The world champion French team risks defending its title without its most loyal followers... "We will be ten times fewer than in Russia (in 2018). If we manage to be 50 per match, it will already be wrong," said Guillaume Auprêtre, an active member of the Irresistibles Français (IF), the official supporters group.

If the association did not wish to collectively boycott the event, the majority of its members will not go to Qatar.

Fabien Bonnel, spokesperson for the IFs, made this choice on an individual basis, "a thoughtful and worked-out decision", he assured AFP.

In Qatar, "the issues (respect for human rights, air-conditioned stadiums, etc.) stem directly from the organization of the World Cup, which was not the case in Russia".

Despite this wave of "individual" boycotts, the group of supporters remained in contact with the Organizing Committee, the French Federation and Fifa to try to organize the movement of interested fans as well as possible.

But "it's a little obstacle course", remarks Fabien Bonnel.

4,000 euros for two matches

Without a match ticket, it is impossible to book accommodation on the official platform which concentrates the majority of accommodation options and to request your "Hayya Card" acting as a visa.

However, the fans who participated in the second phase of sales will not have confirmation of the sesame obtained until the end of May.

"We have identified affordable housing, but there is no guarantee that they will still be available when we have our order number", fears Guillaume Auprêtre, who is one of the few to have decided to go to the emirate, to "see for (him)self how it will turn out".

"It's an organizational disaster, no one communicates and the supporters will be the victims," ​​he complains.

To go and see two matches in the first round (one week on site), Guillaume Auprêtre is counting on 4,000 euros: 1,500 euros for the plane, 150 to 200 euros per night of accommodation, around sixty euros per match ticket, which must be add the cost of living there.

For comparison, he had spent less than 1,000 euros, all inclusive, for a week in Budapest last summer during the Euro.

"In nameless sadness"

“It becomes luxury support,” laments Fabien Bonnel, who noticed the addition of 10% management fees to ticket prices and a significant increase in ticket prices from the quarter-finals.

On site, future participants do not dream of a magical moment.

"It's going to be incredibly sad," predicts Guillaume Auprêtre.

"I'm afraid I'll be bored. We won't have our supporter friends, we'll have gone around Doha in two days, and then? We can go for a camel ride in the desert but, very quickly, we risk of ending up in our apartment watching the matches on TV. There is a fan zone, but I'm not going to spend a month in a fan zone."

If Qatar regularly assures that all fans will be welcomed without discrimination despite the laws criminalizing homosexuality in the country, the context challenges.

"As a heterosexual man, I have nothing to worry about. But if I had been a woman or if I had been homosexual, I would have asked myself the question twice," says Guillaume Auprêtre.

The doubts are shared by Fabien Bonnel: "From what moment will the authorities consider that we are no longer in a reasonable, reasoned, moderate attitude but that we are infringing the World Cup policy at a minimum and of Qatar more generally? I don't know," he concludes.

© 2022 AFP