00:00Well, Lee Wellings is a sports writer and author. Lee, welcome to the programme. Not long to go now till
00:06the first game.
00:07How would you best describe the expectation ahead of this tournament?
00:12There should always be huge excitement before World Cup. We wait four years for it.
00:17It is the biggest event in football. It is one of the biggest events in sport, of course.
00:23Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, said it would be the greatest event that humanity has ever seen.
00:30But as we go into this tournament, fans around the world, they've been worried.
00:35There's been tension. There's been apprehension. It's replaced the excitement.
00:39There's been some dismay. And this has been, of course, you mentioned three hosts.
00:44But one of them in particular, the United States, that's where the focus has been on with the government of
00:49the United States.
00:50And, you know, Gianni Infantino tries to have a good relationship with President Trump and with America as hosts.
00:59But to say it hasn't been smooth is an understatement.
01:02You look at the visa issues, for instance.
01:05I mean, the top referee in Africa, Omar Artan, from Somalia, didn't make it into the country.
01:12That's one of the key officials at the tournament.
01:16There have been many other problems along those lines.
01:18The prices of tickets, the inflated prices, people not being able to go in to take reusable water bottles into
01:26the stadiums.
01:27This has been something that has left fans thinking, well, should the tournament even be there?
01:32Once the first ball is kicked, the excitement kicks in and there's going to be that festival of football.
01:39Lee, what about the extreme weather? How challenging could that be for some players?
01:44It could turn out to be the biggest issue of all.
01:47I've done a lot of research on this over the years and I've seen how many experts in meteorology have
01:53been really worried.
01:54They've been warning about it for years.
01:57They're talking about 14 of the 16 venues having an issue in terms of danger to players.
02:02Now, you have to say that FIFA have brought in safety measures.
02:06You know, there were more cooling breaks, more hydration breaks.
02:11They know that there's an issue and that has appeased the players union FIFA pro who were really worried about
02:18this.
02:18But it's going to be an issue.
02:20You're going to see not only the sort of dangers to players that you hope won't cause a serious issue,
02:26but you're also looking at the threat of thunderstorms sort of holding up games because of the time of year
02:33it's being played
02:34and the relation it's being played in.
02:36And all round, I think the weather's going to, it's even going to play a role in who wins the
02:41thing
02:42because how you can manage the conditions, the depth of your squad, these are going to be vital.
02:48It's going to be really testing conditions and there's had to be preparations for a long time to be ready
02:52to play in conditions like this.
02:54Lee Wellings, thank you, sports writer and also enjoy the World Cup.
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