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Just seen this beautiful specimen for the first time. Out on Thursday!

The first (of no doubt many) attempts to get Dele Alli to lead Beşiktaş fans in a chant. Rate the enthusiasm, but definitely room for improvement. Hoşgeldin Dele ve hayırlı olsun 🦅

Qatar Tourism launch a campaign featuring David Beckham to promote stopovers in Qatar. It showcases David Beckham's action-packed 48 hours stopover, highlighting all from cultural hotspots to scenic landscapes and friendly locals in Qatar. x.com/NTC_Qatar/stat…

This is apparently Fenerbahçe's first 'marşı', a genre of psuedo-militaristic song football fans in Turkey like to produce. It was written by the Armenian Harutyun Sinayan -- a reminder of early Turkish football's ethnic diversity.

1/ “So often, writers like me are brought onto such projects to tick a box ... we’re often asked to just write about the same things covered by previous writers." @Arabnews asked me why working on @lonelplanet's new Britain guidebook was so important. This thread explains🧵

This looks like a great opportunity for those interested in better sport:

During my visits to Qatar, I have been struck by the strange role that hotels play in the country. A piece for the FT Weekend on how they act as 'the lungs of Doha' - at least for some. ft.com/content/bdd457…

This point deserves more of an airing. The overall thread is an important corrective to assumptions about international football fandom, too.

The party has very much started at the family fan zone in Doha. To be honest, It’s quite refreshing to know that no-one’s going to throw beer over all of us #FIFAWorldCup

📢Türkçe bilen arkadaşlar: bu akşam sevgili arkadaşım Can Evren ile Katar Dünya Kupası 2022 üzerine konuşacağım. Gel!

🧵[THREAD] #SaudiArabia's victory against Argentina celebrations from across the Arab World 🇸🇦 #FIFAWorldCup #Qatar2022

Question to Twitter: does anyone know of any England or Wales fans staying in Riyadh or Muscat? #FIFAWorldCup

This is the nuance that too often is lost in discussions of Qatar's World Cup. The NYT piece by Vivian Nereim is worth a read also.

The Qatar World Cup has 137 players playing for a country other than the one they were born. France sent 38 of these players (more than Spain, Brazil, England, Germany and Argentina combined). Here’s a quick thread on why:

I spent 3 weeks volunteering, attending matches and interviewing people at the Qatar World Cup. It was strange, conflicting and confusing. So many different universes existing in parallel. Here are my reflections, for New Lines Magazine. newlinesmag.com/first-person/t…

To anyone in London on March 17th 📢 I'm talking about Inside Qatar at Daunt Books Marylebone, alongside the excellent Prof. Eugene Rogan). Do join us. dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/jo…

I'm talking about Qatar Daunt Books in London on Friday. Do consider joining.

In the latest issue of The Nightwatchman, John McManus reports on the most popular game in Qatar which, perhaps surprisingly, isn't football Buy your copy here: bit.ly/3TmmTOi

Delighted to say that Inside Qatar has been shortlisted for the 2023 The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. Incredible to see it among such prestigious company. I'm thrilled beyond words.

Good grief. Galatasaray have won the league and Graeme’s got his big flag back out.