Miguel Delaney

I'd agree with him on that characterisation of the World Cup, if not necessarily his own feel for it and all that.

I think it is...

There is a very strong argument.

It's the greatest cultural event that humanity has ever seen.

Nothing brings together more people.

There's nothing that more people have cared about to cross so many borders.

It is genuinely universal, I would say, the one true global party in that sense, which is why it's such a shame that...

I mean, A, it's been brought to a country this time that evidently doesn't see it as a global part in that way, given some of the issues around it.

And B, how the modern FIFA, Infantino's FIFA, have sought to use this unique power and how they've allowed it to be used.

And it does feel like, I mean, like it's amazing.

This is my fifth World Cup.

And Qatar felt like the kind of the end of something, kind of the culmination of an era.

But this has the same sort of feel.

I think it's maybe just kind of what the World Cup is and the way, especially as it expands and the way it brings together so many of, it brings together and articulates so many of the kind of the undercurrents and overriding themes of football over a four-year spell into one something that has, does genuinely still have a lot of good, but also lamentably a lot of bad.

Yeah, I suppose even zooming out, giving you a start with the Iran issue, I've been thinking about this a lot, especially because we faced a lot of, and this is something that actually quite aggravates me, there's been a lot of discussion and criticism, oh, the Western media aren't talking about USA in the way they're talking about Qatar.

I mean, that's nonsense.

Personally, me, among many of my colleagues who didn't say it, I've been talking about this for a long time, so many of the various issues.

A lot of people are only aware of the issues of this World Cup because they have been covered, not least the issues around visas.

But also, it is different.

I mean...