Qatar Seeks "Paid Audience" for World Cup, Gets Free Hotel and Match Tickets
- The organizers of the 2022 World Cup open to recruiting "paid spectators" as cheerleaders for the contestant and host country Qatar itself.
Supporters who join will receive free hotel rooms, match tickets and daily allowances, AFP news agency reported on Saturday (11/5/2022).
For their duties, these supporters must enliven the opening ceremony and post positive comments on social media about Qatar as the host country of this quadrennial event.
Organizers, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, confirmed that Qatar was looking for supporters from the 32 World Cup contesting nations, but denied they were being paid for coordinated promotion.
Qatar approached hundreds of football bloggers, influencers and fan community leaders who offered them as Fan Leaders.
Other sporting events have used the same system.
"We choked when we read the document," said Fabien Bonnel, a spokesman for the French Irresistibles, the group of supporters contacted in 2021.
"They want us to promote them by becoming French fans influencers and selling this World Cup in Qatar."
Other groups of supporters also expressed a similar rejection.
"One thing is for sure, many are against it," said Ronan Evain of the Football Supporters Europe network. "(The proposal) is far from true fan culture".
However, the organizing committee claims that more than 450 supporters from 59 countries have registered.
Organizers insist that joining the Fan Leader Network is voluntary and unpaid.
Each fan leader will choose 30-50 people from each contestant country to be invited to the opening match on November 20, 2022.
They will be flown to Qatar and shared with each other, organizers said. They will also get 68 US dollars (Rp 1 million) every day with a preloaded Visa card.
"They will stay for ten days, with free tickets to their three national team group stage matches", said Herve Mougin, president of the French Irresistibles.
During that time, the audience is expected to popularize the 2022 World Cup on social media following Qatar's guidelines.
"Your opinion is your own responsibility. We are not asking you to be a mouthpiece for Qatar, but it is clearly inappropriate for you to belittle Qatar, the Supreme Committee for Shipping and Legacy... or the FIFA World Cup Qatar," the organizers document said.
"You agree to report any offensive, degrading or abusive comments to SC (Supreme Committee), and if possible take screenshots of those comments and then delete them immediately".
A European supporter belonging to the supporters' group said: "They (Qatar) are buying the supporters. This is their plan. We have exceeded the limit. This is ridiculous. This is not the image of the supporters we want to represent. Money is not everything."