World Cup preparations for Qatar 2022 are the best ever – that is according to Gianni Infantino.

Of course, the FIFA president has a highly vested interest in making such a claim given that he was part of the organisation that decided to make the controversial decision to award the right to host the tournament in the first place.

Inevitably allegations of corruption have surrounded the decision to award the prestigious tournament to a country with no history of playing top class football.

And then there is the timing. Due to the fierce heat of the Middle East summer, where temperatures can soar above 50 Degrees Centigrade in the middle of the day, the tournament, for the first time is switching to the late autumn, beginning on November 21st and culminating in the final on Doha on December 18^th.

Meanwhile, the international community has been outraged by reports that more than 6,000 migrant workers have been killed building the stadiums that will be used to host matches, whilst thousands more have been made to work and live inhumane conditions.

During qualifying games for the tournament, the Norwegian and German teams have all worn T-shirts protesting about the human rights situation in Qatar, whilst Denmark has gone one better. 

Their football association (DBU) has announced that their team will take part in no commercial activities arranged by event organisers, and the team’s partners and sponsors will make minimal trips to Qatar. They have also said that the team will display messages of support for human rights issues on their training apparel during the tournament.

However, despite the moral ambiguity that many feel about Qatar staging the tournament, what Infantino, and the rest of FIFA are counting on is the fact that, once the action gets underway, concerns about human rights will get pushed into the background.

Certainly, vast amounts of money can be expected to be waged on the batting exchanges and with companies like Bet365 alternative link.

After all, more than 3.5 billion people watched part of the 2018 World Cup in Russia – more than half the people on Planet Earth, and at least 1.12 billion watched at least one minute of the final between France and Croatia in Moscow.

Given this level of likely global interest, those calling on teams or individuals to boycott the tournament are likely to find few supporters. Instead, they are better concentrating their efforts on using the platform as an opportunity to highlight human rights issues, and hope that having the world spotlight on them will pressurise Qatar into changing its ways.

Purists will also bemoan the fact that their traditional football calendars are being sacrificed for the international game, but almost inevitably, once the tournament draws near, they too will begin to get in the spirit and be ready to support their national teams once more.

Nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the Greatest Show on Earth.