It is a mark of Manchester United's size, scale and global reach that at a stadium more than 3,000 miles away from Old Trafford, in a sparsely populated stand holding barely 100 people, you can still find someone wearing one of their replica shirts.
Al-Shamal and Al-Wakrah have just played out a goalless draw at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Al Rayyan, about three miles outside the centre of Doha. On the back row of seats is a young man working as an in-stadium data analyst — relaying the flow of play down a headphone mic — and he is wearing a United shirt while doing so.
At full-time, when his work is done, I introduce myself and ask him what he thinks of Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani's bid to take the reins at Old Trafford. He doesn't know anything about it. Then, as we and the others in attendance are ushered out of the stadium by the stewards, he wants to know more. “So, what is it that's happening?”
The Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Qatar plays host to a domestic match (Photo: Mark Critchley)
To be clear: this is not an entirely representative anecdote. There are plenty of people in Qatar who have heard the news and the sale of United was the main topic of conversation a day later when I sat and watched the Carabao Cup final with members of the official supporters' club in Qatar.
But it is fair to say that while this feels like the single biggest story of the day back in Manchester, it does not feel like that at all in Qatar.
In the days after the announcement, there was no mention of it in the print editions of Qatar's three English-language newspapers.
Search online and you will find The Gulf Times ran a wire service copy, followed by a loosely related column by a Qatari banker a few days later. The Peninsula had just the copy from the wires, while The Qatar Tribune still has no mention on its website about the son of the former prime minister bidding to buy one of the biggest clubs in the world.
It was much the same in the days leading up to the announcement of Sheikh Jassim's bid a fortnight ago. In the English and international press, speculation raged about an attempt by Qatari private investors to buy the club. In Doha? Crickets…
But as one Qatari fan I meet says, that meant it was most likely true. “It's the opposite of what happens in England,” he says. “Here, if everything is quiet, then something is happening.” It is still quiet, too. The write-ups of Sunday's win at Wembley still did not mention Sheikh Jassim.
Traditional media is not the only source of information, though. Plenty of United fans in Qatar are well aware of Sheikh Jassim's movements through social media. They are also well aware of the criticism of Qatar's human rights record, particularly in regard to migrant labour rights and the outlawing of homosexuality. They also know there is a debate about sportswashing raging online.
Doha's gleaming skyline came at a considerable cost — both financially and in terms of human rights (Photo: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The fan I meet — who is speaking on the condition of anonymity — refers to it as “the discourse” and a little over a week in, he already sounds tired of it.
“People watch football so that they can get away from politics,” he says. “They just want to enjoy the games. They don't want to have to think about issues. They want to stick to football.”
At the same time, as a Qatari and a United fan, it is no surprise he wants Sheikh Jassim's bid to be successful. “All we really care about is our team performing, getting our time and our money's worth.”
He believes Qatari-led ownership would stand a greater chance of achieving that in the long term than local-boy-turned-petrochemicals-billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
He compares the debate surrounding the two bids to the one prior to the 2016 United States presidential election — with one framed as ownership that would “put the Manchester back in Manchester United” defined against those from elsewhere.
“It's uncomfortable for me,” he says. “The club is a global club. Over here, people stay up until 3am to watch the team. They are just as committed as fans in Manchester or wherever.”
Of course, the vast majority of Qatar's population is not Qatari. More than 85 per cent of the population are migrants, while approximately 22,000 are British. Many of those will have visited The Red Lion, a traditional English pub housed on the mezzanine floor of a hotel in the Al Mansoura district of Doha.
On one of the tables sit two ex-pats with broad Cockney accents, enjoying the half-price drinks of a happy hour that lasts most of the afternoon while waiting for Tottenham v Chelsea to start. Both came to Qatar for work, though are reluctant to go into any more detail than that.
“The only thing I'd say is the way the authorities in Qatar ran the World Cup over here was absolutely spectacular,” one says.
“I was 50-50 as to whether they could pull it off or not and they did. Everyone's moaning – the alcohol issue, the alcohol issue. When it came down to it, there wasn't an issue. There was no hooliganism, no fighting, no problems.
“You go to the fan zones in the UK and there would be fighting, there would be uproar. Over here, nothing, because there are strict rules. And because they did the World Cup so well, I don't see an issue with them taking something like that over.”
His colleague, who is surprisingly a Leeds fan, agrees that Qatari-led ownership would run the club competently. “We know they are too big a club to be struggling so maybe this is the point where if they invest in the club, invest in what the fans want, buy the players and build an empire, that's what United need. It could be positive.”
But he knows there is a reason I'm in Doha and not on the banks of Lake Geneva, finding out what the Swiss think about Ratcliffe's stewardship of INEOS, so he asks: “When you say 'What do people think of it in Qatar?', what do you mean?”
It is a fair question and, before I can answer him properly, he gets to the nub of it.
“Obviously during the World Cup there's been backlash about the human rights and the workers,” he says, before posing another question of his own. “When Wales came over here, some of them boycotted it. In Manchester, if it's owned by the Qataris, would they do the same thing?”
It may be that a successful Sheikh Jassim bid for the ownership of United sparks protests among some fans back in Manchester and beyond. It may be that it leads to greater, more sustained scrutiny of Qatar's human rights record and treatment of migrant workers than a one-month-long tournament ever could.
Well away from the bright lights of the stadiums, migrant workers in Qatar watch a World Cup game (Photo: Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Those who would stand to benefit from that scrutiny are not entirely convinced, though.
Karthik (using a false name to protect his identity) works in construction in Doha as a draughtsman and is originally from India. He is not a United fan but he thinks a successful Sheikh Jassim bid would likely return the club to the very top of European football and mean they will once again challenge his team, Real Madrid.
“Look at how Newcastle are performing after the Saudi takeover,” he says. “United are still outperforming them, so after the takeover I think it would be better, competing for first place in the Premier League and Champions League like the old days.
“They will surely spend money on players, the academy and everything, so it's a good thing.”
Whether it would be a good thing for migrant workers in Qatar is a different question. While taking exception to some of the coverage of Qatar in the Western media, he admits human rights issues exist.
“I think the government is providing everything it can but it's not coming down (to the workers),” he says. “There are rules — strict rules on working hours, safety issues and everything — but it's not coming down the levels. It's stuck somewhere, maybe company owners.”
“For example, if an accident happens on site, they need to close the site so the construction team will hide the accident from the government and other people. There are issues.”
One of the arguments deployed in defence of hosting the World Cup in Qatar was that it would encourage reform on such issues. The same will likely be said in support of a Sheikh Jassim ownership at Old Trafford. But Karthik does not buy that argument.
When asked whether a Qatari-led United would help reform anything in the Gulf state, he says: “I don't think so, no. No changes. Even the World Cup didn't change it.”
Did all the attention on Qatar really not change anything? “The World Cup only changed the increased price of items,” he says. “Not the payments.”
That scepticism is shared by another migrant worker — Nuru (also a false name), who works as a caregiver but was a volunteer during the World Cup. Nuru is a United fan. She is delighted that finally the club's six-year “dry spell” of waiting for a trophy has come to an end, but supporting a successful football club is no real distraction from the day-to-day reality she faces working in Qatar.
“Life has been very unbearable since the end of the World Cup and workers are suffering so much,” she says.
Like the data analyst in the stadium, Nuru has not previously heard about Sheikh Jassim's bid. In any case, she is massively against it. “I feel it's almost impossible for that deal to go through because of the human rights record of Qatar, especially on the oppressive laws and unfair treatment of workers,” she says.
“I feel it will affect the team performance because of pressure from rights groups and I don't support that takeover.”
Others are more conflicted. Before leaving Doha, I bump into a security guard at a bar who happens to be a United fan. I tell him I am a journalist who covers the club and ask what he thinks about a potential Qatari takeover. He has heard about it but deliberates over his answer for a moment. “To be honest, I'm still processing,” he says.
Originally from Kenya, he moved to Qatar — like many others — for better employment opportunities than were on offer at home, but the chance to live in a country hosting the World Cup also played a part in his thinking.
His experience of the tournament did not quite live up to expectations, though. He was excited about it and enjoyed being in a country at the centre of the world's attention, but he only managed to attend one game. Work commitments and the price of tickets got in the way. At least he got to watch Brazil, he says.
Still, his attitude to Qatar's next great attempt to build its influence in the world of football is one of cautious optimism. “You have to take the positives,” he says several times.
And like a lot of United fans in Qatar The Athletic spoke to, the main benefit he sees in Sheikh Jassim's takeover would not be signing Kylian Mbappe or winning the Premier League year after year, but a tangible one for himself.
A Manchester United bag on sale in Qatar (Photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
The idea he might be able to attend the winter training camps or pre-season tours United would inevitably hold in Qatar would be a dream. He imagines meeting the players — Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are his favourites — in the flesh.
Whether he would have the time to do that is another question. Since he arrived in Qatar, he tells me his typical shift has increased from eight hours to 12. He used to play football regularly back home but struggles to find the time to do so now. Then he jokingly wonders whether a visit from United would give him an opportunity to impress Erik ten Hag.
That is a highly unlikely prospect, of course. And given his experience of the World Cup, perhaps even just meeting Ten Hag and some United players at a training camp is unlikely, too.
For many United fans in Qatar, day-to-day life would make it difficult for these little dreams to become a reality. And for them, Qatari ownership might not necessarily bring them any closer to a club that is already so far away.
(Top photo: Mark Critchley; design: Sam Richardson)