JEDDAH, 31 May — The FIFA World Cup and the Kingdom’s prospects in the monthlong event in South Korea and Japan have been the talk among Saudis and expatriates alike despite students being in the throes of year-end examinations. The Kingdom will have its first encounter in the tournament tomorrow.
All hotels, restaurants, fast-food outlets and shopping malls and prominent public places are fully geared for screening the matches.
Television sales and subscriptions for satellite channels have been on the increase in the past few weeks. A number of people have been crowding the offices and distributors of Arab Digital Distribution Co., which is bringing the extravaganza live to the Middle East region.
Excitement has especially picked up in the past few days. The mood before was subdued due to school examinations during the intervening period that had confined Saudi students to their homes.
In the Eastern Province, the World Cup euphoria is missing as students are currently occupied with their examination preparations and as such not much arrangement is in evidence in hotels, restaurants and amusement centers for screening live coverage.
Reports from Jeddah suggest that preparations are in full swing in all hotels, restaurants and fast-food outlets. Shopping malls in major cities are planning quiz contests to mark the monthlong event.
The Upscale Health Club, near Shabab Sports Club on King Fahd Highway in Riyadh, has announced that there will be a program from 9 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. daily from Orbit studio in Rome with a live link to the Kingdom and Tunisia. Saudi TV, ART, Orbit and ESPN will be providing special coverage of matches, which begin in Seoul today. The Saudi team will be pitted against Germany in Group V matches that take place in Tokyo tomorrow.
A spokesman for the club said guest commentators and other sports celebrities will provide expert comments on the highlights of the event every night. The analysts will include Abdul Majeed Chutali, Mohammad Hamada and Khaled Yaseen in Rome. In Saudi Arabia, Hussain Al-Shammari and Mohammed Al-Saggah will host guests including coaches, players and ex-coaches. Similarly, from the Tunisian side, Hisham Khalaf will host the commentators on behalf of Orbit.
Speaking on behalf of Euromarche, one of its employees said the school exams during the qualifying games had a negative impact on its sales.
In the Eastern Province, there is a general feeling that the World Cup fever will pick up as the examinations end. In any case even students who are busy in the examination preparations would not be able to resist viewing of those matches in which Saudi National team is playing. The Kingdom will play their other first round matches on June 6 and 11.
The Dhahran International Hotel is providing the facility in all guestrooms, said Fattah Enayel, resident manager. This hotel and many other hotels Kingdomwide are installing large billboards in their lobbies to provide the latest results and all relevant information about the matches of the day. Crowne Plaza Jeddah’s General Manager Thomas Schmelter said: “We’ve made all arrangements to reach the World Cup excitement to our guests throughout the event.”
Sheraton Tower Hotel in the Eastern Province has a large screen in its Shisha Corner where matches will be screened live. In addition, the hotel is providing live relay facility in all the rooms.
Abdul Rahman Daouk, distribution consultant at ADD, Jeddah, said: “Some 4,000 to 5,000 new subscribers are being registered for ADD’s various bouquets daily. The excitement of the World Cup being there, subscriptions have picked up especially in the past few weeks and will continue at least for a month.” He added: “We’ve acquired the World Cup rights for SR100 million for the whole of the Middle East.”
Pele, the 20th century football legend and the spokesperson of MasterCard, the official sponsor of the World Cup, issued a letter congratulating the Saudi people and sports authorities on the third consecutive qualification of the Saudi team to the world event. “I would like to congratulate Saudis on the qualification of the Saudi National Team to the World Cup. In the early ‘70s, I had the opportunity to play in a friendly match in the Kingdom with my old Brazilian team Santos. I’m pleasantly surprised at how far the Kingdom’s football has developed — both as a national passion and as world-class talent, in such a short period.”
There are unconfirmed reports of arrangements being made to screen Saudi matches at Alkhobar Corniche. However, a nearby coffee shop-cum-shisha corner has installed several TV sets in family cabins and gents lounge where matches will be screened live. In Dammam, restaurants along the Corniche like Burger King, Ocean and Al-Hokair amusement center have also made similar arrangements.
There are reports in the Eastern Province of a drastic increase in the subscription of various cable networks that are offering packages for the World Cup. Firstnet and its sister channels, Pehla and Al-Awael have prepared special packages for their subscribers that will be valid for the tournament period.
Meanwhile, many consumer goods distributors as well as manufacturers and supermarkets are organizing quiz contests offering prizes worth millions of riyals. Arab News has also announced a quiz contest offering attractive prizes. It is generally believed that the World Cup fever will completely grip the region by the middle of June, as most of the examinations will be over by that time.
— Javid Hassan in Riyadh, Saeed Haider in Dammam & K.S. Ramkumar in Jeddah
