It's all kicking off! Your guide to the World Cup

The controversy, the WAGs, even a bit of football...life is about to be taken over by the most watched sporting event on the planet. Anthony France takes you through a competition like no other

- Anthony France

FROM Sunday, Qatar will host the Middle East’s first World Cup and the first to be staged in winter — and it will be the tournament’s most controversial in 92 years. An estimated 1.2 million visitors are expected to descend on the capital, Doha, along with a global TV audience of five billion, for what governing body Fifa optimistically hopes will be “a celebration of unity and passion for the game we love so much”. It will certainly be a football World Cup like no other.

The hosts

Within days of Qatar clinching the hosting rights in 2010, there has been disquiet, protests and allegations. Ex-Fifa president Sepp Blatter recently admitted: “The choice of Qatar was a mistake.” The country was accused of paying officials £3 million in bribes to secure their backing but were cleared of corruption allegations after a twoyear investigation in 2014.

Once declared winners, Qatar set in motion a mammoth infrastructure project, spending a reported $200 billion (compared with the $11 billion spent by Russia at the last World Cup) that involved building seven of the eight stadiums, more than 100 new hotels, an airport, a metro transport system and roads for 4,000 buses.

The oil and gas-rich Gulf state and former British colony can trace its modern history back to the 18th century. Since independence, Qatar has become home to more than 2.7 million inhabitants living in an area half the size of Wales, making it the smallest ever World Cup host nation. Arabic is the official language although English is widely spoken.

The stadiums