| Host nation: Qatar Dates: 20 November-18 December Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app. Day-by-day TV listings - Full coverage details |
The slogan is "Now is All". The on-field action that is about to begin should be the focus of the message. To leave the past behind. It would be simpler if it were that easy.
It's been said that the most controversial sports event in a long time is the tournament in Qatar. There is a lot of competition for such a title.
China has hosted the Olympics twice in the last two decades. Russia has hosted the Winter Games and the World Cup in the past 10 years.
Despite the scale of the human rights atrocities that both those countries stand accused of - and fears such events have been used to embolden their autocratic regimes - it is arguablyQatar that has provoked most dismay and anger.
A key ally of the West - unlike China and Russia - and now reportedly the 10th biggest landlord in the UK, with many British investments, Qatar insists that the World Cup is not fair.
This will be the first Middle Eastern World Cup and it should be celebrated. An event that welcomes all, grow the sport, inspire youth, boost tourism, and promote sustainable living. There are hopes that it could also prove to be a unifying force because of the easing of tensions in the region.
The build-up to this tournament has been problematic.
When Sepp Blatter announced that the tiny desert state of Qatar had won the 2010 World Cup, there was a lot of suspicion over how it had happened.
Organisers have always denied allegations of corruption, vote swapping, and trade deals at the highest levels of government.
The Fifa executive committee members who voted on that fateful day 12 years ago, with two of them already suspended at the time after a newspaper expose that alleged the pair had asked for cash in return for World Cup votes, most have since been accused, banned or
As part of the FBI's massive corruption probe into the governing body, US prosecutors accused three former senior officials of receiving bribes.
Many people think that the World Cup was bought by the country, despite the fact that it was cleared of corruption. The vote was possibly the result of an arms deal between the country and France according to the man.
Concerns over how players and fans would cope with the extreme summer temperatures they were told they would face followed the rescheduling of the event causing the football calendar to be disrupted. The security operation in an Islamic country with strict rules over alcohol and no experience of policing anything on this scale has caused concerns over player welfare.
The tournament's impact on the environment is one issue. One of the world's least sustainable countries will host the World Cup in 2022. The experts think emissions could be three times the official estimate.
The World Cup is being held in one city, with a fleet of electric buses, and an off-setting and carbon credits programme, all of which are part of the tournament's focus on sustainable living.
The eight stadiums of the tournament have legacies. There are seven stadiums. At the end of the tournament, one will be dismantled and six others will be turned into hotels or community spaces.
There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the fan experience. There are apartments, hotel rooms, desert camping, villas, fan villages and cabins on moored cruise ships.
Some fans have complained of the high cost of accommodations. 30,000 extra rooms will be made available which is the equivalent of one million nights and will help provide 130,000 rooms in all.
It's not clear if that will be enough to meet demand.
The reputation of the event has been damaged due to persistent fears over the human toll of building the infrastructure required in such a short period of time and in such a climate.
There have been three deaths on actual stadium construction sites since work began, and 37 other deaths that aren't related to work, according to the authorities. Workers' welfare is a priority according to the Supreme Committee.
Official figures show 15,000 non-Qataris died in the country between 2010 and 2019.
The figure is related to the size of the workforce. It's not clear how many of those deaths were linked to work or if they were related to the World Cup.
Human rights campaigners say thousands of deaths are effectively unexplained because of a lack of investigation. Last year, the Guardian found 6,500 migrant workers from five countries - India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal - had died between 2010 and 2020, with 69% of the deaths among Indian, Nepali and Bangladeshi workers attributed to natural causes.
The tournament will always be blood-stained regardless of the official statistics.
Organisers have always maintained that all visitors will be welcomed regardless of race, religion, gender or sexuality, but they have also said they expect their laws and culture to be respected, and many LGBT fans say they have not received assurances over safety that they needed. Stuart Andrew, the Sports Minister, has sought assurances from the Qatar authorities after James Cleverly urged gay fans to compromise.
A recent report by Human Rights Watch saying members of Qatar's LGBTQ+ community were detained and physically abused by the country's security services has done little to ease the tension. Nor did a World Cup ambassador's much-criticised comments that homosexuality is "damage in the mind". How all this can be reconciled with the promise of a 'World Cup for all' remains unclear.
Sport has been forced to think about social change, whether it's incumbent on the host country or those who visit, and the tensions that arise when global events grow into new territories.
It's difficult to argue that hosting major sports events in Russia and China was a catalyst for change.
The greater international scrutiny that has accompanied the World Cup has led to the dismantling of the kafala sponsorship system, as well as amendments to the labour system. Human rights groups say these are still being implemented. The failure to set up a Migrant Worker Centre and a compensation fund for the families of those killed or injured is a disappointment.
There are people who think it is better to host the World Cup in conservative Muslim countries, like this one, than it is to do so in the Middle East. It is hypocritical of Fifa to state a commitment to non- discrimination in its statutes while at the same time awarding the World Cup to hosts where it is against the law for some people to simply be themselves.
It is often asked if equal rights would be a condition of staging such events. There was no mention of worker or human rights in the evaluation of the bid for the World Cup. There should have been no demands over protections.
Some of the game's highest-profile names have found themselves drawn into these debates because of the emotions that swirl around this event.
Gary Neville and David Beckham have both been criticized for agreeing to commentate at the World Cup for a TV network.
Rival teams were urged to focus on football instead of being dragged into every ideological or political battle.
Iran, whose drones are believed to be being used by Moscow to terrorise Ukrainian civilians, as well as the death of a young woman in the custody of the state's morality police, have led to calls for the exclusion of the country.
With a lot of teams taking stands via videos, training tops and armbands, it's possible that Fifa was worried about how to draw the line. It's true that no country is perfect. The football confederations of Asia and South America supported it.
As 10 European football associations suggested in a joint statement, in an era when players are increasingly keen to express their views on social and political issues, and human rights are considered non-negotiable, the request that teams stay silent seems increasingly unrealistic.
Once the action gets under way, the hosts will be looking for the narrative to shift. If this is an example of sportswashing, is it backfiring?
Over the past two years, much of the world's attention has been diverted - first by Covid, then the war in Ukraine. But in recent weeks, as the tournament has loomed into view, there has been a barrage of negative headlines, from reports of secret hacking operations to the revelation that fans were being paid to 'spy' on their friends - something that was denied by the tournament's organisers.
The increasingly exasperated Qatari authorities have started to suggest their critics are not only hypocritical but perhaps even motivated by racism.
Their slogan in 2010 was 'Expect amazing'. They might not have expected the constant scrutiny of a winning vote.
The World Cup in the desert will be remembered more for the football than the dust-storm of controversy that preceded it.
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