Looking to silence critics sceptical of Qatar's ability to host the World Cup, members of the Qatari ruling family inadvertently provoked a PR disaster back in 2011, when the Asian Cup final between Australia and Japan in Doha ended in a storm of protests.

Al Jazeera English reported: "Thousands of ticket-holding fans were turned away as police imposed a lockout." The gates were closed early to ensure a security blanket around the royals as they were ushered in, said Jassim al-Rumaihi, the tournament's operations director. Al Jazeera described how fans were confronted by riot police at the gates. "The guy went mental on me," one said. "There was blood all down my hands."

To add insult to injury, a volunteer told the broadcaster that immigrant workers had earlier been bussed in to avoid the embarrassment of a half-empty stadium. "The people outside the ground had tickets – they were waving them in the air. The people who were brought in were being handed balloons and flags to make them look like real fans," he said.

For Japan, who won 1-0, it was a victory to be celebrated, and as Asahi Shimbun noted, it "finally healed the trauma of 'Doha no higeki'" – the tragedy of Doha, when a draw with Iraq in the city prevented the Blue Samurai from reaching the 1994 World Cup.

But it remained a disaster for Qatar, where, despite offers of refunds, Arabian Business quoted a Saudi visitor saying: "How do they expect to organise the 2022 World Cup? They can't even organise this." Another said: "It was chaos. A sad experience." But the final word, damningly, belonged to the broadcaster set up by the Emir of Qatar. "There was confrontation for no reason," commented Al Jazeera. "If they did that with slightly aggravated football fans at the World Cup there would be a riot."