The World Cup none of us wanted.

 The World Cup none of us wanted.

In a couple of weeks time the men's football World Cup will, quite preposterously, get under way and the world will close its eyes, bow its head in disgust and then just shiver with horror, trepidation and dread. This is not the time to get all hot and bothered about a World Cup that few right thinking people would have wanted in the first place. But the painstaking preparations have been made, the construction workers have risked life and limb and most of us will try to pretend that this isn't really happening.

Amid an ugly backdrop of corruption, venality, crooked deception, horrendous immorality, a vast tidal wave of anger and vicious opprobrium, football will heave an uncomfortable sigh of despair. What on earth, the experts and pundits tell us, possessed the powers that be at FIFA to award the greatest football tournament on Earth to a nation of money obsessed, materialistic and obscenely wealthy sheikhs and sultans, the kind of people who normally do their everyday business in shady corners and back street alleyways.

In just over a weeks time Qatar will host the World Cup for the first time in that country's history and the objections are getting louder, the criticisms more vehement by the day and those who passionately care about the integrity of this blue riband football tournament are privately grieving and don't know why. We know why though and so do those within in the highest hierarchy of FIFA. The simple fact of matter is that nobody wants this whole grotesque spectacle to start at all. The problem is that there can be no turning back and this could turn into an unbearably painful experience for football followers all around the world.

In the old days football had decency, purity, high standards, exemplary sportsmanship, national anthems proudly sung, glorious patriotism, a feeling of harmony, unity, commonsense, rationality and fair play. Of course there were the fixed matches, the underlying suspicion that cheating had won the day again and some matches were blatantly rigged but most of us knew what we were getting and it was legally acceptable.

But in the sweltering heat and deserts of the Middle East football will come under the fiercest scrutiny, monitored like a hawk, analysed and then deconstructed. We'll rub our bewildered eyes with the shock of it all and then resign ourselves to fate. This was destined to happen and we fully understood the implications and consequences of FIFA's potty actions. And yet this still stinks, leaving a trail of controversy and bad feeling behind it. The poisonous stench is almost unbearable but world class football has to go on regardless.

There are traditionalists of course who can't get their head around the deplorable timing of this World Cup. World Cups are always open to new gimmicks, forward thinking innovation and expansion. But this has one has to beggar belief. You suspect that certain boundaries have been unforgivably crossed and the choice of a Qatar as hosts of this current World Cup had not been thought through properly.

There were no doubts, qualms or misgivings, no sudden reservations about Qatar and its suitability for a World Cup stage. The country's despicable human rights record, disgraceful stance on the rights of gays and lesbians to enter Qatar and no alcohol laws have now been widely discussed. Suddenly the World Cup, once joyously accessible to all nations and cultures, now finds itself at the behest of Arab rulers who would rather this whole circus simply go away.

Some of us though love the Beautiful Game, its whole-hearted passions, its infectious enthusiasms, its delightful eccentricities at times and the positive message it always sets out to support and advocate. But now we appear to have hit a brick wall and this may not have been the way it was supposed to be. Football cherishes its clean living, puritanical image both in Europe and the global community. Now though it all looks horribly unsightly and feels unsavoury.

Sadly, the events about to unfold in Qatar shortly, defy description and explanation. Who, for instance could have imagined a World Cup that would be air conditioned, still sweating in record breaking temperatures even at the end of November and just seeking cooling breezes as well as the shade? At the back of our minds there are lingering concerns about the welfare of both players and managers. Once again the World Cup finds itself in alien territory and terribly concerned about its image and, dare we say it, threatened identity.

We all know that in South Africa 12 years ago the good people of South Africa enthusiastically embraced the competition with a loving tenderness. There was a sense then that life had changed radically for the best in a once apartheid- stained country. The bitterness, hatred and division had all but vanished and generally speaking South Africa had got it absolutely right. Football and the vuvuzela had succeeded in its task of altering perceptions and correcting prejudices.

Then in 2022 South Korea and Japan stunned the world with its Far East mysticism, its warm acceptance of everything associated with the game and its commendable knowledge of the game's finer points. The World Cup was back in the hands of an admittedly novice footballing country but everybody kept smiling and nobody refused the hands of co-operation and agreement.

And as the World Cup approaches we still look at the game's governing bodies and privately question the sanity of those who made it possible in the first place. FIFA has never been the most charming of organisations even when things were going reasonably well for football. There were always the secretive spivs, the grubby characters who skulked menacingly in shady corners. They were the game's nasty, nefarious figures with vast sums of filthy, squalid money in their back pockets. They were the people who have no interest in the game whatsoever and just want to ruin the spectacle once and for all.

But then we remember the bad old days of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter so consumed with his own ego that most of us can hardly believe what football had done to deserve such a faceless bureaucrat. Here was a man with very few principles, little in the way of any honour and a man who seemingly held an enduring grudge against England's repeated bids for a World Cup. So we shook our heads and just allowed Blatter to get away with it.

In retrospect of course the decision to give Russia the World Cup four years ago now seems shamefully misguided. After the catastrophic conflict in Ukraine and the war that still rages on, we all look back at 2018 with a feeling that even then things would spiral out of control. We were right. Russia 2018 was, in its way, hugely successful and England almost won the World Cup for what would have been only the second time in its history. The truth though is Putin was still grumbling and sneering rather like somebody who privately believes that wretched gatecrashers would wreck his party.

Still, as they say nowadays, it is what it is. This weekend's Premier League fixtures will be the last to be played until Boxing Day and managers will be worried, players perhaps enormously frustrated and some just deeply disoriented. We have never travelled this highway before and the sense of disruption although not palpably felt, is still ever present. These are, quite literally, unprecedented times for football and the suspension of reality could become a genuine cause for anxiety.

Premier League leaders Arsenal will play their last game before the World Cup knowing full well that a two point lead over Manchester City could be obliterated quite quickly by New Year's Eve. But Arsenal are a strikingly attractive footballing side under manager Mikel Arteta and a World Cup could have a beneficial effect on the side who play at the Emirates Stadium. But it is impossible to know what may lie ahead for the Gunners although we do know that the Premier League surely has one or two unexpected tricks up its sleeve.

But the Qatar World Cup is almost upon us. That sentence itself has a chilling finality about, a doomed, worst-case scenario. Of course, England boss Gareth Southgate has done his meticulous planning and extensive research on all of his opponents. As well he should perhaps. He will though take a sharp intake of breath, bite his fingernails and gaze critically over proceedings rather like a father applauding their child on a Sunday morning at Hackney Marshes.

Regrettably this will not be a pleasurable experience for all concerned in the Middle East. We will cheer ourselves from the rafters of the stadiums themselves to the privacy of our living rooms. We will make our feelings abundantly clear. We won't be happy with the realisation that a World Cup Final will assuredly take place a week before Christmas Day. Some of us will be gritting our teeth hoping against hope that Santa Claus will not be required to hand over the World Cup to the triumphant country. Still, stranger things have been known to happen. Strike up the band and let the fun begin.