The Pearl-Qatar is Home to the Rich and Famous Here
The rich and the affluent in Doha sure know how to ‘flex’ to use the street lingo. The Pearl-Qatar in West Bay is the location for exotic homes and automobiles. This portion of reclaimed land off the Qatar peninsula is littered with awesome and mind-blowing architecturally crafted homes fit only for the rich and mighty. A 10 minutes drive through this district unveiled a mini modern European city! Apart from the many high-end apartment buildings, there are lots of luxury shops and restaurants for the quintessential with deep pockets. There are many parks where you can take a stroll without harassment of any sort. This island, which is the abode of high-income expatriates and wealthy Qataris, is better viewed from the sky to get the true picture of what is therein. This is where some of the ‘biggest’ visitors to Doha for the 2022 World Cup are quartered. Don’t ask me the cost of a night in any of the five-star hotels situated there. It is certainly not for the average fans who flew into Doha in the economy-class of any of the airlines.
FIFA’s New Approach to Time Wasting Paying off
As you may have noticed in this tournament, time wasting ploys by players have attracted longer added time to each of the halves. Well, in order to ensure that the regulation 90 minutes are played in full, FIFA has sort of devised ways of ensuring that nobody gets away with those familiar tricks anymore.
Famous Italian referee, Pierluigi Collina, who is Chairman of FIFA’s Referees Committee has confirmed that fourth officials have been instructed to keep track of time lost during the game during this tournament in Qatar. This is something FIFA had tried to do at the last World Cup in Russia four years ago.
Already, this novel innovation by FIFA has started producing results like never before.
According to Opta, the five single halves with the most stoppage time in a single World Cup match since records began in 1966 were all clocked on Monday and Tuesday. They include; England v Iran first half (13.59 minutes); Argentina v Saudi Arabia second half (13.53); England v Iran second half (13:05); and USA v Wales second half (10:32).
Any need to warn players on implications of falling down, feigning injury just to wind down the clock?
Herve Renard is the Toast in Qatar
To those not familiar with Saudi Arabia’s French Coach Herve Renard, the gaffer has paid his dues in the Beautiful Game. His victory over Argentina yesterday is only icing on his cake. He has been around for a while in the African continent and earned decent respect, coaching some of the countries to attain great heights. He previously led Zambia and the Cote d’Ivoire to Africa Cup of Nations glory in 2012 and 2015. At some point, there were talks of bringing him to take over from Stephen Keshi when Super Eagles were not giving the right vibes at AFCON 2013. But victories over Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso to land the trophy ended his talks with NFF supremo at the time.
After he stunned Lionel Messi and his albiceleste teammates with the 2-1 defeat yesterday, Renard warned his wards not to celebrate for too long yet. “All the stars in the sky were aligned for us, but don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team,” Renard warned his players who went on reveries shortly after the victory inside the magnificent Lusail Stadium. “This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen,” quipped the Frenchman in a manner of tongue-in-cheek.
Senegalese Cursing Bremen Player Who Injured Mane
These are not good moments for Senegalese here in Doha for the World Cup. The mood in camp has been worsened by the defeat suffered by the African champions in their first game against Holland on Monday. Almost every one of them believe the Teranga Lions are playing half of their strength because of the absence of their inspirational forward, Sadio Mane. The 30-year-old Bayern Munich star who switched to the German Bundesliga club from Liverpool last summer, is not here because of the injury he suffered in, perhaps, his last game before leaving for Doha in the clash with Werder Bremen. Now, Senegalese here are cursing the Bremen player who ‘killed’ off half of the Teranga Lions’ strength. A Senegalese top sports journalist friend of yours sincerely narrated the mood thus yesterday: “We knew that without (Sadio) Mane, our chances are slim here. See what happened in our match against The Netherlands. There was no cutting-edge finishing that Mane is known for. That Bremen player who did this to our team will rot in hell!” stressed the angry journo.
The former Liverpool forward was named African Player of the Year for his efforts and finished second behind Karim Benzema in the 2022 Ballon d’Or vote. He was also expected to retain his African award. All that is now hanging.
