DOHA, Qatar—When Brazil star Antony noticed that his throat was bothering him and a few teammates just days into the Qatar World Cup, he didn’t need to look far for an explanation. He just had to glance at the thermostat.
Organizers once thought that scorching temperatures here would pose the greatest danger to players’ health at the World Cup in the desert. But as it turns out, the biggest problem for players has been Qatar’s expensive solution for heat: the air conditioning.
With daily temperatures in the 80s and 90s even in November and December, every indoor space in Qatar is relentlessly chilled—and plenty of outdoor spaces are too. The most remarkable among them are the World Cup stadiums—which are all open-air arenas—where huge vents the size of washing machines ring the field and stands, blasting cold air. Stand near one of them and this sun-baked emirate suddenly turns into a meat locker.
Sniffles, sore throats and coughing tend to follow.
“Almost every staff member had it,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said inside a chilly conference center.
WSJ Sports had two questions about the Doha chill: How cold can it get in a sweltering country? And could those icy breezes really be making the Brazilians sick, or is it a myth?
At a recent game, a thermometer showed it to be several degrees cooler in the stands than it was outside the stadium—and that’s not even on the pitch, where the air conditioning is typically concentrated to cool down the players. Indoors, at official World Cup facilities here, it isn’t uncommon to see staff wearing jackets or sweatshirts, even when the temperature outside exceeds 90 degrees. At a recent press conference with U.S. players, the temperature read 69 degrees.
While it’s entirely unclear whether this or another type of illness is afflicting Antony and his teammates, recent research backs up the notion that the cold air could make them more vulnerable to getting sick. Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale, says dramatic changes in temperature—exactly like the ones players are experiencing here—can in fact make people feel ill.
Dr. Iwasaki added that the body’s natural defenses in the nose, mouth and throat need time to adjust to certain weather conditions. Dry and cold air can weaken immune responses, she said, and make someone more susceptible to a viral infection.
“The old wives’ tale does have some truth to it,” says Dr. Iwasaki.
A security guard closes an air conditioning vent inside a stadium.
Photo:
Marcelo Machado De Melo/Zuma Press
For Qatar, revolutionary air conditioning was always part of the promise. Back when it launched its campaign to host the tournament more than 12 years ago, Qatar was bidding for a World Cup held in June and July. Only in 2015 did FIFA take the unprecedented step of shifting the tournament to November and December to dodge the brutal summer heat.
“The stadiums would…provide soft air conditioning to provide adequate climatic conditions inside the stadium at spectator and pitch levels,” FIFA wrote in its 2010 evaluation of Qatar’s bid. “These measures have not yet been deployed in stadiums of a similar size to those used in the FIFA World Cup.”
On that front, Qatar has delivered. Though the eight stadiums only account for around $10 billion of the country’s $220 billion budget associated with World Cup projects, the scale of the air conditioning operation is unlike anything ever attempted for a collection of outdoor stadiums. The issue for some—everywhere from stadiums, to malls, to hotels, to restaurants—is that it’s working a little too well.
Spain forward Alvaro Morata and defender Dani Carvajal have both missed practice sessions in Qatar due to colds blamed on the air conditioning in their hotel rooms. And Denmark forward Christian Eriksen says he has hardly felt right since landing in Qatar.
“I ended up having a bad feeling there for a few days,” Eriksen added. “It was more of a sickness, throat. It was the air conditioning. Not only me, but other players also had a cough and a bad throat. It’s very difficult for me to get sick.”
It’s also very difficult to get used to. At the most liberally air-conditioned World Cup in history, even the meteorological conditions of the stadiums feel unusual. Just as the combination of cool air and ambient humidity makes major tennis courts vaguely uncomfortable when the roofs are closed, players are noticing something off in the air.
“It felt more like it was damp, there was something about the oxygen,” Eriksen said. “When you did a sprint, it was a little harder to get your breath back than normal.”
Antony of Brazil has talked about the indoor conditions in Qatar.
Photo:
Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Soccer stars aren’t the first athletes to complain about venues resembling the frozen foods aisle of a supermarket. Griping about aggressive air-conditioning is so common among Europeans and many South Americans traveling to liberally climate-controlled countries that it might as well be in their passports.
Men’s tennis world No. 7, Daniil Medvedev of Russia, identified the issue at the U.S. Open earlier this fall and blamed it on, well, the whole of America. Every spot he went, he said, seemed like it was chilled to 68 degrees. To Medvedev it might as well have been Siberia.
“You go shower, you sweat, then you come out,” he added. “If you get little bit relaxed for few minutes, like after the match you sit there five minutes, you can get sick.”
Ten days in, World Cup organizers are still struggling to find the sweet spot. When the in-stadium air conditioning was shut off one hour before England’s night match against the U.S. last Friday, the temperature quickly began to rise. By the end, England’s players remarked that the conditions on the field after midnight were stickier than they had been for their tournament opener, which took place in the heat of the midday sun.
None of the Three Lions have had to miss any time with temperature-related ailments though. Antony, the Brazilian with a throat tickle, didn’t expect to either.
Air conditioning or no air conditioning, he said, “Whenever you need Antony, I’m available.”
Write to Joshua Robinson at Joshua.Robinson@wsj.com, Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com and Jonathan Clegg at Jonathan.Clegg@wsj.com
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