The Doha Diary: Gone flat in the desert for beer company

A generally nightmarish tournament for Budweiser hasn’t been helped by France’s march on to the final weekend

Wed, 14 Dec, 2022 - 07:05

Joe Callaghan

Fifa’s women’s gathering misses the hosts

Fifa were proudly trumpeting on Tuesday morning about a women’s football workshop that they held here during the quarter-final stage, bringing together representatives of each of its six confederations.

It was a chance to “discuss opportunities and challenges specific to the women’s game” they said. What wasn’t mentioned, however, was the absence of a pretty pertinent side — Qatar’s women’s team.

When Qatar put themselves forward to host this show 12 years ago they pledged that a successful bid would see “the promotion of women’s football”. However, in a country where women still must receive permission from male guardians to marry or to study abroad, there has been little progress on the field of play.

In fact the country’s women’s team haven’t played a game for eight years. The New York Times caught up with some of the players from that 2014 side last week and while they insisted the team still exists, they don’t know when things will pick up again. “We are waiting for the legacy of the World Cup to bring us up,” player Nessim Aziz Saleh said. “That’s our only hope.” We’ll wait and watch.

French players say hold the Bud

A generally nightmarish tournament for Budweiser hasn’t been helped by France’s march on to the final weekend.

The American beer giant was forced into a last-minute scramble when Qatar’s rulers nixed a plan 12 years in the making for beers to be sold at stadiums. Instead they have been left with fridges full of non-alcoholic Bud Zero, as underwhelming as it sounds, going unsold.

One of the few high-profile connections it retains on match days is its man-of-the-match awards but with France that too has run into trouble.

Golden boy Kylian Mbappé has a clause in his image rights that exempts him from promoting alcoholic drinks and having been voted man of the match three times here, turned the shiny red trophy all the way around so Budweiser’s logo wasn’t visible while also posing away from the Budwesier backdrops.

Olivier Giroud poured it on by doing the same on Saturday night when he was honoured for his decisive goal against England. It’s all gone very flat in the desert for Bud.

Ramos’s second time a charm for Morocco?

If Morocco are looking for omens on Wednesday night, they need only glance at the man in the middle. Mexican referee César Arturo Ramos takes charge of the second semi-final, the biggest assignment of his career to date. The 38-year-old only made it as far as the last 16 in Russia four years ago but takes charge of his fourth game in Qatar. This will be his second time officiating the Moroccans here having held the whistle for their 2-0 victory over Belgium which sparked this historic run.

Plenty of rooms at the inn for final stretch

Having kept you all abreast of the eye-watering prices of rooms here in a city where every second tower appears to be a hotel, we are proud that one of our predictions has come to pass: prices have come down significantly as teams disappeared.

While Morocco and Argentina make up two of the biggest fan groups in Qatar, their presence through to the final few days hasn’t led to a shortage of space. A double room for Sunday’s final day currently starts at €215 at La Villa Inn, which compares favourably with prices in Dublin on the same night. Small, belated, mercies.