The Peninsula and the AFC

Exactly as nic has said, ticket refunds for the games are not enough, people spent money to fly here, paid for expensive hotel rooms, and you think they would be happy to have their money returned for the game tickets? It's not like there is anything else going on here for them to enjoy.

here is a vid from the debacle. &feature=player_embedded

Rienz said "To their credit Gulf Times did publish full page of fan complaints on 30 Jan, half page on 1st Feb & a quarter page on 2nd Feb 2011.

I am not saying that they did lots but given the general nature of this country's media, (which basically publishes only glorious reports and not the ugly side of things), it was a pretty decent thing to do on their part, especailly when none of the other newspapers bothered to even address the issue.

Tribune and Penninsula did absolutely nothing to address the issue, they did not even publish a single complaint ... shame on them"

Isn't there always a bigger picture at play? Agreed that negative information should not be suppressed but dealt with or managed. Negative information which is not properly managed can be very damaging and with long term effects.

Btw, total freedom is anarchy. The right balance, IMHO, is freedom with discernment, which is in itself a paradox.

Below is the correspondence between AFC & I:

*******************************************************

From: Rien

Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 13:05 AM

To: tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa

Subject: RE: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final

Dear Sir / Madam,

Thank you for your reply.

I appreciate AFC/QLOC joint apology to the fans and the offer to refund money.

However, kindly note that the gates were closed much earlier than 18.05.

My wife and sons reached the stadium at 17.15 and I reached the stadium at 17.45 by then tall barricades were already in place to stop fans from entering the stadium. Although I agree that the gates were closed due to "security reason" are partly correct, the real reason for security concern is due to the free entrance allowed to thousands of people to fill the stadium, thus resulting in thousands of paid fans being turned away.

So, the statement that gates are closed at 18.05 is incorrect.

Therefore, an amendment to your press release, to reflect the actual cause of "security concern" as well as accurate time of the gates closure, would be much apprecited.

Thanks & regards

Rien

-------------------------------------------------

From: AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011Tickets [mailto:Tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa]

Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 10:15 AM

To: Rien

Subject: RE: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final

Dear Asian Cup Spectator,

In continuation to joint AFC/QLOC Daily Media Briefing held on 30 January 2011 at Main Media Centre, the QLOC would like once again to offer our apology for the fans that were not able to enter the Final Match, despite the fact that they had valid ticketing in their hands, due to the security concern which led to the closing of gates at 18:05.

Once again, we apologize to these fans, and have decided in conjunction with the AFC to refund all ticket-holders who have been denied access to the venue due to Security Closure of Gates.

Please see the detailed process at tickets.afcasiancup.com for applying for refunds and – as always – please do not hesitate to contact the QLOC at tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa for any further inquiries you may have.

Kindly be informed that the submission of the Refund Application Form will be from the 3rd-28th of February 2011.

Regards,

The Ticketing Department

Local Organizing Committee

AFC Asian Cup - Qatar 2011 TM

E tickets/-a-t-/asiancup2011.com.qa

W www.afcasiancup.com

----------------------------------------------------

From: Rien

Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:53 AM

To: AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011Tickets

Subject: Refund Required due to not being allowed to enter Khalif Stadium for AFC Final

Dear Sir / Madam,

It is with disappointment I write to you about the shameful behavior and treatment I met with (along with at least 10000 other fans) at Khalifa Stadium, Doha-Qatar for yesterday’s Australia vs Japan AFC final match.

Despite having valid, four (4), tickets which I booked over two months ago, my family & I could not enter the stadium.

When we reached the stadium at 5.15pm, we were told by policemen that we cannot go in as the stadium is full.

We waited till 7.15pm to get into the stadium, only to disappointed and pushed away by baton wielding policemen … so we returned home extremely disappointed.

This is disgraceful and shameful treatment of fans by a reputed football association.

In view of the above I request AFC to kindly refund the money I paid for the tickets.

Please find attached copies of the tickets I purchased from AFC booth in Villagio Mall on 16 November 2011

Regards

Rien

To their credit Gulf Times did publish full page of fan complaints on 30 Jan, half page on 1st Feb & a quarter page on 2nd Feb 2011.

I am not saying that they did lots but given the general nature of this country's media, (which basically publishes only glorious reports and not the ugly side of things), it was a pretty decent thing to do on their part, especailly when none of the other newspapers bothered to even address the issue.

Tribune and Penninsula did absolutely nothing to address the issue, they did not even publish a single complaint ... shame on them.

This will be "breaking news" for a few days... publish a few articles and letters.... all the pretense of a free press.....and then back again to sleeping mode.... as always.

Will they refund hotel and air tickets to those who came to watch the game from overseas and were stopped by the Qatari organizers?

I lost 140QR because the muppets in the AFC ticket boothe couldn't print the right tickets.

there was one other person there at the time...who was getting irate because....they hadn't printed the correct tickets!!

Seems like the AFC wants to give refunds, I guess these loosers are getting scared that the story reaches more international media. Thanks to Al Jazeera, job well done and shame on Gulf, Peninsula etc. Waste of money.

Pilgram,

Before yesterdays’ news, are only published today?

2 days after the incident? Oh, that's right we're still in the GCC.

Thank you for the update anyway, I guess its better late than never.

I will go and have a look!

The Finals were in yesterdays paper Nic and the disaster the happened outside was reported today in The National. It was a pretty condemning article.

Pilgram,

by "event", I meant the "Finals" including what happened outside the stadium, not the "AFC" in general.

Anyone with any comments should go to Al Jazeera and post in comments section. The media already know the bad feeling on this but as ever and as seen in todays Gulf Times they dont investigate they just accept any load of rubbish that is given to them at a press conference and report this rather than do what their title is and actually do some journalism and ask some real questions.

I am hoping at leat Al Jazeera may be interested in doing some proper journalistic works as you can forget about any of the newspapers here.

http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/football/2011/01/2011130111938713306.html#

it is not my first time experiencing what happen yesterday in khalifa stadium. it has happened before; what i can say!!!!! iam so upset. Better for Qatar to not allow such nonsense from happening again in future for their reputation; offcourse if they care!!!!!????

Issuing Tickets is another story i ask for qatar vs china tickets i got ksa vs jpn ticket not refundable; it was not my mistake.. i bought three tickets different matches i couldn't reach them on time because of time and traffic although iam staying in Ain khalid.

Hopefully officialls will do something to correct...............

Until a newly media law is issued, local newspaper will remain self censoring. All newspapers are somehow state owned.

By now you've read the organizing committe press statement today , they welcome all criticism

Aljazeera role in the Arab revolt this month is a massive achievement for Qatar. I never wished that the world cup rights revoked from Qatar like today. I'm very proud of Qatar for allowing the voices of the Arab world while jeopardizing it's relationship with their governments

Frankly speaking, locals displayed very little concern about the cup. What happened yesterday is not even discussed by locals, despite being reported by arabic local newspaper

I wondered why there were so many Cats roaming the streets, but I never realised they were running the country. Wow.

as my friends said to me last night when dropping them off at the airport, "thanks for the hospitality, pity the country is run by c**ts"

They can buy anything and everything that come on their way.. so media is no exception.

The final game was a media hogwash. They started letting in busloads of ticketless workers who were brought in just to fill seats. I saw them marching in in double line all the way from behind Villagio. This was done just before 5pm. The organisers didn't want to risk empty seats (ppl with tickets might not turn up etc). Once the stadia was filled up, the gates were closed. Seth Blatter and the media clowns went home to tell everyone what a great turnout the game had.

Minoush....it's called scrubbing the internet article clean...money can work magic

so sad ... really...

its so sad that this is what happened in an Asian cup final match. people with tickets denied entry. a couple of fans who came from Australia were denied entry too..; can you imagine that???.... but yet again, we all live in Qatar, so no surprises there. I am an Australian, and i decided to watch the match on T.V which i enjoyed more than if i had taken my family there to experience such , because i know such does happen often here.... i just hope that FIFA is aware of this because i saw the FIFA president sitting there in the stadium....and hopefully someone will be held to blame.. i doubt that strongly though but please prove me wrong if you are in-charge and you are reading this!!! thanks...

No they covered the event. The AFC has been in every issue of the National and The Gulf News since it started. The National wrote a fantastic article about the South Korea v. Japan match.

Has anyone noticed the story from AP changed from this morning to now? I went back to the original story from my browser's history and compared it to the AP article published 2 hours ago. Very different article. The first one was very damaging compared to this one that said only 700 people were denied and everybody else was either ticketless or late. It was 5:30 and the gates were closed and there was at least 700 people with tickets only at the gate I was at...

Unbelievable....

Pilgram,

It’s not reported because neither The National nor The Gulf News bothered to cover the event!

I agree with you Nic...

I BELIEVE THE ARTICLE WAS ALREADY WRITTEN BY THE MEDIA COM TEAM OF AFC ORGANIZERS BEFORE THE FINALS FINISHED...

I was a good thing that people stayed calm last night even they were not allowed to enter until the match ended...

IMAGINE IF THERE WERE REALLY VIOLENT AND THEY PUSHED THE POLICE AND THE GATES JUST TO GET THROUGH.. WHAT A CATASTROPHE... :(

REALLY SAD....

It's not being reported here in the Emirates either, and I would have thought they'd be all over that given the general opinion about Qatar here.

Thanks to Gulf Times for publishing the same even not in full story/scenario. FYI, I stop buying The Peninsular for the last 4 years, not much news there and they offered less number of pages compared with other local newspaper. I support Qatar for 2022 WC but not by discriminating people.

There is no freedom of the press in Qatar - did you not know that already?

Juday,

When it comes to reporting local news, Qatar is almost like Las Vegas... what happens in Qatar stays in Qatar, money buys this status!

And you get jokes like this one published worldwide instead of the true facts:

"Qatar passes first test of World Cup credentials"

Not in the news... it is not surprising... they said that they will have press conference today...

this just to show that even the media is not being fair with the situation... and what other things they are capable of hiding...

Glecs,

What you witnessed is what Qatar is able to deliver.

After a few major events in Qatar, I have concluded quite a while ago, that I would never step in again in an event of this scale organized in this country.

They can't deliver and some how they mange to buy the Media to self-claim and report "huge success".

It was the same for the 2006 Asian Games. A huge chaos and always reported as a huge success!

This is a country operated by foreigners but led by inexperienced and incompetent locals. The results are what you witnessed yesterday. It has happened on and on and it will continue to happen. Attempt to go to any next big event and experience amazing guaranteed chaos again!

being one of the tousands of people locked outside, i am a witness of how poor they managed the spectators. riot police in complete battle gears are everywhere.., bomb-sniffing dogs are running and barking here and there.., cops in horses shooing people away like beggars.

IS THIS REALLY HOW THEY WILL HANDLE WORLD CUP 2022 ?

I guess that is the reason why I never have and will never buy the Peninsula Newspaper!

As mentioned by rms please do not expect anything more than this from the media in Qatar.

ontario, I think you are new to this part of the world.

isale, it was int Sports Illustrated also

I was also among thousands ( at least 8 to 10 thousands)who didn’t allowed o enter the stadium even everyone has tickets they said stadium is full. I wonder how???????

I think me all must complain Asian Football Confederation about the incident and ask for ticket refund or at least they should give pressure to Qatar Foot Ball Authorities.

please send Messages for the same on the following link to Asian Football Confederation.

http://www.the-afc.com/en/inside-afc/contact-afc

We all need to highlight the same to Asian Football Confederation that what had happen to Foot Fans in Qatar and ask for refund.

Read more: http://www.qatarliving.com/node/1593913#comment-1764366#ixzz1CVMYTs00

Nic, that was in Yahoo.

it was a pathetic article anyway Nic :p

Even Qatar Living is on denial, providing links for news related to Qatar like this one:

"Qatar passes first test of World Cup credentials"

What a joke!!!!

Was this article written before the Final?!

What I noticed yesterday was not only they denied entry to the ticket holder but misbahaviour to the people. ticket holders have every right to questions as they purchased ticket for entry. But security forces offensive behaviour striked many minds. I feel for those who come from abroad to see this final match.

its unacceptable.

Thanks Mandi, I saw the riot police with batons and horses. Perhaps the dogs came later, I left before it turned too ugly.

Couple pix of dogs being held by police have been published here.

Mandi

Me neither snessy, but that's because I wasn't there. I am only going off of what other people have posted here on QL.

I didn't see any dogs...

Mandilulur: The Local Newspapers here speak what Govt authorities have to convey their people. I have come accross so many such reports that are biased & even not true to an extend.

All you will see these newspapers printing is,,,boasting of Qatar!!

The Gulf Times reported on it... but forgot to mention riot police, dogs and horses.

GT has a story on the front page.

I surprised you are still surprised!

This is just the usual Qatar's organizational skills on display and the usual Qatari Media reporting what is convenient!

Today.. we are seeing all the compilation of AFC Disappointments! and we cant blame them!

conflict of interest?