A free trip to the World Cup – for a select few, that dream is about to become a reality at the tournament in Qatar. Because the desert emirate, which is hosting the World Cup from November 20th to December 18th, is currently hitting the fan market.

As reported by the Dutch broadcaster NOS, around 50 Dutch fans are traveling to the tournament in Qatar, which is paying for the flights and hotel accommodation.

Das „Supreme Committee for Delivery

The “collaboration” of the fans takes place mainly in the social media. In exchange for the free stays in Qatar, travelers must sign a “code of conduct”. This urges supporters to write positive comments about the World Cup tournament on social media. But that’s not all: the fans are also becoming social media spies. They should report “offensive, derogatory, or violent comments” to the committee, ideally providing screenshots of the comments as evidence.

On the official World Cup website, the fan program is described as a network of around 400 fans and influencers from 60 countries. They would have offered “insights, research, content creation and amplification of messages”.

The organizers do not give any financial information about fan purchases. Belgian and French media had also reported that Qatar had offered selected groups of fans a trip to the World Cup.

The text was written for the sports competence center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in “Bild”.