Despite losing to Ecuador 2-0 at the opening of the FIFA World Cup, Qatar’s official newspapers celebrated the global event and the historic achievement and overcame the painful loss by focusing on the opening ceremony.
Qatari newspapers enthusiastically covered the huge opening ceremony that took place, Sunday, at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, about 50 km north of the capital, Doha. Its design was inspired by the traditional tent inhabited by the Bedouin people.
The tent known as “House of Poetry” symbolizes the hospitality and generosity enjoyed by the people of the desert, as it is intended to receive guests.
In an interview with Al-Hurra channel, Kuwaiti sports historian Hussein Al-Balushi considered that the opening ceremonies of major sports tournaments are a “moral issue”, through which the host countries are keen to highlight their history and civilization and deliver messages in them.
Messages of love and peace
The opening ceremony was launched with Quranic verses on rapprochement between peoples and witnessed a dialogue between the famous American actor, Morgan Freeman, and the young Qatari, Ghanem Al-Moftah, who was born with a rare disease that prevented the growth of the lower part of his body.
“We are gathered here as one big tribe and the land is the tent in which we all live,” Freeman said.
While many believe that the paragraphs of the ceremony are “dazzling” despite their simplicity and carry messages with deep meaning, others also believe that it is a “normal” ceremony, given the huge financial capabilities of the Gulf emirate.
“A simple, yet distinctive party,” said Mohamed El-Gazzar, an Egyptian sports journalist who has been living in Doha for more than a decade. He believes that Qatar has been keen to deliver messages of “love and peace” to the whole world.
“The ceremony is simple in its duration, but it carries many meanings and messages by linking the past to the present and highlighting the Arabs and putting it in a beautiful image,” Al-Jazzar told Al-Hurra.
The opening ceremony lasted 30 minutes and included a program consisting of seven performances by international artists, blending Qatari traditions and global culture, while the 32 participating teams, the previous host countries of the World Cup and the tournament’s volunteers were celebrated.
There were hundreds of instrumentalists at the party, including drummers, dancers, singers, and even camels.
Among the artists, the Korean K-pop star, Jungkook, as well as the famous Qatari singer, Fahd Al-Kubaisi, who sang the song “Dreamers”.
For his part, Al-Balushi believes that the opening ceremony of the Qatar World Cup is “wonderful and enjoyable,” pointing to the diversity of paragraphs and exhibition boards and the use of visual effects and modern technology, and this is an opinion that Al-Jazzar also agrees with.
He added, “Qatar tried to convey messages through the ceremony that Arabs and Muslims carry a culture of tolerance without there being differences between religions, races and races.”
He praised the participation of the young man, Al-Muftah, in the ceremony, describing that initiative as a “deep human gesture” that moved feelings.
Ghanim Al-Moftah started the opening ceremony by reciting the Qur’anic verse: “O people, we created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honorable of you with God is the most pious of you.
Al-Jazzar said that if the opening had nothing but the recitation of Quranic verses, that would suffice him because the verse carries a message that means a lot, as he put it.
Criticism and ignore
Emirati political analyst, Muhammad Taqi, has a different opinion. Taqi told Al-Hurra that the ceremony was “normal, not impressive, and did not rise to the level of the event compared to the opening ceremonies of previous World Cups.”
He continued, “I expected the ceremony to be more impressive and to be exceptional, compared to the financial capabilities that Qatar possesses and put for this file.”
In response to whether his opinion was politically motivated, Taqi said that his assessment stems from monitoring the opening ceremonies of previous World Cups and cannot be framed in a political context.
And he added, “I watched the opening ceremonies of the World Cup for decades, and many of them were technically better than the Qatar ceremony, especially in terms of dances, songs and performances.”
He pointed out that the World Cup Russia 2018 ceremony is “much better,” he said, especially since Qatar has an advantage that no country has ever had before, which is holding the party at night, which allows the use of “more dazzling” tools through visual technologies, laser shows, fireworks, etc. till then.
Qatar had asked to advance the start of the World Cup for one day, to begin with the opening ceremony, and then the Qatari national team’s match with its Ecuadorian counterpart, a request that was approved by FIFA, which allowed a night party to open the World Cup before the first match.
Taqi also asked about the secret of the absence of old Qatari football players, such as Mansour Moftah and Mubarak Mustafa, from the most important football event in the country.
He pointed out that Qatar focused on responding to the criticism it was subjected to by the Western media at this ceremony, and this was evidenced by the failure of some Western television channels to broadcast the event, in addition to the absence of Western political leaders, which he described as “strange”.
The BBC ignored the opening ceremony in its coverage, as the British channel began its coverage by focusing on issues such as Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers and the fact that homosexuality is illegal in the country. Corruption in the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) was also discussed.
According to Jim Watterson of The Guardian, the Qatar World Cup is “a political fraud and corruption that has brought the world’s best footballers to Doha during the middle of the European winter”.
However, Al-Jazzar responds, saying that the ceremony “has nothing to do with criticism and does not carry retaliatory messages or highlight that Qatar is upset with anyone. Rather, its focus was on organizing a high-level tournament to confirm the Arabs’ ability to host this great event.”
He said, “Qatar welcomes criticism and has tried to fix any errors that exist, because its ambition is to organize an exceptional version of the World Cup.”
Al-Balooshi agrees with Al-Jazzar, saying that “the message from the ceremony was wise and moved away from disputes and conflicts, and even from what (former FIFA President Joseph) Blatter raised.”