Rahman Osman’s World Cup diary: inside Qatar’s £175 per-night tents with plastic sheeting and toilet hoses

The eyes of the World are currently fixed on Qatar and reportedly three million people have descended into the Middle East country as they host the first ever World Cup held in an Arab land. Qatar have sunk almost £200 billion into hosting the World Cup, constructing new stadius and digging up Doha to provide new train lines that have so far proved popular and useful to match going fans.

Hotels are overbooked and packed - right now you’d be lucky to find anything less than £150-a-night in and around the city. The organisers knew they were going to have issues with accommodation, so they came up with the solution containers/tents which are housing almost a million fans at the time of writing.

These games villages have been buzzing and creating an environment where new friendships are being built but also there have been some issues with the spacing and at times the air conditioning in the room. Some journalists have bargained with people and are using their apartments in a bid to cut costs but generally to find a place to stay has been quite difficult here.

What at all do you get from the games village and what is in the tents that everyone is talking about ?

Abdul Aziz is a Saudi fan,currently staying in one of the games villages. He revealed he has made some friends, but for the amount he’s paying he could get a one bedroom apartment back in Mecca where he comes from. He told 3 Added Minutes: “We met some nice people here and we have decided that we will go for games together but there is no hiding from the fact that it is quite expensive and the facilities are actually nothing.

“I literally can hear whatever the next person is doing in the other tent and if there is an issue I’m sure it can spread across easily. The wash rooms are all hurriedly made up and the toilets have hoses in them - (these are the facilities availiable) for almost $200. That is really hard but once we go out of here we get behind our teams and it’s all good.”

What has been advertised as a fan village to supporters across the world was a well designed, properly laid out space. In reality it’s just a plain island close to Lusail where plastic tents have been built up. Each tent has two single beds, one lamp, some electric plugs, a fan and just enough room to leave some bags.

There have been reports that some who have booked their rooms via the app and paid have had to also wait for up to six hours before being allocated rooms, when they had already been assured that their place was reserved for them.

If you step away from the controversies of the games villages, the people are friendly, the metros are full of people from all walks of life and even though the temperatures can get incredibly high, the football has been good and that just about makes up for all the accomodation trouble so far.

More English fans are expected to travel into Qatar if England makes it to the final stages of the World Cup, so it will be certainly worth having a look at the accommodation situation before jumping on the plane.