Watford fan Kate has made World Cup host Qatar her home from Holmes

To watch 25, at the same tournament, is a rare privilege indeed - but it’s exactly what Watford fan Kate Holmes has organised for herself.

The 51-year-old from Oxhey has lived and worked abroad for the last 20 years, and Qatar has been her home for the last 18 months, meaning she has access to tickets as a resident.

So, she’s made the most of it – and it means that by the end of the finals she will have visited all eight of the stadia.

“I decided that if I’m based in Qatar and there’s a World Cup Finals on, I’m going to get as many tickets to as many games as I possibly can,” said Kate.

READ MORE: 'I'd phone GT if I could' - Robert Page

“As residents we get access to cheaper tickets, but there’s not many of them. You have to go through the ballots. I didn’t get any, but then there is resale. That’s first come first served, so I spent hour upon hour on the websites trying to get tickets.

“When the second resale came around I got a lot of the Category 4 tickets. A Category 4 ticket for a game in the group stages costs 40 Riyals, which is about £9.”

That is a clearly a bargain price for such a prestigious tournament, even if some of the vantage points involve a lot of legwork to get to.

“Category 4 seats seem to be higher up,” Kate explained.

“I’m on Level 5 in a lot of the stadiums, so lots of climbing stairs – though I believe that’s the case with Category 2 and 3 tickets too.

“The organisers seem to think that behind the goal is where the cheap seats should be. Some of the seats I have are low down and behind the goal: the organisers don’t seem to realise that’s where I like to sit, as I would in the Rookery at Watford.

“I think I’ll be sat overlooking a lot of corner flags too. That was the case for the England/Iran game, though I was sat at the England fans end.

“The England seats were more expensive. I had to get Category 2 seats, and they were 600 Riyals, so about £120.”

Kate in her England shirt at the Khalifa International Stadium (Image: Kate Holmes)

It was fortunate to be able to find Kate with time to chat, such is her busy World Cup schedule.

“I’ve got tickets for 25 games in all, most of which are group games as the knockout matches were hard to get. I’m not sure if I will end up going to all of them so I might put some on the resale site.

“I’ve got two quarter-final tickets. I did try to get tickets for the final but they didn’t become available. I believe they have had to hold back tickets for the teams that play in the final because they obviously don’t know which team’s fans will want them yet.

“So there will be a significant amount of tickets available for the final at some point. I don’t know whether they’ll go directly to the federations of those teams or if a certain percentage will go on general sale.”

Born in 1971 in Watford Hospital, next to Vicarage Road stadium, and raised within walking distance of the ground, Kate was perhaps destined to become a Hornet – even though her parents were both born in the north-east of England and didn’t support Watford.

She started going to watch Watford in 1977, the season that Graham Taylor first became manager and despite living abroad for so long, she has still been a regular at games.

Her last visit to Vicarage Road for a match was to see Liverpool beat Watford 5-0 in October 2021.

“I’ve lived outside of England for the last 20 years, and I’ve moved around a lot,” said Kate, who teaches English as a language.

“But then Covid put a spanner in the works of my plans because I wasn’t planning to come to Qatar.

“I had flight tickets, a job and a work permit for China, but six days before my flight I was told not to go. So I was stuck in England, living with my parents and unable to get a job in England.

“I went without a job for about 18 months, unable to go anywhere or do anything. Then I got a job offer in Thailand and I went there, but after 15 days of quarantine there I went straight into lockdown.

READ MORE: Sarr Watch - Senegal v Holland

“The job I had never started because the lockdown was very strict, and things like schools and language centres weren’t open. I ended up looking for jobs again and the one in Qatar came up. I’ve been here 18 months now.

“I was initially teaching cadets in a military base, but now I’m teaching English in a language centre. I also do some corporate training, so things like presentation skills.

“In the past my holidays times haven’t been that flexible and were generally in the summer, which means no football. But now I can take time off whenever, so I’m hoping to get back and see a Watford game or two in February.”

Being away from south-west Herts doesn’t mean Kate doesn’t encounter fellow Hornets though.

“I haven’t seen a Watford fan at a game yet,” she said, “but I’m also volunteering at the airport and when I went to pick up my uniform I was wearing my Watford shirt, and this guy suddenly said: ‘Watford, nice one.’

“He was a fan of Watford, and I’m not used to seeing that here.”

Kate back in England supporting Watford. (Image: Kate Holmes)

Kate is quick to stress that some of the national media stories in the UK have portrayed an image of what a female football fan in Qatar might experience that are quite different from her own.

“This is one of the safest countries I’ve ever lived in. Without a doubt. You don’t run into problems here.

“My own experience from where I’ve been sitting at games is that the crowd is 50/50 men and women. And that’s females of all nationalities.”

Having attended other World Cup finals, and being in the crowd at Khalifa International Stadium on Monday as England beat Iran 6-2, Kate felt the contingent of Three Lions supporters was lower than at previous tournaments.

“My feeling was that there was a low attendance of England fans, but I believe that is the case for quite a few of the countries taking part,” she said.

“Where I was sat I had a lot of England fans to my right, and quite a lot of Iranian fans to the left. There was a real mix of people in the section where my seat was.

“It was jovial and fun, and I think because of the way the game panned out with England getting on top so quickly, it wasn’t particularly raucous and didn’t have that intensity.”

There have also been reports of fans being shocked at the prices they are faced with when they arrive in Qatar.

“I would say the cost of food and refreshments here are what you’d refer to as ‘London prices’ at home,” Kate said.

“But Qatar is an expensive country anyway, so for me as a local the prices are exactly what I’d expect them to be.

“The cost of living here is like living in London. Rents are high, food is expensive, the cost of alcohol is high but that was the case anyway: they haven’t just raised the prices for the World Cup.”

The infrastructure supporting the finals has, according to Kate, meant getting to games isn’t too difficult.

“The metro here is really good for the areas that it services, and they are running buses from hubs, so you can go to one hub and catch a bus to any of the stadia, and that runs really well.

“The furthest north stadium isn’t serviced by public transport, so you take the metro to one of the other stadia, and they have buses to take you the rest of the way. That works really well: the problem comes if you are not near the metro line in the first place.”

How has Qatar, a country not famed for its love of football, taken to hosting the game’s biggest showpiece?

“I would say in the most part, the Qatari people understand and have embraced the World Cup,” said Kate.

“There are some people who just have no interest in football of course. The things people are definitely interested in were the opening game and the final.

“The main general interest in football is among the migrant workers, people from other countries. They are really embracing having the finals here. That’s why the Category 4 tickets are good as they are priced in a way that anyone in any job can afford a seat.

“The nationalities you see at games are people from Qatar, lots of different Arab nations, a lot of Indians, fans from Egypt – countries that aren’t all taking part but their people are embracing it.

“The Qataris I know are excited, and some of them are really happy to have tickets to see Argentina and Brazil.”

There was much furore when FIFA announced, on the eve of the tournament, that alcohol would not be sold in the venues after all.

“I was surprised it was ever suggested that alcohol would be served in the ground,” Kate commented.

“I always thought that stadia would be dry, and alcohol would only be served in hotel bars and at the fan fests.

“When the alcohol ban was announced, I think that was the first time I actually thought there was any chance of alcohol being inside the stadium anyway.

“I saw no problems with anyone attending the England game not being able to buy alcohol at the ground. I think the cost of attending this World Cup means that you are less likely to get problems than you would if it were in Europe.

“I went to an England game at the World Cup in South Africa, and it was the same sort of people and the same sort of vibe.”

England’s emphatic opening win over Iran has, of course, increased the hype and expectation around the national team. But would Kate rather see England lift the World Cup in her adopted homeland, or fly back to watch Watford promoted to the Premier League?

“Actually I was asked that by some people here in Qatar and they were a little bit surprised at my answer – it would be Watford every time,” she said.

“Even watching England score and win against Iran didn’t give me the same buzz as watching Watford do the same.

“I think that most English football fans would put their club before their country.”

Kate was last back in Watford to attend one of the Sir Elton John concerts at Vicarage Road in July, but has also managed to watch each league game so far this season.

“I watch every Watford game, either on the club’s Hive Live service or I can see games they don’t show on Bein Sports, a TV channel over here.

“I think we will make the play-offs, as for automatic promotion, I don’t know. If Imran Louza hadn’t got injured then I would have been a bit more confident.

“We are just so Jekyll and Hyde, although we do look a more organised side now. But sometimes, if the spark isn’t there, then we look very ordinary.”