One of the benefits of living in Qatar is the ease of witnessing memorable events & seeing memorable people.The PGA European Tour of golf, international tennis (including the Williams sisters & later Nadal, Federer, & Roddick), the three Irish Tenors, & on it goes.Not only is it great to be able to do these things but everything is also relatively inexpensive (if not free).Last night (Wednesday) we watched AC Milan play the Al Sadd team (one of the top in the Qatar League & also a team with seven of the national players).
There are many theories as to why the match took place at all.One is that it is good for soccer in Qatar & may be a herald to their bid to host the world cup here someday (2018 or 2022).Another is that AC Milan badly needed some extra cash.Ostensibly the game was also in honour of national soccer hero Jafal Rashed (Al-Kuwari) who is retiring as captain of Al Sadd after 27 years of association with the same team.Number 2 was also a member of the Qatar national team.
The star of the show, however, had to be David Beckham.Some other “greats” (notably Ronaldinho & Kaka) were present but not fit to play.But the opportunity to watch a game that included the likes of Pato, Matteo, Maldini (captain), Shevchenko, & others, was quite something.The Al Sadd stadium holds 15,000 & was not full but certainly the East Stand (cheap seats at 250 QR or around $85 CAN) was packed & most of the West Stand once they let people in.The North Stand held the usual sprinkling of dignitaries & VVIPs on their plush thrones, along with the Italian Ambassador & his retinue.We were lucky to get tickets from one of Pat’s students, whose uncle was a principal organizer of the whole event.
