With all expenses-paid trip, Qatar calls on upto 1,600 fans of the teams that qualified for this year’s World Cup to sing in the opening ceremony. These fans can stay for at least two weeks promoting positive social media content about the soccer tournament and the host nation. Fans from each of the 32 teams are needed for a five-minute, fan-themed section of the ceremony before Qatar plays Ecuador in the opening match on Nov. 20. They will perform a chant or song specific to each country, chosen by the organizers.
The program has excluded “persons with obvious political affiliation” and aims to recruit 30 to 50 supporters from each team who were able to show “their status as a purist fan,”The fans are being offered economy-class flights and use of apartments worth thousands of dollars to stay until at least Dec. 4, or for the entire tournament if they choose, plus a daily allowance of 250 Qatari riyals ($68). The opening ceremony project is an extension of a longer-term plan by World Cup organizers to choose “Fan Leaders” in each country who are asked to be social media influencers using the hashtag “IAMAFAN.” Those key fans are asked to “incorporate, where appropriate” content provided by Qatari organizers and support the World Cup “by ‘liking’ and re-sharing third party posts.”
In a statement, Qatari organizers said they had consulted with a “Fan Leader Network” of more than 450 people in 59 countries to help improve the World Cup for visitors.
Fans who wished to be picked for the trips to perform in the opening ceremony had to send a statement or image showing their love of soccer by an Oct. 10 deadline. They are being given tickets only to the opening match, during what was described to them as a “curated visit to Qatar” with no obligation to take part in other events such as a soccer tournament for fans.
