A lifetime’s dream in half a day: Goan fan in Qatar catches 4 WC matches in 11 hours

Times of India | 3 days ago | 25-11-2022 | 09:09 am

A lifetime’s dream in half a day: Goan fan in Qatar catches 4 WC matches in 11 hours

PANAJI: Most football fans dream of being at the Fifa World Cup—the crown in the jewel for football—at least once in their lifetime, as they congregate and celebrate the game once every four years. So, if you get there once, memories of watching a couple of games are enough to last forever. John Desa achieved his life’s goal in just one day, watching an incredible four games inside 11 hours. John said he would avoid official parking because of the rush and would park at a distance, walk and then move to the other stadium “Having been here for such a long time and knowing the places, roads, distance between venues where games are played and geography of the stadiums, I thought why not give this a shot,” John told TOI on Thursday. “It may or may not have happened, but I wanted to try. The attempt is now successful. I’m incredibly happy.” John, 57, is the sports secretary of the Indian Sports Centre in Qatar, an organisation that enjoys the patronage of the Embassy of India in Doha. Born in Goa, he has spent the last 37 years in the Gulf country. Wearing a T-shirt that had “Stadium Hopping Day” written in bold, John started his day with the goalless draw between Morocco and Croatia at Al Bayt stadium, then headed to Khalifa International Stadium for Japan’s shock win against former champions Germany, before moving to Al Thumama stadium where Spain hammered Costa Rica 7-0. His final outing for the day, which ended at midnight, was Belgium’s solitary goal win against Canada. “I avoided the official parking areas because if there was a rush, I would surely get stuck. I would park my car at a distance, walk and then move to the other stadium. It proved to be smooth in the end,” said John, who hails from Cortalim in South Goa. At every match, John got up from his seat around the 85th minute and then started walking towards the exits. He stood there till the 90th minute and then headed for the next game, foregoing added-on time. “I had done a recce, so I knew this was doable. The only fear was getting stuck in traffic. Only at Al Bayt stadium, I was forced to park my car at the official parking. When I returned (after the game), I lost time in finding my car, but fortunately made it for the next match before kick-off,” said John. Never in the modern history of the World Cup has the distance between the stadiums been so short. The distance between Doha and the farthest away stadium is 46km, while the closest is just 7km from the capital, making this the most compact World Cup edition ever. In previous editions, matches were played in different cities where fans would need to travel long distances, largely by flights, and were restricted to watching just one game per day. In Qatar, fans can base themselves in one hotel and be near all the different host stadiums without having to fly between cities or take overnight trips “For a football fanatic, this will be a very intensive and compact World Cup,” Fatma Al Nuaimi, executive director of communications, Qatar Supreme Committee had previously told TOI. “It’s never been like this where fans can watch two or even more matches a day. Our schedule has four matches (a day), so a lot of people can move from one venue to the other. Some stadiums are five minutes away and the longest distance is around an hour.” Nobody has capitalised on this better than John.

Google Follow Image