International Football
Qatar market braces for World Cup boom
Boxloads of wooden camels, plates with pictures of Qatar’s skyscrapers, gold necklaces, football hats and scarves arrive every day in Doha’s Souq Waqif market, where traders eagerly await World Cup fans.
The narrow alleys of the century-old market will be a magnet for the one million football followers expected at the tournament, which kicks off on Nov 20.
“There will be huge crowds, we have never experienced anything like this,” said Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al-Nama, head of the souq stables that organises camel and pony rides. “Inshallah (God willing), we are ready.”
Crowds are already growing as a World Cup buzz mounts.
Fan zone attractions and temporary stores are being set up around Nama’s camel enclosure and the hundreds of small stores selling incense, spices, carpets, gold and even falcons and other birds and animals. Press reports said stores will be allowed to open 24 hours a day during the World Cup.
When Souq Waqif opened in the early 20th century, traders stood at the entrance shouting at passers-by to buy their goods. Its name means the “Standing Market”.
Devastated by a major fire in 2003, most of it has been rebuilt with arched pedestrian alleys, as part of a project to regenerate central Doha.
Foreign fans “will have a lot of fun”, said Yasmine Ghanem, a 28-year-old member of Qatar’s national women’s golf team, who was sat in a Souq Waqif cafe drinking coffee and eating pancakes.
“It will be a great mixture of Arab culture and football,” she added.
Every evening, terraces are now filled with people drinking coffee and puffing on shisha tobacco pipes – it is a zone with no alcohol.
But traders, who have long been preparing for the World Cup, are expecting more. Nama cites the camels kept in an enclosure on a square as one attraction.
“I think that many tourists will want to see the camels and take pictures with them, because they are not found in Europe and East Asia,” he said.
Souvenir stores have packed their shelves. At his small store selling gold necklaces, Saleh Mohammed is looking for a motorbike rider who can deliver to hotels.
Dominated by the spiralling minaret of the Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Centre, the Al Rawnaq company has for decades concentrated on textiles, cheap clothes and toys.
Now the aisles are filled with scarves, flags and hats emblazoned with the names of the 32 competing nations – especially hosts Qatar.
In one corner, one worker makes flags, some up to 10 metres long.
Tens of billions of dollars have been spent on a new metro and infrastructure that has given the city a dramatic makeover. Outside Doha, many new resorts have been built.
Qatar wants to use the World Cup to bolster a campaign to increase visitor numbers from 1.5 million a year to six million by 2030.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said his company is investing “hundreds of millions of dollars” on new infrastructure and promoting tourism.
“Qatar can certainly use this opportunity to position itself as a family friendly destination,” said Kamilla Swart-Arries, associate professor in sport and tourism at Hamad bin Khalifa University.
“The World Cup will just amplify and maximise the changing perception that people may currently have about Doha and Qatar.”
At the World Cup countdown clock on seafront Corniche road, Bangladeshis, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis, Kenyans and Ugandans from Qatar’s huge migrant community flock to take selfies next to the modernist structure.
“I am a fan of Lionel Messi and I have a ticket to see Argentina play Saudi Arabia,” said Anwar Sadath, 56, an Indian accountant.
“It will be a memorable event.”
– AFP
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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