It all feels a bit confusing, right?
You want to watch the World Cup, you want to enjoy it but, well, it just feels so… wrong. Yes, of course, you’re going to have friends round for the big games, bite your nails in the penalty shootouts and send angry messages to family and work colleagues about Gareth Southgate’s back five, Cristiano Ronaldo’s histrionics or Gregg Berhalter’s obsession with possession football.
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But that doesn’t mean you’re as excited as you’d normally be. It doesn’t mean you’re happy with a World Cup being held in a country with a horrific human rights record and which even pantomime villain Sepp Blatter now says shouldn’t be hosting it. It doesn’t mean you don’t feel disbelief when you hear World Cup-winning captain Hugo Lloris dismissing human rights or FIFA president Gianni Infantino telling people to focus on the football one minute, then ask Russia and Ukraine to pause the war the next.
And that makes it hard. I know I’ve found it hard and not just because I’m a gay man. Because the World Cup is still the biggest global sporting event on the planet and everyone reading this loves football. This could be Lionel Messi’s glorious swan song, Brazil’s thrilling renaissance, or simply our chance to see Kylian Mbappe make defenders look silly once again.
Will this be the year Messi lifts the World Cup? (Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)And we have wrestled with how to cover it: should we even send reporters to Qatar? Do we boycott the country’s name so we’re not complicit in sportswashing?
To be clear, I don’t think there’s a straightforward, ‘right’ answer but this is what we’ve decided.
We are sending journalists to the tournament.
Some will write about great games and goals, others will break stories about line-ups or fallouts and a few more will bring you in-depth podcasts, videos and articles on football in the sort of insane detail you expect from The Athletic.
But also many will focus on what’s happening off the pitch, on the fact that some LGBT+ fans are having to stay in safe houses, on the families of the workers who died building the stadiums, on the absurd politics that brought the tournament to Qatar, on the reality of the lives of women who live there, and still will once the circus has packed up and left.
By being on the ground, we can expose things and tell proper stories. And we will.
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We’ve done quite a lot of that reporting already (and I’ve put some links at the bottom of this piece if you want to read them) but there is so much more to do.
So if you’re feeling uncomfortable, if you’re feeling like you need to offset the football equivalent of your carbon footprint by understanding the serious issues, supporting a human-rights charity or you want to understand whether you do actually need to boycott this one, we will try to help you navigate that.
My instinct is that it’s OK to feel both ways. It’s not your fault that this tournament is in Qatar and after a World Cup cycle that has seen a harrowing global pandemic, Brexit, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now the cost of living crisis, not being able to enjoy the escapism of football is surely a punishment nobody deserves.
Usually, football is a great way to get away from all the realities and horrors normal life can bring.
This World Cup makes that line blurrier than ever.
I hope you feel we’ve got, and will get, the balance right.
So what about those of you who just want to focus on the football? This is where I hopefully get you excited enough to pre-emptively call in sick to work for a month so you can smother yourself in our reads, podcasts and videos.
- Guest writers. After the success of Yaya Toure on bums from the European Championship last year, we once again have some amazing players and managers delivering written columns and podcast appearances, as well as the excellent Alan Shearer. Keep an eye out tomorrow (November 17) for the announcement. There really is something for everyone.
- The rest of our journalists! We will have a large and talented team in Doha, working hard to bring you podcasts, videos, live streams on social media and, of course, analysis, news and long reads from the big talking points in the tournament. We also have people stationed in Dubai, Argentina, the US, England and Spain to help tell stories others won’t. And please in particular look out for Simon Hughes’ dispatch from Nepal and Adam Crafton’s trip to Suriname for some extraordinary storytelling. And in the meantime, make sure you follow two of our writers on their mad journey to the tournament.
- Follow the games with us. We know most of you come to The Athletic for inside information, analysis and stories you can’t get anywhere else. But we have spent a lot of this year improving our live experience too and really hope you will spend the game with us. Use our match experience (below, which you find by clicking on the game at the top of your home screen) as a perfect second screen for xG, live in-depth stats, tables, analysis and more.
- We also know that many of you watch the World Cup through a club lens. So if Virgil van Dijk starts playing in midfield for the Netherlands, we will explain to Liverpool fans whether it can happen for them too under Jurgen Klopp. If Christian Pulisic looks like a world-beater, we’ll make sure his Chelsea boss Graham Potter gets the memo.
- The Radar is back (November 18). If you don’t know what it is, take a look at the Euro 2020 one and get excited for the World Cup version, which looks better, reads better, covers more countries and is now interactive. It’s your best way to understand the players you will see on TV.
- Please get to know our Tifo YouTube channel if you don’t already. Its documentary on Qatar is brilliant and the daily analysis videos on the big games are clever, funny and easy to digest.
- Look out too for our explainer videos each day from the tournament, which will distill the big issues into easy-to-understand digests.
- We have a podcast for every type of fan. James Richardson and The Totally Football Show will be recording every night after the matches, The Athletic Football Podcast will be there for you each morning (recorded from Qatar) and The Athletic Soccer Show will focus on the USMNT mainly.
- We have a data-led newsletter to help you understand the reasons things are happening on the pitch and the trends affecting your team. You can sign up for it via the preferences button on your Athletic account so make sure you do.
- And for those of you on Twitter, we will have Carl Anka, Caoimhe O’Neill and Adam Leventhal guiding you through the day ahead each morning UK time.
- Last but not least is our slightly bonkers but wonderful Emergency Football Hotline, which will help you crack the parts of the game you feel too shy to ask your friends about. You can ring our experts at any time if you’re unsure what a false nine is, what constitutes a handball or where the next tournament will be held. Call 08000433433 in the UK or +442032828156 from abroad.
So to finish, here are a bunch of things I’d love you to read while you’re waiting for the big kick-off. There will be a lot more to come.
And please do let us know in the comments how you’re feeling.
Like I said, I know I’m struggling with it. I hope if you are too that you can find plenty of joy and excitement among the ugliness.
As ever, we will do our absolute best to keep you informed and entertained.
Thank you for your continued support. It means the world to us.
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Alex
(Photos: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)
Football articles
Tactical guides to the groups: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H
Guides to the 32 teams
Didier Deschamps exclusive interview
Testing the World Cup ball
The changing role of Brazil’s No 9
The stories of the towns which made the USMNT
Data breakdown of the England squad
The 2002 World Cup revisted podcast
How the 7-1 defeat by Germany affected Brazilian football
The weirdest World Cup merchandise
Qatar-related content
This is why the World Cup 2022 in Qatar is controversial
Is Qatar ready to host a World Cup?
Podcast: how did we get here?
The English FA and a very uncomfortable relationship with Qatar
Gianni Infantino’s lamentable letter
What was promised by Qatar and what they actually delivered
The Qatar World Cup Explained
Accounts to follow
The Athletic on Twitter
The Athletic on Instagram
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