I had been planning my trip to Qatar for quite a while leading up to the first winter World Cup in Qatar in November/December 2022. I was living in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia at the time and me and my friend Omar decided that we would make the short trip, go to a few games and overload on goals and great memories. We began buying our tickets for some of the games a few months beforehand, some were available on the official FIFA website, but others were sold secondhand on other website and cost a bit more.

There were a couple of pre-departure things to do before we could even think about trying to get to Qatar.

Qatar is a small country, the smallest country to have ever hosted a World Cup, so it was advised not to go during that time unless you had tickets to some of the games. In order to gain entry into Qatar, I needed to apply for a hayya pass, this would guarantee my smooth entry into Doha, it was just a pass to prove that I already had tickets and accommodation in advance and most of the games took place in Doha or the surrounding areas.

Then the accommodation needed to be arranged in advance linked to the hayya pass, we stayed at the FIFA fan village and it included a lot of entertainment options, for example, entry into the fan zone where there were numerous DJs, fun games and other recreational areas around the facility, amazing selection of food and coffee and a massive screen showing the other games. There was alcohol available, but only in a designated area and it was impossible to leave that area with alcohol. The laws are quite strict in Qatar when it comes to alcohol.

The games- I went to two group matches- match #1 Germany Vs Costa Rica at Al Bayt Stadium, the game finished 4-1 to Germany, but Germany didn’t progress out of the group because they had lost the previous game 2-1 to Japan.

Match #2- Portugal Vs South Korea at Education City Stadium and seeing Cristiano Ronaldo play for the first time- the game finished 2-1 to South Korea and they scored in the last few minutes. They finished second in the group behind Portugal who had already topped the group beforehand regardless of what the score would have finished.

Overall, Qatar did a great job organizing the event and welcoming thousands and thousands of fans into the country and everything was set up so well, new stadiums and even a new metro system and travel by metro and bus were free, presuming that you had already applied for a hayya card beforehand. The buzz around Doha was amazing and the fan festivals were insanely well organized, all the pre-match entertainment added that extra bit more and overall it was great to see Argentina and Messi lift the trophy

We left Qatar with memories for life and to be part of the first Middle Eastern World Cup was great.