World Cup 2022 begins

The opening ceremony lasted only 30 minutes. but contains a large amount of information and artistic repertoire. The ceremony began with the voice of 85-year-old American actor Morgan Freeman, who included a video of the whale swimming to Al Bayt Stadium. Inside the courtyard, the artists began to dance to a traditional song, next to the camels.

The audience began to get emotional when watching Freeman talk to Ghanim Al Muftah - a 20-year-old Qatari Youtuber but without both legs, due to Congenital Degenerative Spondylolisthesis (CRS) since birth. Freeman talks about equal rights among people, and he says that "hope, respect and joy all have in common". That was probably the quietest part of the ceremony, when everyone listened to what the two characters had to say.

After the talk between Freeman and Al Muftah, the audience had the opportunity to cheer again when the artists below performed the traditional Ardha dance. The stage became even more noisy when the organizers played classics from previous World Cups such as Shakira's Waka Waka in 2010, or popular chants like "Ole, Ole, Ole". The organizers call it the "national anthem of the world". At the same time, the fans representing 32 teams in the tournament held flags and entered the field.

This year's opening ceremony also has another special feature, when the mascots of previous World Cups appear. The first World Cup mascot was the British lion Willie in 1966 to the wolf Zabivaka in Russia in 2018. Finally, the mascot of this period is La'eeb hovering in the yard. In Arabic, La'eeb means player of transcendent skill.

Not inviting famous artists like Shakira or Dua Lipa, the main performance of the 2022 World Cup was performed by singer Jung-kook of BTS. Korean artists sing Dreamers - one of the official songs of this period.

The most surprising point for the Qatari audience during the opening ceremony was a rare video of former King Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, when he played football in the 70s or 80s of the last century. The audience cheered more intensely than usual when seeing this video being played. When the current King Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani smiled at the images above, the audience once again cheered. The majority of the approximately 60,000 spectators on the field were Qataris.

It was also King Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani who delivered the opening speech, before saying "World Cup 2022 has begun". Immediately after, thousands of Ecuadorian spectators cheered because they were about to see the players warm up, preparing to kick off the opening match with the host Qatar.

The program ended with a series of fireworks shot up from the roof of the Al Bayt stadium. The props of the ceremony were quickly cleaned up for the two teams to warm up.

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