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Saturday, November 14, 2009

A Test for England - and Qatar!

Also see: Qatar 2022 Bid on the website.

The football match between England and Brazil will be a test not just for England but for the tiny Gulf country of Qatar too.

It's the biggest match ever held here, and Qatar has no experience of England fans.

Journalists are here to cover the match, and are already impressed with the sporting infrastructure.

One wrote:

"This correspondent was left slack-jawed after being shown around one of its incredible sport development institutes earlier on Friday."

The country has also won praise for its sports academy.

From buying talent from abroad, Qatar has changed to recruiting the best talent, training and nurturing them, and returning them to their home country.

One thing Qatar can't do anything mcuh is the heat, at least outside the stadiums.

It's in the cool season, though unusually warm compared to previous years, yet Fabio has already joked that the best place to hold the match would be in an air-conditioned hotel.

There's also the reaction of the fans to consider when they realise they can only celebrate/commiserate the end of a match in expensive bars, where the price of a beer can sometimes approach ten pounds a pint!

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