<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Fifty days before the World Cup kicks off in Qatar, workers are pouring concrete and hammering through the night to ready luxury hotels and bargain apartments for a million or more football fans.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hundreds of migrants are labouring inside the 211 metre (696 feet) high</div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Katara Towers, dramatically shaped like intertwined scimitar swords, where&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">VIP guests of world football's governing body FIFA will stay during the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">tournament.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The wealthiest will pay thousands of dollars a night for rooms with marble&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">wine cellars and a lobby with one of the world's biggest chandeliers.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Yet mountains of sand sit on the steps and some of the smoked glass windows&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">are yet to be installed at this landmark on the Lusail seafront close to the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">stadium that will host the final.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"Everyone is working around the clock," said one engineer on the project,&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">speaking on condition of anonymity.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It will be touch and go whether everything is installed to suit people</div><div style="text-align: justify;">paying so much," this expert told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">A spokesperson for the Accor group, which will run the Fairmont and Raffles&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">hotels in Katara Towers, insisted they would be ready for "FIFA guests"&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">during the World Cup and then officially open after the tournament.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>- $50,000 a night chalet -</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Frenzied work is being carried out across Doha.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Forty kilometres (25 miles) away in Barwa Barahat Al Janoub, another army of&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">labourers works under floodlights at night and scorching sunlight in the day,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">to ready apartments for fans paying $84 a night for a steel bed in a shared&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">room.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The Barwa complex, out in the semi-desert, is expected to house more than&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">7,500 World Cup fans and will later be used for the thousands of foreign&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">workers who keep Qatar's oil- and gas-fuelled economy moving.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A source on the project -- which is 10 kilometres from a metro station --</div><div style="text-align: justify; ">said that hundreds of rooms still need to be finished and that workers were&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">engaged in "a furious race against time".</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A spokesperson for the Qatar organising committee said: "All of the</div><div style="text-align: justify; ">accommodation options at the FIFA World Cup 2022 will be ready in good time&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">before fans, teams and officials arrive in Qatar for the tournament."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A "comfortable inventory" exists for teams and fans, this spokesperson added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Positioned at opposite extremes, the sword-shaped towers and austere workers'&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">rooms will play key roles in housing supporters of the 32 nations taking part&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">in the World Cup from November 20.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Organisers say that more than one million fans will visit and that 130,000&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">rooms will be usable in hotels, apartments, cruise ships and desert tents.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">But some supporters have already complained about prices and the availability&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">of rooms.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Other Gulf cities, especially Dubai, are reporting a World Cup boom driven by&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">fans who are reluctant to stay in Qatar, in part also due to perceptions --&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">disputed by Doha -- that respect for LGBTQ rights and alcohol will be in&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">short supply.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">In Doha port there will be three cruise ships that can handle up to 13,000&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">people paying between $179 and $800 a night.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For $423 a night some supporters will be in traditional -- but air</div><div style="text-align: justify; ">conditioned -- tents on a beachfront at Al Khor, north of Doha, with en-suite&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">bathrooms, flat screen televisions and other luxury trappings.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One thousand bedouin-style tents are also being put up where fans can</div><div style="text-align: justify; ">experience Qatari-style camping without air conditioning. Organisers have not&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">announced the price.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Some Qatari landlords are trying to cash in on the World Cup, demanding&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">$4,000-plus a night for Doha apartments. One two-bedroom chalet is advertised&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">on booking.com at nearly $50,000 a night.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">While 80 percent of Doha's 30,000 hotel rooms are reserved by FIFA, some open&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">market suites are being advertised at $5,500 a night.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is a lot of negotiating going on over prices," said one Doha travel</div><div style="text-align: justify;">executive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Nasser Al-Khater, chief executive of the World Cup Qatar organisers, stressed&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">in a TV interview this week that official accommodation was being subsidised&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">to keep prices down.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"The private sector also provides housing units and they have the right to&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">determine the price they see suitable," he said. AFP</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>