Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast for Monday the day after the first World

Cup match of course of 2022 in the highly controversial location of Qatar which is where I am now

frustratingly though I am very much airside.

I'm at Hamad International Airport, where I've been for rather too long in my book.

I was very much hoping that I would be able to get out of the airport and into central Doha to soak up the atmosphere,

to enjoy some tea, to walk around and remind myself of the marvellous camaraderie of World Cup.

So I'm not the world's biggest football fan, but I do very much like the way that the globe gets

together for World Cups and for example in Russia another country with authoritarian rule

and poor treatment of minorities particularly LGBT people that it was a fantastic festival of football.

And from purely the point of view of, is this going to be a great thing for football for Russia?

It most definitely was.

Wonderful camaraderie between the fans.

I was in Kaliningrad for the Croatia against Nigeria match.

And there were people from all over the world and the locals could not have been more welcoming and generous.

Obviously we're now in a different time but Doha and the rest of Qatar were given the

World Cup, which the first question was why? I'm given that this little thumb of desert, half the

size of whales protruding from the north side of the Arabian Peninsula, isn't noted for its great footballing traditions,

although, to be fair, they have some decent players over the years.

That was the first question, why?

And I think it's become clear that perhaps there was some money involved.

The other aspect, the other questions that everyone wanted to know, this is

12 years ago, is what are we going to do about drinking then? This is a conservative Islamic

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