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
South Korea footballer Hwang Ui-jo faces four years in jail after pleading guilty in court to illegally filming sexual encounters.
The former Nottingham Forest striker asked the judge to show leniency after being charged with recording himself having sex with women without their consent, a trial transcript seen by AFP said on Oct 17.
Prosecutors asked the Seoul Central District Court for a four-year jail term for the 32-year-old when they made their closing arguments in the case this week.
Hwang, who now plays for Turkish club Alanyaspor, had initially claimed he was innocent before admitting to the offences in court.
“Though he now acknowledges the wrongdoing, he had denied the allegations leading up to the trial. We question whether Hwang is sincere in his reflections… for the irreparable damage inflicted upon the victims,” prosecutors said.
Hwang said in a prepared statement to the judge: “I offer my sincerest apologies to the victims who have suffered because of my wrongdoings. I sincerely plead for the utmost leniency.”
He said he would use the incident as a “mirror of reflection” to live diligently as an athlete.
Known as “molka” in Korean, spycam videos are typically made by men who secretly film women in toilets and elsewhere, although the term can also be applied to clandestine footage of consensual sex.
The scandal came to light when his sister-in-law posted private explicit videos of Hwang in an attempt to blackmail him in June 2023. She is now serving three years in prison for blackmail.
One of the victim’s attorneys, Lee Eun-eui, welcomed the prosecutors’ demand for a four-year prison sentence.
“It is at least comforting that the prosecution is seeking a four-year imprisonment,” she told reporters after the trial, noting her client had been “deeply battered” through the entire affair.
Hwang, who has scored 19 goals in 62 appearances for South Korea, has been suspended from the national team since November 2023 when the allegations were made. He is due to be sentenced on Dec 18.
Over in Spain, Real Madrid have, for the moment at least, given their support to star forward Kylian Mbappe since the Swedish media reported that he is being investigated for alleged rape during a visit to Stockholm.
The reigning European champions, who have not commented publicly on the reports, do not appear to be overly concerned over the reports about the player who joined in summer from Paris Saint-Germain.
An internal club source, who spoke to AFP on condition of their identity not being revealed, described the accusations as “the biggest fake in the history of sport”.
On Oct 15, Real were accused of deleting Mbappe from photos they published in a promotional campaign with their jersey manufacturer Adidas.
Real told journalists the reason was simply because Mbappe’s boot sponsor is Adidas’ bitter rivals Nike.
That explanation was questioned on social media though, with many people pointing out that several players in the photos are also under contract with Nike, like Mbappe’s French international teammate Eduardo Camavinga.
In the midst of the media storm – and on the day his lawyer spoke to AFP and other French media to insist her client was “shocked” to be linked to a rape investigation – Mbappe trained with his teammates in Madrid on Oct 15.
This time, the club had no hesitation in posting photos and videos of the Frenchman.
The 25-year-old Frenchman should be available for selection for their La Liga match against hosts Celta Vigo on Oct 19, as he is said to have recovered from discomfort in his left thigh that kept him out of France’s squad for Nations League games.
With a rare few free days on his hands, Mbappe chose to go to Stockholm with a group of friends, arriving on Oct 9 and departing on Oct 11. Reports in several Swedish media say they visited a restaurant and a nightclub. Once the group had left Sweden, a woman went to police to allege she was the victim of rape.
On Oct 14, after Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet became the first media outlet to reveal that a rape probe had been opened, Mbappe slammed the report as “fake news” on his social media and alleged there was a link between the accusations and his financial dispute with his former club PSG. A hearing into the case was held on Oct 15.
“It’s becoming so predictable, the day before the hearing as if by chance,” Mbappe said on X, formerly Twitter.
A Swedish prosecutor has only confirmed that an investigation has been opened, without naming Mbappe.
His lawyer Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard told AFP on Tuesday the 2018 World Cup winner was “at ease” because “he has done nothing wrong”.
She said Mbappe had “asked my office not to leave things as they are because it is impossible to allow yourself to be slandered and defamed in this way”.
“This is why we are going to file a complaint for libel.”
-AFP
Former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has been named the new head coach of the England national team, the country’s Football Association said in a statement on Wednesday.
The German, who is England’s third foreign manager, after Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello, will be assisted by Englishman Anthony Barry, the statement added.
“We are thrilled to have hired Thomas Tuchel, one of the best coaches in the world and Anthony Barry who is one of the best English coaches to support him,” FA CEO Mark Bullingham said.
Tuchel replaces Lee Carsley, England’s under-21 manager, who has been in temporary charge since the resignation of Gareth Southgate after England’s defeat by Spain in the Euro 2024 final in July.
-Reuters
German Thomas Tuchel has been appointed head coach of the England national team on Wednesday.
Born: Aug. 29, 1973 in Krumbach, Germany.
PLAYING CAREER
* Tuchel played for his local club TSV Krumbach, before moving to FC Augsburg’s academy at the age of 15.
* He never played for Augsburg’s senior side and joined German second division team Stuttgarter Kickers in 1992.
* After eight league appearances for Kickers, Tuchel moved to fourth-tier SSV Ulm.
* Tuchel made 69 league appearances for Ulm as a central defender before he was forced to retire in 1998 at the age of 25 due to a knee injury.
COACHING CAREER
* Tuchel began his coaching career with a youth team role at VfB Stuttgart in 2000, working with future Germany internationals Mario Gomez and Holger Badstuber.
* He returned to Augsburg and took charge of their reserve team for the 2007-08 season.
* Tuchel was appointed Mainz 05 manager in 2009, replacing compatriot Juergen Klopp.
* He guided Mainz to Bundesliga stability during his five-year stint at the club, gaining plaudits for his team’s high energy, attacking style of play.
* Tuchel took over from Klopp as Borussia Dortmund coach in 2015.
* He led Dortmund to a 2-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2017 German Cup final. He was sacked by Dortmund three days later.
* Tuchel joined Paris St Germain in 2018 on a two-year contract, replacing Unai Emery.
* He won two Ligue 1 titles, including a domestic quadruple in his second season, and guided the club to their first Champions League final, where they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich.
* Tuchel was sacked by PSG on Christmas Eve in 2020, despite the club finishing top of their Champions League group and sitting third in the Ligue 1 table.
* He was named Chelsea manager in January 2021 on an initial 18-month contract following the dismissal of Frank Lampard.
* Tuchel revived the team’s Premier League season and guided the London club to the Champions League final, where they beat Manchester City. Chelsea also won the Super Cup and Club World Cup.
* Chelsea sacked Tuchel in September 2022 following a shock 1-0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb in their opening Champions League group game.
* Bayern Munich appointed Tuchel to succeed Julian Nagelsmann in March last year.
* Bayern decided to let Tuchel go at the end of the 2023-24 season despite a contract until 2025. Tuchel steered Bayern to the Bundesliga title in 2022-23, but they finished the last campaign without any silverware for the first time in more than a decade.
* Tuchel will become England’s third foreign manager after Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello.
* Tuchel will take over the team in January ahead of the qualification campaign for the 2026 World Cup.
-Reuters
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