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THOUSANDS of World Cup fans faced lengthy queues to get into the Qatar tournament’s showpiece music and culture carnival last night.

- Jerry Lawton and Cyril Dixon

Confusion reigned as families with young children joined thousands waiting up to an hour for entry to the FIFA Fan Festival in Doha.

Concert-goers were held up in bottlenecks caused by crowd control measures and security checkpoints.

It led to hundreds of supporters leaping over barriers and a hedge to head for an alternative entrance after being put off by the queues.

Others were turned away because their official Qatari government passes were not accepted by the security staff.

Last night’s festival at the capital’s Al Bicca park was the first mass World Cup event and will be seen as a test for the organisers’ crowd control systems.

But one Wales fan told how some of her group had been turned away after queuing because they only had a paper version of the official Hayya card.

All visitors to Qatar have to apply for the pass before being allowed in and can carry a printed version or download an app.

But the Welsh fan, who did not want to be named, said: “It is an absolute shambles – it really is chaos.

“We queued for ages to get in and although we were all right, one of our friends didn’t have the app.

“We tried to sort it out with the security people but they refused to give in and three of our friends had to go home.”

The confusion came amid ongoing furore surrounding FIFA’s decision to award the tournament to the Gulf state.

As well as criticism of the host’s ban on homosexuality and its human rights record, doubts have been raised about Doha’s infrastructure.