Playing world cup football in Qatar is in my view worse than a mistake. The issues are not really about homosexuality as after all when England last won the World Cup, at Wembley in 1966, homosexuality was illegal in this country and imprisonment was possible.
No; we cannot expect each country to move at the same pace as others, as for example, the outlawing of guns being held by ordinary citizens might take another generation or more in the USA as might the dropping of capital punishment there.
One of the issues in Qatar for me however, is what in the UK would be known as sex discrimination, which affects half of the human race in countries where such discrimination usually affecting women, applies.
Then; was Qatar really the apt country for World Cup football bearing in mind their absence in first class footballing circles? I doubt it so the next question is why award that country the honour of hosting the World Cup? The answer to that question whatever it is, does no favours for FIFA.
Now to the football: What an amazing series of results so far with Germany and Belgium being knocked out during the group stages and Brazil which was expected to do well, being bettered by Cameroon. Who would have believed South Korea would beat Portugal or that Switzerland would progress or that Japan would successfully go through the group stage?
Wales did well to qualify despite not passing the group stage. Their supporters must surely be the best singers in Qatar though the team's defeat was not entirely unexpected.
England stuttered against USA, but overall, improved substantially to lead their group at the conclusion of their group stage, with not a goal being scored against them, so far.
How will the English team fare against Senegal tomorrow I wonder?
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