It is for the love of football but fans are also pouring into Qatar from India showing love for Argentina in particular.
Guess what? More than 5,000 Argentina fans, from various nationalities, living in Qatar will welcome visiting the team to cheer La Albiceleste to glory.
Indian drums drowned out Argentina’s ardent fans as hundreds waited for hours outside Lionel Messi’s World Cup team’s base in Qatar.
The drummers and Indian beat dancers demonstrated yet again how Qatar 2022 will be a unique experience for players and visiting fans. When Harry Kane’s team arrived on Tuesday, subcontinent supporters outnumbered England fans.
When Argentina takes the field against Saudi Arabia in their first World Cup match on November 22, a group of ardent Argentina international supporters will join the travelling Argentinian fans to cheer the country on.
This group of supporters have existed since 1986, the year Argentina won its last World Cup with Diego Maradona. That is well before Lionel Messi, the current super star in the Argentina team, was born.
However, a new group of supporters known as the Argentina Fans Qatar or AFQ was founded in June of this year and this month until December, some fans will be inside the stadium, while others will cheer from the fan zones.
AFQ is the story of die-hard Argentina fans of various nationalities, primarily Indians, Nepalese, Sri Lankans, and Bangladeshis, but also Africans and Qataris.
They all claim their love for Argentina and Messi knows no bounds and since Messi mentioned that this is his last World Cup, the fans are going crazy and will do all they can to watch him for one last time, hoping that Argentina and Messi wins the cup this time.
Argentina is not the only country that has such diehard followers but in this World Cup, some countries may not get the ultimate support from fans.
Love for Football or for England?
In this case, England is likely to pay a price with fans switching allegiance depending on how the England team performs.
According to a study, only one in every four football fans (24%) will stick by the England squad throughout the World Cup.
According to a poll of 2,000 sports fans, one-third would switch allegiances depending on how well the teams perform in the tournament.
More than half would base their support on how “fanciful” the squad is, while 49% would root for a team because they liked the uniform.
In a sweepstakes, 17% said they would support the team drawn at random – rather than their home nation.
And if Wales outlasts the England team, nearly half of England fans will support them.
Almost half (44%) believe England will win the tournament this year, while only 26% believe Wales will take home the trophy.
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