Whose World Cup is this?

Steve McAlpine says the media-fuelled controversy surrounding Qatar, the host-nation of the World Cup reveals a hint of neo-colonialism in the way the West treats nations that don't agree with it.

There are more than two football sides on the pitch these days. There are also opposing sides in another way. Two ways – at least two ways – of looking at the world.

This World Cup is being held in a Muslim-majority country in West Asia and it’s being held at the very time sport in the West has taken on a teaching role - an almost religious instruction role - in promoting what it considers human flourishing to be all about.

Steve says the problem is much of the rest of the world - the majority of the world which includes Qatar - values different values and often views those Western viewpoints unfavourably. And that's something our modern taste for tolerance just can't tolerate.