Qatar 2022 is a powerplay aimed at neighbours more than European critics | World Cup 2022

One year to go, 11 in the making. Welcome to Qatar 2022, the final countdown, and a World Cup that for all the noise, the sense of fingers crossed and a gaze averted from the bloodier details, still makes no real sense at all.

It was easy to feel a bit distracted as Sepp Blatter read out the word…