Strange off-the-field stuff happens at this World Cup with England striker Raheem Sterling now in an unusual heartbreak.
He is leaving the England World Cup squad in Qatar to return to London after armed intruders broke into his home while his family were in.
Manager Gareth Southgate confirmed the news after Sunday’s 3-0 last-16 win against Senegal.
HOME WITH FAMILY
Southgate said: “Sometimes football isn’t the most important thing and family should come first. Raheem is truly heartbroken and prefers to return home to be with his family.”
It is understood the incident happened on Saturday night. Sterling has three young children.
“We want to give him that space and we will see over the next few days how that develops,” Southgate added.
* Suresh Nair is an award-winning sports journalist who is also a qualified international coach and international referee instructor.
The World Cup players representing England would have to pay up £250 for their families meal when in Qatar. Family members were consulted before the match against Germany that after calculation, the cost for them to stay there would reach six figures.
Prices for accommodation and food in Qatar are extremely high. Some of the families are even considering renting private residences. Homes with a six bedroom could cost up to £350,000 for the duration of the tournament. That would make their prices one of the most expensive in the world for that period.
Many have made reservations at Qatari hotels or cruise ships. There are some that could be staying in Dubai for the period.
Prices are increasing heavily for owners to make a quick profit from the World Cup. Currently, there is a severe lack of houses for rent in Qatar and keep in mind that there will be an estimated 1.5 million people that are attending the matches. That said, Qatar is a small country, with an estimated size to be similar to Yorkshire.
Reportedly, there are only 175,000 hotel rooms and apartments that are available to visitors in early 2020. That is only 10% of what the estimates of the number of World Cup fans that are attending the games.
Families of football players are offered six-bedroom villas on The Pearl. The place is the most exclusive location in Qatar. It is available for rent during the World Cup and it has a private pool, close to luxury retailers, exclusive restaurants and has direct access to the water.
However, for footballers Eric Dier and Jordan Henderson, they have both stated that they might not send their family members to Qatar.
Jordan Henderson, who is Liverpool’s team captain, has been on hiatus for recovering from a recent injury. He will be joining the England men’s team during the World Cup break.
He has acknowledged his mixed feelings on sending his family to Qatar as he has faced negative experience in a previous overseas match with the Men’s Euro Final at Wembley and the Men’s Champions League Final in Paris this past May.
“My family and friends have had a couple of experiences over the last couple of years, which has really shocked them and probably put them off going to future games,” Henderson said.
“My wife and kids had to try and get in a side door (at Wembley) which they wouldn’t let them in at the beginning. And they were trapped. She was trying to get the kids away from all the middle of what was happening and eventually I think after about 15-20 minutes, somebody recognised that she was my wife and she was lucky that, because they knew it was me, they let them in quickly.
“But if that person didn’t, I mean, it could have been trouble. My dad was involved a little bit, I think some of the players’ dads, like Harry Maguire’s, was hurt badly.”
Who will be the top players in the next world cup for England
England has a list of 40 players that can make it to the World Cup 2022 in Qatar and every week, there are names that are dropped, others that pops up but who will be the top England players at the World Cup?
Out of the 40 men-list, only 26 will make it to the squad that will fly to Qatar. They will be the lucky 26 but the responsibility will be huge on their shoulders, particularly that England is given as one of the hot favourites this time around.
At the moment, it appears that Manchester United’s embattled defender Harry Maguire is vulnerable as he may not make it if he does not get more playing time at the club.
On the list of vulnerable, there is also Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jadon Sancho. Sky Sports say their hopes are fading.
Sancho is not producing much at Man Utd this season despite a lot of playing time. He does not seem to fit in the squad or he is having an 0ff-form season.
Raheem Stirling (Chelsea), Phill Foden and mate John Stones (Manchester City) are well entrenched in the list of 40 as the two City players are seeing their names mentioned as potential selected players for the World Cup.
There’s only two weeks now before the England squad is announced and players make it to the plane to Qatar.
Harry Kane, Declan Rice, Jordan Pickford, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, Raheem Stirling, Reech James, Bukayo Saka, Mason Mount, Eric Dier, Jack Grealish, John Stones, Luke Shaw and Kieran Trippier are the top 15 players who Sky Sports say are already on the plane.
While these footballers and their families are the happy bunch, going to the World Cup, the UK Home Office has banned as many as 1300 fans from travelling to Qatar.
Fans Banned From World Cup
More than 1,300 fans from England and Wales who have been barred from travelling to Qatar for this year’s World Cup will be denied entry, according to the UK Home Office.
The new measures take effect on Friday and prevent supporters with a history of soccer-related violence from attending the sport’s showpiece event, which begins on November 20 and runs until December 18.
“We will not let the actions of a small number of lawbreakers taint what promises to be an exciting tournament,” says Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Last season saw a significant increase in pitch invasions and crowd trouble across English soccer, prompting the Premier League to implement enhanced safety measures to control misbehaviour ahead of the new season.
Fans who break the rules could face six months in prison and an unlimited fine, according to the Home Office.
More stories regarding the World Cup can be found here.
HARRY Kane is ina mind-blowing mood. The England skipper looked broken, already haunted.
His lips moved and there were words, completely monotone, but it was as if he was not there, it was not him.
You just cannot describe it in words. It was just so sad because Kane did not deserve this.
As England trailed France 1-0 in the World Cup quarter-final, he had led the revival, carrying the physical fight to Dayot Upamecano, going close on a couple of occasions, giving his team hope. He scored the equaliser in the second half with a penalty but, at 2-1, it all fell apart for him when he blazed a second spotkick high. It was the 84th minute.
The first thing to say is that had Kane scored, England would still have had a lot to do to beat the defending champions, most likely in extra time or on penalties. Nobody knows what would have happened.
CRUCIAL TIME
But in the moment, everyone thought they knew. England would have had the momentum at a crucial time. They were already playing well; now they would sweep to a statement victory and a semi-final against Morocco.
Poor Kane. He has been left to carry a heavy burden and it is uncharted territory for him. The 29yearold has experienced setbacks in his career, beginning with the notorious release by Arsenal as an eight-year-old. There were the difficult loans at Norwich and especially Leicester, tough questions about whether he would make the grade at Tottenham.
Kane tweeted on Sunday that he would not hide from his penalty miss. “It hurts and it’ll take some time to get over it,” he wrote.
Kane had the one-season wonder jibes in 2014-15. He has endured three Cup final defeats (League Cup 2015 and 2021, Champions League 2019); injuries; the failed push to get a move to Manchester City in the summer of last year. But it is very difficult to remember him making an error on the pitch that has so obviously cost his team.
TOP-LEVEL CAREER
Since the 90th-minute deflected winner for Spurs at Aston Villa in November 2014 that ignited his toplevel career, there has been the sense of his stars aligning, of seasononseason progress, the development of his game.
In the Euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark, he had an extra-time penalty to give England a 2-1 lead and he fluffed it, shooting weakly at Kasper Schmeichel. Yet the goalkeeper made an even bigger mistake.
Schmeichel ought to have caught the ball. At the very least, he should have pushed it away from goal. Instead, he patted it back to Kane, who gobbled up the rebound. It seems strange to criticise a goalkeeper for saving a penalty but Schmeichel had to do more.
All eyes will be on how Kane reacts.
MIND-BLOWING MOOD
He is famously singleminded and resilient and there is no doubt he will want to get back on the pitch as soon as possible. At least that will happen in relatively short order – the winter World Cup has this upside for him.
Spurs’ next game is at Brentford on Boxing Day, which was where Bukayo Saka played in his first competitive fixture for Arsenal after his penalty miss in the Euro 2020 final shootout defeat against Italy. Back then, the Brentford fans applauded him. Saka’s situation had an extra, appalling dimension. He had been racially abused on social media and the crowd wanted to rally round him.
For Kane the outofbody experience has happened. He’s absolutely in a mind-blowing mood. He looked broken, already haunted.
The longer-term recovery starts here.
* Suresh Nair is an award-winning sports journalist who is also a qualified international coach and international referee instructor.
According to the BBC, England has officially announced their World Cup squad, days after Brazil and the United States announced theirs. The deadline still remains on 14th November and those that haven’t announced their players would need to think critically.
James Maddison, Leicester’s proud midfielder has been named to join his country’s 26-man team for their match in Qatar. Gareth Southgate, the controversial manager, has also selected Marcus Rashford from Manchester United.
Players from Newcastle United, Manchester City and Arsenal were also selected to join their country’s national team. Unfortunately for Fikayo Tomori, Ivan Toney and Jarrod Bowen, they were all missing from the list that was selected by Southgate.
Image of Harry Maguire, from Wikipedia.
Furthermore, on the 21st of November, England will play against Iran in their World Cup debut. Ironically, Ukraine did not get a chance to play this time even after their lobbying to remove said Middle Eastern country from the World Cup list.
Kalvin Phillips is in the squad even after a two month absence due to his shoulder injury. Manchester United’s Harry Maguire who has struggled to get a game this season is also in the list. Unfortunately Jadon Sancho was not selected by Southgate.
Here is the list of all the English players:
Defenders: Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Eric Dier (Tottenham), John Stones (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Conor Coady (Everton), Ben White (Arsenal), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool).
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Declan Rice (West Ham), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City).
Forwards: James Maddison (Leicester), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea), Callum Wilson (Newcastle), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United).
First and foremost, a fan questioned Southgate’s decision of letting Gallagher in the team. Southgate has stated before that he would not let any players in just on the fact of their popularity.
Fans questioned that statement due to the fact that he let Maguire, Dier and Phillips in. However, other fans responded that these three players have played well under Southgate’s instructions and management.
More fans were disrespecting Jordan Henderson. They questioned what his aim was and what he would do in the matches. Fans are not particularly excited for the current lineup of players and are making memes that England might lose the World Cup this year. However, we will just have to wait and see.
ARE you ready for a World Cup break as the big-time matches come to a temporary halt?
Perhaps for some, with their favourite teams knocked out, it may well be time for the curtains to come down.
There have been multiple views as football fans have been spoilt with countless hours of match action since the World Cup began at the end of November.
During the group stages, there were up to four games per day, and even as we reached the Round of 16 there was no let up in the action, with two games per day keeping football fans engrossed as the likes of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe carried their sides to the quarter=finals.
The subject of multi-national fans leaving early was put to Qatar’s head coach Felix Sanchez before his side’s second game against Senegal. But he skilfully dodged it as members of the country’s FA, and indeed FIFA, would have looked on.
THE REAL SUPPORT
I must admit that support for the hosts has been there during this tournament, but you can hardly describe it as vociferous. Many locals also seem to follow another, ‘bigger’ country or indeed an individual, such as Christiano Ronaldo.
I notice, too, that many seem to support multiple teams and players. And that is fine of course. We can rightly question some of the Qatari laws, but we also have to respect cultures and the people’s relationship with football is among those.
Just because they don’t want to congregate en masse in bars, sing songs about how much they detest opposition players and generally put everyone on edge doesn’t mean they are not enjoying themselves.
ARE YOU BORED?
The big question: Is Qatar, hosting the world’s biggest sports tournment, bored of the football already?
It is impossible not to wonder what will become of the country after the tournament, although we already know some elements. For example, the distinctive and temporary Stadium 974, and its 974 shipping containers, will be deconstructed entirely, while the Al Janoub Stadium, the home of Al-Wakrah SC, will have its capacity halved from 40,000 to 20,000.
It’s a fact that after the World Cup is won, the buildings adorned with football superstars are returned to their normal status and the excellent Metro system removes the signs for stadiums that adorn every station.
ROARING SUCCESS?
It is highly likely that Qatar, with its tremendous flow of oil-wealth, evenlaunch a bid to host something else, perhaps not discounting the Olympics, in the very near future.
The cycle of preparation and transformation can then begin again, with sport again used as the tool that the country want it to be. I was told that they will point to this World Cup as a roaring success, cite the sometimes confusing attendance records and, rightly, point to the overwhelmingly positive behaviour of fans.
Truth has to be told if the actual football has captivated the nation though. What do you say?
For many, the lack of games over the next couple of days might not be noticed. But as we approach the final stretch of the tournament with the best eight teams in tow, it’s worth the wait to see who finally picks up the prestigious World Cup.
Hey, your guess may well be as good as mine to who deserves to return homeas 2022 WorldCup supremos.
* Suresh Nair is an award-winning sports journalist who is also a qualified international coach and international referee instructor.
