CHARLIE CHRISTIE: World Cup kick off highlights perplexing choice of host
There can be no disguising that the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in 2010 sent shock waves around the football world and now that the tournament has started there are still many controversial issues hanging over the game’s most prestigious event.
The treatment of migrant workers, the nation's attitude towards gay and transgender people, corruption, human rights records, and the desert like climate have all made people query FIFA’s surprise decision and how they came to it.
Significant question marks linger to this day over the integrity of the voting process in 2010 with numerous accusations of bribery. It shouldn’t be forgotten that, prior to that December vote, two members of the 24-person executive committee tasked with selecting the 2022 host nation were suspended.
Sepp Blatter was FIFA president at the time and his time in that role has been subject to various investigations including a criminal charge of fraud and it is almost impossible to believe that there were no financial inducements involved in the voting process.
When you consider that Australia was also a candidate at the time and, given the unquestionable sporting success of that nation, it makes the Qatar award even more perplexing.
The tournament itself kicked off last Sunday when the host nation faced up to Ecuador and it turned out to be a comfortable win for the South American team who had achieved automatic qualification by finishing fourth in the hugely competitive 10-team CONMEBOL group.
Qatar, playing in their first ever finals, looked totally out of their depth and, with Holland and Senegal to come, it is hard to see them finishing Group A with anything other than zero points.
Apart from the ongoing controversies the biggest talking point so far has been the defeat of Argentina by Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and Lionel Messi and his teammates now need to defeat Mexico and Poland to ensure they make the knock-out stages.
Given they were hotly tipped by many as potential winners it would be a significant surprise if they don’t make it out of their group.
France have looked the most impressive so far with Kylian Mbappe the star man in their comprehensive win over Australia and, with Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele alongside Mbappe, their attacking threat looks as good as anyone’s.
England also started very positively with their comprehensive win over Iran and the talk of them as potential winners has already gained momentum with many commentators, but they will have far more challenging tests ahead if they are to go deep into the tournament.
Personally, I think that the eventual winners will be a South American team wearing blue and gold although, having drawn them in the ICT sweepstake, I have a new found fondness for Poland and would not be averse to them lifting the solid gold trophy come December 18!
