Why Are There Empty Seats In The Qatar World Cup?

The FIFA World Cup has officially begun and if you are not going to say it, then we will.

So far, it’s been fantastic. The football on display has been top-notch and we can’t wait to see if there will be more upsets like Saudi Arabia ending Argentina’s unbeaten run; or Japan stunning Germany.

There is however, a little concern that is slowly growing behind the absolutely wonderful scenes of competition. Fan turnouts have been rather poor in some of the games - a fact that is clearly seen by the consecutive chains of empty seats at various venues. This hasn’t stopped the stadium organisers from trying to inflate the official figures for each match.

Screenshots of live updates on the giant screens are comical to say the least. The opening game of the World Cup was announced as having 67,372 in attendance whereas the official capacity of Al Bayt Stadium is 60,000. And USA’s fixture against Wales was held in a 40,000-capacity Ahamd Bin Ali Stadium with an announced attendance of 43,418.

This has got us thinking. We know why they are changing the figures, but why are the fans not attending the matches as expected.

Here are a few reasons that we could find.