As thousands of soccer fans streamed out of the stadium where the World Cup final would be played in Qatar, a harried supervisor yelled, “Stop! Can’t you see the metro station is full? Stop!” Green-vested marshals linked arms to keep the crowd in check.
After a virtually full game on Friday night that tested the small Gulf state’s capacity for the tournament, which begins on Nov. 20, over 78,000 spectators had been leaving the stadium for hours.
One dad clutching a sweaty toddler pleaded, ‘Let us through! We have children.’ From behind the line, a lady said, ‘We need water. Is there water?’
There wasn’t any.
By halftime, there was no more water available inside the stadium and none outdoors, where the late summer temperature of 34 Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) seemed much hotter due to the humidity.
The new Lusail stadium received this sizeable audience for the first time on Friday for the Lusail Super Cup match. It is the largest of Qatar’s eight World Cup stadiums with 80,000 seats, and it is a showcase covered in gold that will host the championship game on December 18.
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