Fifa World Cup: Western media has been very harsh on Qatar, says English fan

Ken and Michael have remained the best of friends despite being fans of two rival clubs in English football. While Ken has been a lifelong supporter of Manchester United, Michael follows Arsenal, one of United’s greatest rivals in the Premier League, with an undying passion.

“We normally go to different parts of the stadium for the United-Arsenal games,” Ken told this reporter as we met on our way to the Al Janoub Stadium for the Cameroon-Serbia World Cup game on Monday.

“We did go for one (United-Arsenal) game together. But we are respectful of each other when it comes to winning and losing in Arsenal-United games,” Ken said.

The two football-loving English friends have travelled from London to watch the World Cup in Qatar.

Michael has been hugely impressed with the way Qatar has organised the World Cup.

“I think they had the fortune of having a blank page to start with. And they have done this very well,” he said.

“The stadium locations and the transport system, they have connected it very well. It has enabled people to travel to the stadiums very easily.

“I think this tournament has worked extremely well. It’s been a unique event actually, based in one major city as opposed to all of the other World Cups.”

Ken admits that the negativity in the western media on the Qatar World Cup is really baffling.

“I think they have been misguided and wrong. Some of them are very harsh,” he said.

“The organisation of the tournament from the host country has been superb. So I think, yes, it’s very harsh (from the western media). The friendliness of the hosts has been very nice.”

“I have also met some Australians and Costa Ricans. I was sitting with Costa Rican fans even though I was rooting for Japan to make it difficult for the Germans, our old rivals. It was a great experience.”