World Cup link round up

I’m just going to start with Andres Cantor’s reaction.

Now that the World Cup is over until the women have at it in Australia and New Zealand next summer, I thought I’d round up some of the best stories that caught my eye about it over the last week or so.

I am very conflicted about how much I enjoyed the action on the field during the tournament, because, by and large, the games were outstanding to watch. The final was especially insane in the best possible way. Congratulations to Leo Messi and Argentina. I feel certain we’ll see Kylian Mbappe on this stage during the next two tournaments, and he almost put France on his back and did it by himself, but was let down by his teammates.

Now to the conflict. The World Cup should never have been held in Qatar. From the corruption required to win the event to the abysmal treatment of the workers who built the venues and such to their abysmal stands on basic human rights. With that in mind, I’ll start with The Guardian’s clearing house page on all the investigative reporting about all these issues. There are far too many worthy stories to link to separately. The Guardian’s football cartoonist David Squires has been excellent on this as well.

The rest of these links are very much heavy on The Guardian also. For my money, it’s the best source for football journalism out there. Barney Ronay’s reporting from Qatar has been especially thought provoking and impactful. And my goodness, can he write.