Some England and Wales fans will receive flights and tickets to Qatar and ‘will be expected to stand, sing and wave flags’Roll up. Humans for sale. We will buy your labour. We will buy your joy too. We will buy your parping horn, your triumphalist songs. We will, let us make this clear, buy your feelings. So dance for us. Show your passion for the project (or lose its associated privileges). Because make no mistake: those tender feelings, the urge to feel and express pleasure, to interact with the spectacle, are now property of the state of Qatar.There is something genuinely jaw-dropping about the story that 40 England fans – including members of the England band – and 40 Wales...
The schedule is unrelenting for elite men’s footballers but their challenge will be less physical than psychological after QatarThe schedule is relentless for the modern men’s footballer. They often need to be primed to play twice a week and matches are especially bunched this season because of the World Cup in Qatar. Helpfully, footballers are almost superhuman, built for the physical rigours of a high-tempo sport and backed by incredible science and coaching to keep them at their best.The science behind nutrition, fitness and medical treatment is helping footballers achieve their physical optimum. At the top level they are playing more games than ever. Going into the 2018 World Cup, 29 players had featured for more than 5,000 minutes in...
As the chess furore between Carlsen and Niemann rolls on, we take a look at some enduring disputes in sportNot since Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit enthralled 62 million viewers has chess captured mainstream attention to such an extent.Last month the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, world No 1 and already the “rock star” of chess – see GQ profiles and multimillion‑pound apparel collaborations – accused the American Hans Niemann of cheating after the 19-year-old ended Carlsen’s over-the-board 53-match winning sequence. Continue reading...
This weaponised World Cup is not about Qatar becoming liked by western Europe, it is a vast geopolitical security operationWe need a new word for this thing. Psychologists have sometimes used the phrase “semantic satiation” to describe the process where saying the word “woodpecker” 20 times in a row, or sitting in a circle reciting the phrase “straight-leg easy-fit chinos” will eventually strip those sounds of any meaning, as though the entire concept of straight-leg easy-fit chinos has suddenly ceased to exist.Something like this has happened to the word “sportswashing”. This was always a hopeful coinage, adopted on the hoof to describe governments or other entities that use elite sport as a propaganda tool. Years of heavy use, first by...
Tainted Qatar 2022 is unlikely to be won by Gareth Southgate’s side, but lose in the wrong manner and it could cost him his jobNine years ago the then new chairman of the Football Association, Greg Dyke, spoke of his aims for England’s men’s football team. “I want to set the whole of English football two targets,” he said. “The first is for the England team to at least reach the semi-finals of the Euro Championship in 2020 and the second is for us to win the World Cup in 2022.”So far better than expected then – but one big step to come, win the blood-soaked, tainted World Cup in Qatar. It always seemed a ridiculous target on which to...