DOHA
\nThe week-long countdown to the World Cup in Qatar began on Monday as the world\u2019s leading footballers focused their attention on one of the most controversial tournaments in history.
\nAfter a last weekend of action, domestic leagues paused for six weeks to allow the tournament to take place, but preparation time is short for the teams.
\nThe first World Cup to be held in the Arab world will kick off on Sunday when the host nation face Ecuador.
\nHolding football\u2019s showpiece event in a desert state has necessitated an unprecedented reorganisation of the international football calendar, shifting the World Cup from its normal slot in the northern hemisphere summer to avoid the Gulf\u00b4s scorching heat.
\nThree players expected to be the tournament\u00b4s biggest names \u2014 Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe \u2014 emerged unscathed from Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s 5-0 victory against Auxerre in Ligue 1 on Sunday.
\nMbappe, who will spearhead France\u2019s defence of their title in Qatar, signed off in style by scoring PSG\u2019s opening goal.
\nTeams must submit their final squad lists on Monday.
\nIran named Sardar Azmoun their star player in the final 25-man squad. Azmoun also plays for German club Bayer Leverkusen.
\nAcrimonious dispute
\nSunday\u2019s kickoff marks the culmination of Qatar\u2019s extraordinary campaign to first win the vote to land the tournament and then embark on a spending spree of tens of billions of dollars to build stadiums and infrastructure.
\nFIFA\u2019s pleas to \u201cfocus on the football\u201d have struggled to be heard as the countdown to kick-off has only increased scrutiny of the Gulf state\u2019s treatment of migrant workers, women, and other marginsalised communities.
\nLabourers from South Asia have been at the centre of an often acrimonious dispute over deaths, injuries, and their working conditions since Qatar was awarded the World Cup in 2010.
\nAmnesty International on Friday made an urgent plea for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to commit to a compensation package for the workers who built the tournament\u2019s gleaming stadiums.
\nQatar has angrily rebuffed most of the attacks and local media have blasted the \u201carrogance\u201d of some Western countries.
\nSophia Stone, a Briton who lives in Doha, said the negative press was unfair.
\n\u201cI wouldn\u2019t listen to everything you hear on the news,\u201d she told AFP. \u201cIf you really want to have an opinion about it then come to Qatar and see for yourself. From what I am reading, it isn\u2019t like that at all.
\nIt is very open-minded and welcoming.\u201d
\nThe country of barely three million people, one of the world\u2019s biggest producers of natural gas, has spent lavishly.
\nNew stadiums cost more than $6.5 billion and a driverless metro system with a price tag of $36 billion serves five of the eight venues.
\nSome estimates put total infrastructure spending over the past decade at $200 billion.
\nOrganisers have predicted more than one million fans will travel to Qatar and they have responded to concerns about a lack of accommodation by using three cruise ships as floating hotels. They are fully booked for the first two weeks of the tournament.
\nOrganisers say that 2.9 million of the 3.1 million tickets have been sold and fans have been waiting outside the FIFA ticketing centre hoping scarce tickets become available for top games.
\nQatar announced its first arrests of World Cup ticket touts on Monday, with three foreign men detained outside official ticketing centres in Doha. No details were given of their nationality.
\nIn Europe, unease at a country with virtually no tradition of football hosting the tournament is keenly felt.
\nGermany\u2019s 2014 World Cup-winning captain Philipp Lahm said on Sunday that Qatar should never have been allowed to host the World Cup because of rights abuses.
\n\u201cAwarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake,\u201d Lahm wrote in a column for Die Zeit newspaper. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t belong there.\u201d
\nLufthansa said an aircraft bearing the sign \u201c#DiversityWins!\u201d will fly Germany\u2019s team to their World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOHA The week-long countdown to the World Cup in Qatar began on Monday as the world\u2019s leading footballers focused their attention on one of the most controversial tournaments in history. After a last weekend of action, domestic leagues paused for six weeks to allow the tournament to take place, but preparation time is short for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-295238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n