Back then, 5 percent of footballers grew up in Qatar, today they are 90 and even if several were born elsewhere and arrived at a very young age , only three names of the rose have been naturalized as adults according to the scheme that the Gulf state planned to use and then preferred to abandon. Buying foreigners to insert and format into the Aspire Academy, the center of sporting excellence that has offered the best possible training since 2004, bore no identity and they are looking for this even if the ball is not exactly a local distinctive trait and certainly has not yet become one . The DNA of the future Qatar is the same in this group, largely made up of men who grew up and went to school here, people who also bring the difference necessary to be adults.
Difficult to trace the identikit of the almost three million people living in Qatar, only ten percent have citizenship and in these parts possessing it means being at least of the third generation, Qataris from their grandparents: an almost impossible path given the recent development. 90 percent of the people in circulation are immigrants, largely from places of Arab religion and culture, the same places where football is a way of life. So it’s easy to explain why the chaos starts when teams like Algeria and Tunisia arrive. People in the street, as if instead of welcoming, victory was being celebrated and scarves and banners with writings in a language that usually is not raised within states. And Palestinian colors to underline predictable claims.
Beyond the problems there is and remains the belonging that the 2022 World Cup unequivocally marks. It is accompanied by the almost childish desire to be seen and to be considered for this genuine pride, for the invitation to discover an existence beyond the limits. A culture that doesn’t want to be duped by what seems best simply because it works elsewhere. Qatar has accepted alcohol in some situations, at dedicated times and at this time it is trying to retract the concession. When thousands of fans arrived, they realized that a good number spend the day drinking and don’t want to manage them, and then there is still loyalty to a style and a creed that cannot be sacrificed in the name of the sponsor. Except Budweiser is bankrolling the show and still doesn’t know if it will be able to be in the stadium. A compromise is urgently needed even if, in this case, the respect of the host would be worth it.
The claim of a neutral gaze is impossible to satisfy, yet, however superficial it would be to get overwhelmed by good intentions without considering the unbearable criticalities, it is equally senseless to forget the intention to reveal oneself on a Qatar-sized football field. There is everything the Arab world is preparing to be.