RAS ABU FONTAS, Qatar — The first thing that strikes you about the Rawdat Al Jahhaniya Fan Village, a 30-minute drive outside central Doha, is the lack of shade. Just after 1 p.m. here, fans are watching Switzerland vs. Cameroon on the big screen, but the bean bags and chairs in the fan zone area are completely empty. Some fans have found a shaded area next to a giant football, but as the sun beats down, the rest are watching from the on-site Starbucks, choosing to buy a latte just so they’re able to sit under a small parasol on each table.
There are four official fan villages in and around Doha, all of them built specifically to host the thousands of fans travelling from around the globe to watch World Cup games at Qatar 2022. Fans can stay in a Bedouin tent at Al Khor, the cheapest option at around $170 a night, and there are three cabin villages, at Zafaran, Free Zone and Rawdat Al Jahhaniya.
At Al Khor, the facilities are basic, with communal washing areas and extra charges for Wi-Fi, but the cabin villages — there are 1,500 on site, with room for up to 3,000 visitors per day — at least offer showering facilities in each cabin, at a starting price of $207 a night. But they’re not really cabins. They are steel containers converted into two-bed sleeping rooms; if you can envisage the shipping containers stacked high at a busy port, that’s what they look and feel like.
It’s also why they have been nicknamed “Portacabin Cities” by those staying there. In the midday Qatar heat, the metal walls are scorching to touch.
