Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder, and I'm going to be talking a bit about football.

And apologies if you're really not interested in football.

I'm not very interested in football. I support Crawley Town, who are currently, I think, sixth from the bottom of the League 2,

which used to be the old Football League Division 4, so therefore I don't have much to sing about.

However, I am increasingly inclined to consider a trip to Qatar. I love the atmosphere that comes with the

World Cup. I've been to a few World Cup matches in my time, really just because I enjoy the

astonishing camaraderie, meeting people from across the world and celebrating the joys of international travel.

And despite all the concerns about Qatar and the way it obtained the World Cup

and the ban on everything from beer during the tournament to gay people in general,

I still think it would be good to get out

there. And I've been tracking prices for both airfares and for accommodation, probably for

the last decade since they were given the right to host the World Cup this year.

And, well, I hate to say, I told you so, but my prediction is so far coming right.

And therefore, if you, like me, are interested in getting across to Qatar, I think the next, well, probably 16 or 18 hours is going to be

when to do it. Let me tell you why. Right. The busiest nights for accommodation in Qatar are on

Monday and Tuesday night. So that's tonight and tomorrow night. That's because it's

really just going into the final group matches and that's when we find out who's got through to

the round of 16 and who hasn't. And guess what? 16 teams will have done. 16 won't. We already

know that poor old Canada

out of the competition,

but mostly the excitement is yet to be sealed.

So therefore, at the moment,

...