With Qatar welcoming the World Cup event for the first time, empty seats at the viewing site became an indisputable fact. However, the official spectator figures released are mind-boggling, with attendance exceeding the actual number of seats in the stadium.
In the case of Qatar's opening match against Ecuador, the game was played at the Albert Stadium, which has a maximum capacity of 60,000 spectators, but official figures show 67,000 fans flocked to the venue.
The match between the Netherlands and Senegal saw a similar scene as the two teams met at the Stade Toumama, which seats just 40,000 but officials claimed close to 42,000 spectators were present.
The announcement of the attendance figures immediately sparked questions from the public, with some suspecting that Qatar was "watering down" the crowd, deliberately inflating the actual number of fans to create the illusion of a packed stadium.
