Qatar World Cup’s fan village is ’Fyre Festival 2.0’: A peek inside $200 a night

Doha is currently jam-packed. Fans visiting the Qatar capital to watch the World Cup has opted for various accommodations from bargain basement apartments to luxury hotels, but most hyped is of course the $200-a-night tents on an isolated island.

What is described as the fan village is basically a windswept artificial island off the new city of Lusail - Qetaifan - where some 1,800 heavy plastic tents are set out row after row. Each tent has two single beds, one lamp, some electric plugs, a fan and just enough room to leave some bags. And the occupants complain that austere conditions do not justify the $200 rent for one night.

Pedro Barajas, an 18-year-old from Mexico, told AFP "It seems pretty deserted. There is not an actual shower -- that's a toilet with a hose in it," he said. For $207 a night, "it feels like it's not very worth it."

“When we went to our room, it was all messed up,” Aman Mohammed, a 23-year-old from Kolkata told PTI. He said he waited two hours under the searing sun for a cleaner to arrive the day before. “It was stinking so bad, like a bad bathroom. It was pathetic.”

Many others like them took to Twitter.

Just wanted to update that the fan village in the free zone has people waiting for more than 6 hours to get a room they have paid for.

Qatar should've never been allowed to host this Fifa World Cup. They're not even prepared. The stadiums and fan village are all in a mess. Blatter was right. This only happened because of their indirect bribe. USA should've won that bid. Shameful. Very shameful.

Some even compared the setup with the lodging conditions found at the highly controversial Fyre music festival in the Bahamas, where those who paid top dollar to attend found scattered disaster relief tents; soaked mattresses from the previous day's rain; and cheese sandwiches in styrofoam containers as their "gourmet" meal option.

Even before the world's most coveted sporting event started, it was marred with controversies. Host Qatar has been criticised for its stance on same-sex relationships, its human rights record and its treatment of migrants. It was also