The World Cup Puts Networks, Pundits & Sponsors Under The Microscope Due To Qatar’s Human Rights Record

Wales take on England in the final round of fixtures in Group B tonight, knowing that even a victory against their border rivals may not be enough to see them progress to the last 16.

Jason Cummings has revealed Kylian Mbappe snubbed his offer to swap shirts.

Despite being plagued by injuries that knocked out some key players in past weeks, France entered the World Cup with a bang on Tuesday — and scored a ratings victory for TF1 at the same time. At home, an average 12.53 million viewers tuned in from 8 PM local time to watch Les Bleus defeat Australia’s Socceroos 4-1. 

, multiple European teams have walked back plans to wear rainbow armbands during the global soccer competition.The teams representing England, Wales, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands announced that they would no longer wear the OneLove armbands for “diversity and inclusion” shortly before their campaigns were scheduled to start on Monday, per . The gesture, small as it may seem, speaks volumes in Qatar, which has  since it was chosen to host the back in 2010, due to its harsh criminalization of homosexuality and mass exploitation of migrant workers. Although the teams said that they would be willing to accept a fine, FIFA told them just hours beforehand that any player wearing an armband would receive a yellow card, per .

Sunday’s 2022 World Cup opener between hosts Qatar and Ecuador drew an average of about 3.2M multi-platform viewers for Fox Sports.

, hosted by Qatar, has spawned countless controversies already, many of which have nothing to do with and everything to do with Qatar's human rights record. But despite protests and performance boycotts from the likes of , the tournament has continued on. And with the World Cup, comes a World Cup anthem.This year's song is a collaboration between Nicki Minaj, Colombian singer Maluma (who starred in ), and the Lebanese actor and singer Myriam Fares.

England’s fiery World Cup opener against Iran, which ended 6-2, was watched by a peak of 8M viewers yesterday lunchtime in the UK. The peak was similar to that of host Qatar’s opener with Ecuador.

Brand Beckham used to be bulletproof, but insiders say Victoria is increasingly stressed as the backlash against husband David and his ambassador role for World Cup host Qatar reaches boiling point.We’re told she’s not only feeling deeply worried about the negative impact on the family business, but also how it’s affecting their friendships.Former footballer David signed a multi-million pound deal to promote the country, where attacks on LGBTQ+ communities are common and homosexuality is punishable by death. He’s been accused of hypocrisy as he’s always stood in alliance with the LGBTQ+ community – supporting Pride events, speaking out in support of gay footballers, and being honoured as a top ally in the LGBT+ Awards.

A TV reporter, who was robbed whilst live on air reporting on the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, says she has been left stunned by the police response to her reporting the incident. Dominique Metzger says officials asked her what punishment she thought would be suitable for the criminal who stole from her handbag.

The possibility of protest and non-protests are looming large over the England vs Iran World Cup match this afternoon (5 a.m. PST).

After being overshadowed by the BBC’s focus on the human rights issues that have been surrounding the World Cup 2022, yesterday’s opener between hosts Qatar and Ecuador kicked off with a hefty peak of 8M viewers.

From start to almost finish, the opening ceremony of the controversial 2022 World Cup in Qatar was all about Morgan Freeman today, plus some BTS