UPFROnT
FourFourTwo December 2021 21a consummate pro, always trained
hard, always in shape, always gave
110 per cent, and a leader of men.
Your podcast is about getting angry.
Who’s the angriest player you’ve
ever seen?
Good question. Not enough of them
get angry for my liking, to be honest.
The angriest player at Everton now is
probably Coleman or Allan. I want to
see them pissed off, that they care,
that it matters. If we’re down, I want
to see them coming to blows with one
another because they’re losing.
What’s the most important piece of
memorabilia that you have?
In my ma’s loft, I’ve still got the grass
that I tore out against Wimbledon in
1994 – it’s literally just granules now,
wrapped up in an old scarf. We stayed
up on the last day of the season and
I couldn’t resist just taking a big bit
of turf like everyone else did. I’ve also
got a pair of Tim Cahill’s boots signed
- he’s a lovely bloke.
Who’s your current favourite player?
I’ve got a soft spot for Allan. I really
like players who do a job without you
noticing. When he’s missing, you know
about it – you realise how important
he is to the team. He’s a bit like Idrissa
Gueye when he played for us, because
he was the legs of our team.
If you could drop yourself into your
all-time five-a-side team, who would
you be playing alongside?
I can’t pick Big Dunc because I’ve got
to take his place. So Neville Southall is
in goal, Watson at the back, Olivier
Dacourt – absolute quality – and some
creativity from the underrated Osman.
I could have picked Andrei Kanchelskis,
but where the f**k is he going to use
that kind of pace in a five-a-side game?
Joe Brewin
‘Tony Bellew Is Angry’ is on BBC Sounds
The latest venue for the 2022 World Cup got its
big opening last month, and it did so in what had
become traditional fashion.
In 2017, the newly renovated Khalifa International
Stadium was officially reopened, and the first game
saw Xavi’s Al Sadd win the Emir Cup final. In 2020,
the new Al-Rayyan Stadium was officially opened, and
the first game saw Xavi’s Al Sadd win the Emir Cup
final. In October 2021, the new Al Thumama Stadium
was officially opened, and the first game saw Xavi’s
Al Sadd win the Emir Cup final.
The arena (above) has been designed to resemble
a traditional taqiyah hat and was the sixth of the
eight World Cup grounds to be completed, with a year
to go before a tournament that runs from November
21 to December 18, 2022. The grand opening of the
80,000-capacity Lusail Iconic Stadium, due to host
the World Cup final, has been delayed to early next
year, presumably while they figured out what to do if
Xavi was no longer in the country.
How many people will be inside the grounds during
the competition remains to be seen. Qatar’s human
rights record – homosexuality is illegal, and Amnesty
International estimate 15,000 migrant workers died
in the last decade – may put off some travellers, and
attendances were worryingly low at the 2019 World
Athletics Championships in Doha.
Local authorities, though, have suggested that fans
will be able to attend multiple matches in a day, with
all eight arenas within 50 miles of each other.Curiously, the organising committee chairman,
Hassan Al Thawadi, spent a year living in Scunthorpe
while he took his A-levels. “It took time getting used
to Scunthorpe,” he later admitted. “When I got the
bus, the driver asked me what stop I wanted – when
I said Scunthorpe, he said, ‘That’s the twilight zone’.
But the people were amazing.”
COVID has caused chaos ahead of the World Cup –
most regions will finish qualification in March, while
North Korea withdrew, shutting down international
travel despite being in contention to reach Asia’s final
group stage. The Oceania section has yet to even start
its qualification process, and has mulled relocating it
to neutral venues in Qatar in March.
Whatever the format, ‘All Whites’ New Zealand are
almost certain to progress to June’s inter-continental
play-offs, which will also feature teams from Asia,
South America and the CONCACAF region. The World
Cup group stage draw is scheduled for April 1.
A winter format will inevitably lead to a maniacal
domestic campaign in 2022-23. The Premier League
will halt between November 13 and Boxing Day, with
the Scottish Premiership potentially returning on
December 17 and England’s Championship restarting
a week earlier, although League One, League Two
and non-league look set to play all the way through.
Spare a thought for Hassan Al Thawadi, then: it
won’t be easy running a World Cup while also trying
to watch Scunthorpe United on iFollow.
Chris FlanaganWhenever a World Cup stadium has opened, Xavi has lifted a trophy
OnE YEAR TO QATAR