Qatar walks tightrope between Arab values and Western norms with World Cup gamble

DOHA, Qatar — The calm before the storm is over. Now comes the deluge.

After years of anticipation and more than $200 billion in infrastructure spending, the 2022 World Cup kicked off in Qatar on Sunday. Over the following days, more than 1.2 million people will flood the conservative Gulf state, which is smaller than Connecticut and has a population of about 2.9 million, three-fourths that of Los Angeles.

And there's more than a little concern that flood will overwhelm a country that has had 12 years to prepare and still doesn't appear ready.

"Qataris themselves are quite apprehensive about what's coming," said Michael Quentin Morton, an English author and historian who grew up in Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. "They [only] have to turn the television on and see what can happen at these big football tournaments to be concerned."

The latest reaction to that apprehension came Friday when Qatari officials demanded FIFA ban beer sales