World Cup 2022 LIVE: Christopher Nkunku out of France squad through injury

A group of young footballers are sitting together in a canteen, talking about “girls” and the game in the way young footballers do, when the conversation turns to something deeper.

“Let me just ask you, what do you imagine freedom to be,” one goes to the table. “Let me have a go,” another responds. “I think freedom means maybe not being under slavery but having access to everything, your movement, free expression.”

“So many immigrants are coming to Qatar to work in search of greener pastures, but maybe a couple of them are not finding this greener pasture. They are staying in Qatar against their will, not directly like you’re being enslaved here. But, it’s like, you can’t go back, so you just stay and work for maybe the small salary.”

Another interjects: “Modern slavery.” “You can call it that.”

England and Arsenal defender Lotte Wubben-Moy has said she will not watch the men’s World Cup because of Qatar’s laws which make homosexuality punishable by death.

Wubben-Moy said she would support the England men’s team in the tournament, which begins in less than two weeks’ time, but will keep her television turned off amid the controversy surrounding Qatar’s staging of the showpiece event.

“It’s tough,” the 23-year-old said. “As an England team we all have strong values. And a lot of those values aren’t reflected in the way that we see it in Qatar. I think it’s a tough conversation to have and there’s a lot of dialogue around it.”

The defending champions are one of 13 European nations to sign up to the ‘OneLove’ campaign against discrimination while in the host country where same-sex relationships are against the law.

Fifa rules prohibit teams from bringing their own armband designs to the World Cup and insist they must use equipment provided by the governing body, although many – including England – have hinted they will defy the regulations in Qatar.

Asked on Monday about the initiative during a news conference at France’s training ground, Lloris appeared skeptical.

England’s World Cup squad have left their St George’s Park HQ to set off for Qatar. The Three Lions jetted out to the controversial tournament from Birmingham on a plane called ‘Rain Bow’.

Among the criticism of the hosts is the country’s oppressive laws and treatment of LGBT+ people. The rainbow is the symbol of LGBT+ pride.

England skipper Harry Kane is one of several national captains who plan to participate in the ‘OneLove’ campaign during the tournament to oppose discrimination.

A Football Association spokesperson told the PA news agency: “We show our support for inclusion in many ways, including wearing the OneLove Armband during the tournament.”

Peter Crouch and Mason Mount are giddily talking about the World Cups that first got them into football when, with the way memory works, thoughts turn to a moment that was a bit more tense.

Crouch starts discussing the 82nd minute of his second appearance in the tournament, which was at that point a frustrating 0-0 draw against Trinidad and Tobago. He’d obviously been in poor performances against weaker teams before but the concentration of a World Cup made it something else altogether.

“You can feel it in the stadium,” Crouch says. “There’s obviously a tremendous pressure on you.”

Mount was a mere seven years old at the time, and can only really remember the colours of the competition in the way kids do, but empathises with the intensity of the situation as a fellow professional; “the blur”.

Out of the many facts and figures circulated about Qatar’s problems, there is one realisation that should stand above everything. It is a disgrace that, in 2022, a country can host a World Cup where it has lured millions of people from the poorest countries on earth – often under false pretences – and then forced them into what many call “modern slavery”.

And yet this has just been accepted. The World Cup carries on, an end product of a structure that is at once Orwellian and Kafkaesque. A huge underclass of people work in an autocratic surveillance state, amid an interconnected network of issues that make it almost impossible to escape. “It’s all so embedded,” says Michael Page of Human Rights Watch.

Many will point to similar problems in the west but this isn’t the failure of a system. It is the system, global inequality taken to an extreme. “The bottom line is that these human rights abuses are not normal for a World Cup host,” says Minky Worden, also of Human Rights Watch.

The World Cup 2022 in Qatar is upon us and all 32 teams are in the process of naming their squads, with each country allowed to select a 26-man group for the first time.

It means there will be 831 players heading to the first winter World Cup (with Iran electing to name just 25), with a deadline of Monday 14 November to submit the squads – just seven days before the tournament begins with hosts Qatar taking on Ecuador.

Gareth Southgate will name his England group on Thursday afternoon, with debate currently ongoing over a number of the spots, while other countries’ announcements will filter through across the week.

The race to succeed France as world champions is about to heat up.

Here’s a full list of the players heading to Qatar and all the info you need about each team:

Most of the selections are as expected and, while squad numbers don’t always offer much clue in who will start, the notable and obvious choices see Jordan Pickford remain as No1 and captain Harry Kane wearing his familiar No9 shirt. Kyle Walker, Declan Rice and Raheem Sterling are among the others to keep the same number they wore at Euro 2020.

England cannot afford to underestimate Iran when they bid to get their World Cup campaign up and running in Qatar, according to former defender Paul Parker.

Gareth Southgate’s men open the Group B schedule at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan on November 21 and then play the United States before meeting Wales.

The build-up to a first winter World Cup has lacked the usual frenzy which precedes a summer showpiece tournament and England arrive in Qatar without a win in six matches following relegation from the top tier of the Nations League.

Nevertheless, there will be an expectation England should still have enough to see off the challenge of Iran, who are 20th in the Fifa rankings.

The Qatar World Cup is nearly upon us, and that means an array of delightful/grotesque international football shirts for us to enjoy/convulse over.

What do we think of Portugal’s bold diagonal stripe? Who has picked a mesmerising shade of red? Why have Argentina dressed like they need 144 off 20 overs? Is that… is that Jafar? Please do share your opinions in the comments below.

Here are the World Cup 2022 kits, ranked and rated from worst to best: