World Cup 2022 LIVE: England prepare for first match vs Iran amid James Maddison injury concern

It is safe to say no World Cup has generated as much debate and controversy before a ball is kicked as the finals in Qatar, which will at last get under way this month after a build-up of almost 12 years.

This was a tournament “awarded in an unacceptable way, with unacceptable consequences”, Norway’s Football Association president Lise Klaveness told Fifa’s Congress in Doha earlier this year.

“Human rights, equality, democracy, the core interests of football, were not in the starting XI,” she added.

There were immediate calls for a rerun of the vote, and even talk of boycotts, when Fifa’s executive committee awarded the tournament to Qatar in December 2010, ignoring warnings even from Fifa’s own bid evaluation report of the “potential health risk” of playing the tournament in searing desert heat in June and July.

For Omar Larrosa, an Argentine forward who got on the pitch in the 1978 World Cup final, a complicated question has a simple response. He is asked whether his winner’s medal is sullied by how the country’s brutal ruling junta exploited that victory. He is, however, one of the few to discuss it.

“Nobody knew anything,” Larrosa tells The Independent. “We played for the people, for the Argentine shirt.

“If the World Cup is authorised by Fifa, with all the federations playing, I had to do my work. My work is football. It’s like a doctor or journalist. You do your work. Fifa ordered this World Cup, so we played.

“It was what I dedicated my life to. It was the best, because I was in the middle of the pitch, hearing the entire public support us, so many blue and white flags. The best, the best that football gave me, to be champion, and lift the trophy.”

Larrosa nevertheless concedes that isn’t a universal view among Argentina’s 1978 squad. Many still refuse to talk about it. Some reject it.

Amnesty International has urged Fifa president Gianni Infantino to break his silence on a compensation scheme for migrant workers in World Cup host country Qatar, saying: “It’s still not too late for Fifa to do the right thing.”

Amnesty and a coalition of other organisations has called on Fifa to set aside £375million – equivalent to the World Cup prize money fund – towards setting up a centre to support migrant workers and to compensate those who have been injured or the families of those who have died in construction projects in Qatar.

The Guardian reported last year there had been 6,750 deaths of south Asian migrants in Qatar since 2010, with labour rights advocacy group FairSquare Projects saying a “significant proportion” of those migrant workers were only in the country because of the World Cup award.

The Sky Sports pundits, joined by Karen Carney and Jamie Redknapp, debated what Gareth Southgate should do in the Group B opener in the Khalifa International Stadium.

The United States have incorporated rainbow colours into their badge while they are in Qatar in an overt message of support to the LGBTQ+ community ahead of the World Cup.

Same-sex relationships are outlawed in the country where the world’s biggest football tournament gets underway on Sunday.

The USA have added the change of colours – in place of the usual red stripes – to the logo that will be present throughout their training base although the version used on their shirt will remain the same.

Head coach Gregg Berhalter has pledged his side will continue to stand up for what they believe in while at the tournament.

He was widely regarded as his country’s player of the tournament during the run to last year’s European Championship final. He is one of the foundation stones of the Gareth Southgate era. He was always going to be on the plane.

Sterling’s longevity at this level since making his bow as a 17-year-old a decade ago – in a 4-2 friendly defeat to Sweden, during the first year of the Roy Hodgson era – comes despite playing in a position that has had the fiercest competition for places, especially of late.

Several fresher-faced but less experienced talents have emerged to challenge for a regular starting spot in Southgate’s attack – and several of them will travel to Qatar, James Maddison being just the latest – but Sterling remains the man in possession.

It is still him and Harry Kane plus one up front.

Sarina Wiegman wished the England men’s team all the best as they prepare to head to Qatar for the World Cup.

Gareth Southgate’s side play their first match on November 21 against Iran, before further group games against the United States and Wales as they look to build on a memorable showing from four years ago when they reached the semi-finals.

The Three Lions also reached the final of Euro 2020 last year, losing on penalties to Italy, and despite a poor run of results heading into this winter’s World Cup they are still among the tournament favourites.

Wiegman knows what it takes to go all the way in a global competition, having guided the Lionesses to victory at Euro 2022 and also previously tasting success with the Netherlands, and she has been in touch with her England counterpart.

The break in the Premier League season for the winter World Cup in Qatar provides a period for assessment, reflection and – for some managers – reinvention.

Here we take at look at how all the top-flight clubs have fared so far:

The former Real Madrid boss has signed a three-year contract to be the Midlands club’s successor to Bruno Lage, who was sacked at the start of October.

Lopetegui, who initially turned the club down in October over concerns with his father’s health, arrives with Wolves bottom of the Premier League having scored just eight goals.

He could have joined back in 2016, however, when the club first tried to tempt him before he became Spain boss.

A different sort of comeback featured a Rashford equaliser: twice behind against Aston Villa, Manchester United triumphed 4-2 by offering the kind of visceral entertainment that has characterised Rashford at his best.

His combination of pace and potency, his direct, high-speed running has meant that, from his debut, Rashford felt a player in United’s truest traditions, and not merely because he has helped extend the record of an academy graduate figuring in a first-team squad every match for 85 years.

Perhaps it was uncoincidental that United’s worst season for more than three decades was the poorest of Rashford’s career.