I went to the Football Final yesterday with my wife. We arrived about an hour before kick-off, and joined the 'queue' ... after 30 minutes and 20 metres the 'queue' became a crush (as others have described above).
Credit to individual policemen; they were trying to pull families (men with wives and/or kids) through the crowd and into the 'safe' zone, but it was extrememly difficult.
No credit to the crowd organizers; it is impossible to get 10,000 people through a 1.5m gap - yet nobody had foreseen this. I had friends (man, wife & 3-year-old) about 20 metres 'behind' us yet they weren't allowed in. Fortunately they didn't get trampled, hit by a nightstick or bitten.
During half-time I went to the toilet. Most people were queueing in a reasonably orderly manner. One local guy (late 20's) tried to push through as I was coming out. A (western) guy asked him if he wouldn't mind waiting - the Qatari just looked at him and pushed through, shoving the son backwards. The son (about 8 years old) said 'ouch', and the expat said to the Qatari "Hey - please don't push my son". The Qatari's comment was unfortunate; "Its not my problem, its my country".
The opening & closing ceremonies were reasonably well organized (in terms of crowd control), so what went wrong with the Football Final? Is it any coincidence that nearly all the Dagoc people including the volunteers were over at the Closing Ceremony, and the 'organisation' for the Footie was by 'the local team'?
I went to the Football Final yesterday with my wife. We arrived about an hour before kick-off, and joined the 'queue' ... after 30 minutes and 20 metres the 'queue' became a crush (as others have described above).
Credit to individual policemen; they were trying to pull families (men with wives and/or kids) through the crowd and into the 'safe' zone, but it was extrememly difficult.
No credit to the crowd organizers; it is impossible to get 10,000 people through a 1.5m gap - yet nobody had foreseen this. I had friends (man, wife & 3-year-old) about 20 metres 'behind' us yet they weren't allowed in. Fortunately they didn't get trampled, hit by a nightstick or bitten.
During half-time I went to the toilet. Most people were queueing in a reasonably orderly manner. One local guy (late 20's) tried to push through as I was coming out. A (western) guy asked him if he wouldn't mind waiting - the Qatari just looked at him and pushed through, shoving the son backwards. The son (about 8 years old) said 'ouch', and the expat said to the Qatari "Hey - please don't push my son". The Qatari's comment was unfortunate; "Its not my problem, its my country".
The opening & closing ceremonies were reasonably well organized (in terms of crowd control), so what went wrong with the Football Final? Is it any coincidence that nearly all the Dagoc people including the volunteers were over at the Closing Ceremony, and the 'organisation' for the Footie was by 'the local team'?