Laura Williamson

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I mean, when I think about my experience of World Cups as a kid and then being lucky enough to be in Qatar four years ago and to cover that tournament, you might not remember the score, you might not remember who scored, but you remember where you were and who you watched it with and what it meant to you at that time.

And I think it's that power that actually sport can have and football, soccer in particular, can have to bring people together, that sort of connective tissue, if you like.

So that's the hope that that's what this tournament can do without sounding sort of too sentimental about things.

But I really do believe that football in particular has the power to do that.

I do think back to that final three and a half years ago in Qatar, France and Argentina, and it going right down to the wire in terms of penalties.

And watching Lionel Messi lift the World Cup trophy was just an incredible moment.

When you think of his career, and it's obviously still going, he'll be there this time around as well.

But it's so rare that you get an incredible game to match the occasion, and that delivered on all fronts.

Yes.

Yes.

The first time it's ever been used.

It means ticket prices go, I was going to say up and down, but actually they just go up at the moment, depending on scarcity and depending on the demand for those tickets.

So because a certain number of tickets have been kept back or allocated to fans that are going to follow that country throughout the tournament, it's meant prices have gone up and up and up.

So

for the final, which obviously we don't know who's going to be in that.

At the moment, the sort of average price for around $11,000, which is eye-watering, to be honest.

But then at the other level, an England fan, for example, who wanted to have the opportunity to buy a ticket for every one of their group games and then an opportunity to buy a ticket to follow their team, even all the way on to the final, they were being asked to park with £14,000 ahead of the tournament.

I mean,