I missed one of the best World Cup finals ever, but now I know all about the crisis in the NHS
We asked if we could turn the match on in A&E and were told: “This is a hospital. Not a…
ByWorld Cup 2022
The problem with sport’s endless “greatest of all time” debates
Fans’ fixation on the concept of greatness has become an absurd identity politics.
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Qatar are the real winners of the World Cup
Despite the migrant deaths, the homophobic laws, the alleged corruption, in the end football trumped everything.
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The highs and lows of Christmas TV 2022
From the Motherland special to the return of Happy Valley.
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How much does it cost to watch a game of football?
Is it cheaper to watch matches at home or the pub? The football cost-of-living crisis – in numbers.
By How I went viral at Spurs, why believing isn’t magic, and Jack Grealish’s calves go global
It feels weird having it in the desert, but the highlight of the season is still the World Cup.
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Gareth Southgate’s real legacy will be measured not in trophies but in happiness
This is one of the most united England squads in recent memory.
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The vast costs of the Qatar 2022 World Cup
Qatar 2022 will produce the same emissions as a developing country, with a price tag equivalent to the entire GDP…
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Qatar proves that sportswashing works
Once we promised not to watch the World Cup, but now the excitement of football has silenced concerns over corruption,…
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Letter of the week: Transatlantic cousins
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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David Baddiel’s Diary: Shouting at the World Cup, a timeout from Twitter, and why Jews still don’t count
My new documentary was received well, but friends still called to tell me I was being slagged off on social…
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Qatar 2022 is gaslighting LGBTQ+ people
Fifa pretends to show allyship, but uses us as a political football.
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The Qatar World Cup is a moral disaster – is it braver to step away, or step inside?
Nothing that happens on the pitch can possibly salvage the horrors that brought this tournament about.
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Leader: What the World Cup tells us about power
In sport, as in politics, principles do not count for much if we only observe them when the cost of…
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Don’t kid yourself any good can come of the Qatar World Cup
My experience shows Qatari events cannot transcend their debased foundation.
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More reality TV bookings beckon for Matt Hancock
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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In Qatar’s paranoid parallel universe, the World Cup is just a prop in a theatre of war
This is not just “sportswashing”: it’s very real power play.
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The Qatar World Cup is immoral and weird. How did we allow this to happen?
The whole enterprise is a kind of power move – a gigantic middle finger levelled in the general direction of…
ByThe rise of Qatarphobia
I’m fed up with the reaction to Fifa’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup to the tiny Gulf emirate
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