Fans face anxious wait for visa approval to guarantee World Cup trips
Supporters have raised concerns about delays in receiving their Hayya cards, which are required to attend games at the tournament in Qatar.
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Your support makes all the difference.England fans have been advised to “keep pestering” officials to secure their Qatar visas amid concerns some could miss the World Cup quarter-final with France.
Supporters from most nations wanting to enter the Gulf state are required to have a Hayya card, with the identity document also allowing entry into stadiums alongside a valid match ticket.
But football fans have been raising concerns about delays in receiving approval, including by posting “#Hayya_card_pending” on Twitter and detailing their experiences.
Ashley Brown, from the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), said fans should “keep pestering” the Hayya card helplines to get their cases resolved.
Jonathan Downey, 57, plans to attend Netherlands v Argentina on Friday and England’s clash with France on Saturday, but said he was unsure what would happen.
The Manchester United and England fan, who is on a gap year from his career in the hospitality sector, has flown from Australia to Singapore and will arrive in Abu Dhabi late on Wednesday.
He then aims to get his connecting flight to Doha and see if he can get things sorted.
Mr Downey has accommodation sorted for up to 10 days, with his stay in Qatar dependent on how far England progress.
He told the PA news agency: “I’ve been trying since the weekend to get this visa and it looks like I might make the England-France game but I don’t know.”
Mr Downey said he had “done everything right”, including sorting his match tickets, but said the Hayya card process had been glitchy.
He said: “It’s like early internet tech that doesn’t quite work well enough and it’s just driving everybody mad.”
Mr Downey added: “You can call a number, I’ve spoken to 10 different people and they all say ‘there’s nothing we can do’ – they’re good at answering the phone but there’s nothing they can do for you.”
Mr Downey said he had been planning for months to head to the World Cup if England reached the quarter-finals and applied for his visa at the weekend.
He said: “I was told it would take two or three days for the visa to come through and I think there was a period when it was working quite well and then they’ve changed the entry criteria to allow people in who don’t have a ticket because it’s the knockout stages, and I think that change has caused these glitches and failures.
“It shouldn’t be this difficult to go and watch a game of football.”
Another family, who did not wish to be named, described the process as an “absolute farce”.
They confirmed they had got their case resolved just in time before the flight but warned many more people were still waiting.
The FSA’s Mr Brown told PA: “At the start of the tournament there was some issues, particularly with people on the 24-hour Hayya cards (visiting on shuttle flights), but as the tournament has progressed we haven’t heard of any significant issues.
“I guess we’re now at a point in time where people are considering coming in for their first time and are only just applying for their first time and that’s why this has cropped up.
“The only advice that we’re able to give is just to keep pestering the Hayya helpline.
“There is a phoneline, there is an email address and you just have to keep pestering them and saying ‘I’m at the airport’ or ‘I’m on my way to the airport, I need my Hayya card approved’.
Without getting onto the processes online and on the phone, there doesn't appear to be a way to speed things up unfortunately
“Most people have managed to get theirs resolved at the last minute. It is frustrating, the best thing to do is just plan as far ahead as possible as you can.”
Mr Brown added: “Many people who have come out for the tournament went through the process weeks or months ago and hanging on for five days wasn’t an issue, but if you’re trying to do this at the last minute, a couple of days wait can be too long and very frustrating.
“Without getting onto the processes online and on the phone, there doesn’t appear to be a way to speed things up unfortunately.”
Qatar’s ministry of interior said fans without match tickets could enter from December 2 for the knockout stages if they had a Hayya card, booked a hotel reservation and paid 500 Qatari riyal – approximately £112.50.
It added that citizens and residents from Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which includes the United Arab Emirates, could enter Qatar from Tuesday without a Hayya card although one was still needed for those attending matches.
– The FSA’s fan embassy in Doha can be contacted 24/7 via +974 5998 6036.