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All eyes zero in on Qatar as football spectacle begins to take shape

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The World Cup remains special for what it is at its essence: a football spectacle. PHOTO: REUTERS

On Monday, the countdown begins. For five weeks, English Premier League and La Liga kits will be stashed aside as club allegiances take a back seat.

Instead of the Gunners, Blaugrana, or Nerazzurri, nicknames of teams like Die Mannschaft, Selecao and La Roja will roll off tongues as national pride comes to the fore.

Until Dec 18, only the flag on their chest will matter to the more than 800 players from 32 teams who will begin to trickle into Qatar for the World Cup.

It is an unfamiliar, unusual and uncomfortable scenario as they shift their attention away from their employers midway through the established club football calendar. This is the case for supporters, too.

Timing aside, the host nation has come in for criticism over a number of issues ranging from human rights to its stance on homosexuality and consumption of alcohol.

Qatar pledged labour reforms and since 2016, has improved salaries and living conditions for migrant workers, among other revamps.

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Change, though, takes time and as it continues to take place, teams and players will no doubt make their opinions heard over the next few weeks.

Through it all, the World Cup remains special for what it is at its essence: a football spectacle.

Every fan can recall their first tournament experience. Mine is watching Roberto Baggio sky his penalty against Brazil in 1994 on television as I was getting ready for school that morning.

The World Cup creates moments you live with forever

It mesmerises and bewitches. Stirs and stimulates. It can even pit brother against brother.

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Nico and Inaki Williams, for example, play for the same club, Athletic Bilbao, in Spain where they were born.

In Qatar, though, 20-year-old Nico has been selected to play for the Spaniards, while big brother Inaki, 28, will represent Ghana, where their parents were born.

Depending on how the teams fare in the group stage, the brothers could meet in the quarter-finals. If they do, it will be all “business”, even if their mother Maria has a “divided heart”, Inaki told ESPN last month.

The World Cup can kindle a wide array of emotions, and also stokes fandom and worship even in nations that have never kicked a ball on its stage.

In India, fans from the small village of Pullavoor in Kerala erected towering cut-outs of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar in the Kurungattu Kadavu river. It is a level of devotion not many can comprehend.

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An Instagram account of Argentina fans based in Kerala has 183,000 followers. In comparison, Ghana’s official football federation has 123,000.

Dhiman Sarkar, a football journalist with the Hindustan Times, explains that the love for Brazil’s football team in India stems from their reputation as entertainers and for being “possibly everyone’s second favourite team”.

“The support for Argentina,” he adds, “is because of Maradona and 1986. (That) was also the first time all games were televised live in India. And how could anyone not fall for him!”

If that was what matches on TV 36 years ago could do, imagine what emotions the World Cup will rouse among football fans over the coming weeks.

The fact a full-scale, in-person tournament will take place is already a massive step forward for the game following nearly three years of the pandemic. The delayed Olympics in 2021 were the first global sports event to take place amid Covid-19. The athletes were in Tokyo but not the fans, with Japan barring spectators in stadiums.

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This time, in excess of 1.2 million visitors will arrive in Qatar to attend the tournament, and Fifa president Gianni Infantino has predicted that five billion people – or roughly two-thirds of the world’s population – will watch the action on TV around the globe.

For five weeks, the football world stops and watches

-The Strait Times

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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