Holy hell, this World Cup is going to be fun. At least to us enjoyers of crash content.
England and Iran were forced to play their opener in the Qatari World Cup with scores of empty seats, after hundreds of fans had their tickets disappear from the official FIFA tournament app, according to The Telegraph.
Gathering outside of the Khalifa stadium at the ticketing center, a large group of furious soccer supporters demanded their tickets from stressed stadium employees.
Both English and Iranian fans had issues with FIFA’s ticketing app, and Qatari locals reportedly said they experienced the same thing. Some supporters even put blame on Gianni Infantino — FIFA’s Chief Executive — chanting “Infantino out!”
When the game began, it was reportedly estimated that 80% of the stadium was full.
Here’s a visual look at the chaos:
This, according to a photo shared by a football supporters group, is the situation at the ticket help desk before England plays Iran. Kick off in 45 mins. pic.twitter.com/WHU24dFRTJ
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) November 21, 2022
Just after kick-off at Khalifa International Stadium. Plenty of empty seats @TeleFootball pic.twitter.com/G3aaG4phH2
— Mike McGrath (@mcgrathmike) November 21, 2022
Huge number of fans struggling to get into England’s game because FIFA ticket app has crashed. pic.twitter.com/lJDpBH3j3x
— Matt Lawton (@Lawton_Times) November 21, 2022
This is the situation outside the Khalifa right now pic.twitter.com/ygnwCR25Fo
— Matt Lawton (@Lawton_Times) November 21, 2022
Fans starting to ask if kick-off will be delayed. Apparently ‘some VIP’s affected too’. No news on VVIP gang. https://t.co/EbrEUrmrvf
— Matt Lawton (@Lawton_Times) November 21, 2022
For a sold-out game that’s due to kick off in 25 minutes, the Khalifa International Stadium is very far from full. Ticket chaos outside. #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/NXrlCeIRbO
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) November 21, 2022
At ground. App system is down. FIFA advising 3 options in order of resolution:
1) they will resolve soon
2) emails will be sent registered email
3) they will print ticketsFiasco. pic.twitter.com/682JViJCA6
— Duncan Saunders (@finbarr_in_z) November 21, 2022
To say that I saw this coming is an understatement: we all saw this coming. We saw it coming from the moment when corrupt FIFA sold the World Cup to Qatar, we saw the red flags when things were first started being set up for the tournament, like this gem:
We stayed in a World Cup fan camp in Qatar. pic.twitter.com/bO2qD2UHfu
— Emily Brooks (@emilyEBbrooks) November 20, 2022
We all knew it was going to be beautiful, chaotic crash content, and now we have FIFA getting involved. It’s funny, with how massive Qatar’s mishaps have been (remember the beer fiasco from just a few days ago?), you would think FIFA would want to have the mindset that everything needs to be perfect on their end to make up for Qatar — and then their ticketing app crashes, and the timing of this whole thing is so great from the perspective of a crash content fan. (RELATED: US National Soccer Team Changes Crest To LGBT Colors For World Cup In Qatar)
In the words of Uncle Phil: “Damn day one, Vivian. Damn day one.”
And we’ve got a whole month of this?
I’m game.