Show before the final in the half-empty stadium: "Perfect conclusion for such a shameful World Cup"

Created: 2022-12-18, 4:38 p.m

By: Stefan Schmid

The final show before the World Cup final wants to send a sign of community, but that ends up in a half-empty stadium.

Lusail/Munich – A good hour before the final whistle at the 2022 World Cup between Argentina and France, the hosts are once again digging deep into the show box.

The goal is clear: shortly before the end of the World Cup, another attempt to put Qatar in a positive light.

However, this is counteracted by the dreary background of half-empty grandstands, as many light effects and balloons flying around in animal form can be offered.

Qatar paints its own “wonderful world”

It is no longer a secret that Qatar wants to use the World Cup primarily to improve their own image in the world.

This always includes large characters and images that are arranged accordingly and transported to the viewer's screen.

An hour before the game kicked off, the show started with a musical contribution from Qatari singer Dana, who sang the world-famous song "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong, partly in Arabic.

Finals ceremony in front of half-empty seats at the Lusail Iconic Stadium.

© Screenshot: ARD sports show

Singing alone is of course not enough for the demands of the Qataris and so various balloons in the form of dolphins and whales buzzed through the stadium above and around the singer in the Lusail Iconic Stadium.

The whole thing was underlined by appropriate lighting effects that were supposed to create a sea atmosphere.

Final ceremony "perfect conclusion for such a disgraceful World Cup"

The organizers of the ceremony before the finale have come up with even more.

After the singer, two poets come onto the stage set up in the middle circle and recite poems that evoke the community of all participating teams and nations.

The fact that a community is difficult to stage in front of half-empty grandstands has not gone unnoticed on the Internet either, and corresponding tweets were also posted on Twitter.

Here, however, the mood prevails that the scenery fits perfectly with the "disgraceful World Cup".

Of course, the official World Cup song "Hayya Hayya", which closed the show, couldn't be missing.

By this time at the latest, it has also become clear to the picture directors that the half-empty back straight is a bad backdrop.

And so the TV pictures ended up showing Argentina fans celebrating in the fan block, although the question arises as to whether the enthusiasm was related to the show itself.

The assumption that they are more looking forward to the game (here in the live ticker) is more likely.