On this week’s Sportshour with Katie Smith, we take you live to downtown Doha as we get the latest on the ground ahead of the start of the Fifa World Cup in Qatar from Sportsworld’s Delyth Lloyd.
Fans have travelled from all around the world for the marquee event of the football calendar and we speak to a couple of Welsh fans who have taken a very unusual route. Former Cardiff City footballer Scott Young and Nick Smith attempted to travel the 5,000 mile distance to the tournament solely by electric car, which they named Morris, in time for Wales’ first match against the USA. After covering 18 countries, they fell at the final hurdle of Saudi Arabia, who refused to let them through in a right-hand drive car, forcing them to fly the final leg from Jordan to Qatar.
Former Australia captain turned broadcaster and human rights advocate Craig Foster stops by to tell us why he’s decided to donate all of his broadcast fees for the World Cup to the families of deceased migrant workers in Qatar, as well as LGBT & women’s rights charities. He says every footballer involved in the World Cup should make a stand of some sort and insists that sport is capable of impacting change, some of which we have already seen.
We preview both the women’s and men’s Rugby League World Cup finals with Australian commentator Andrew Voss, who has been enjoying a culinary tour of the United Kingdom in between matches. Next up is a chat about the finals over a BBC canteen breakfast.
When Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer won a bronze medal in snowboarding at the Beijing Winter Olympics, his jubilation quickly included a realisation that he would have to honour a deal with his wife, Sasha. They agreed that if he were to medal, he would have to get a tattoo of Sasha’s choosing. You won’t believe what she came up with….
Sporting Witness takes you back to 1994, when Motown legend Diana Ross missed a penalty in front of 67,000 fans at the USA World Cup opening ceremony. Alan Rothenberg, the man in charge of organising the tournament, speaks to Matt Pintus.
Plus we head to the York Barbican ahead of the semi-finals of snooker's UK Championship.
(Photo: World Cup football. Credit: Claudio Villa/Getty Images)