Before getting into anything about the actual football/soccer tournament, I want to give a bit of attention to the circumstances. This world cup is organised by Qatar, and in quite some ways is controversial. The biggest issue with the rough working environment and deaths of migrate workers.
This is not the only controversy however, there are also issues with supporters potentially getting tracked (Don’t download Qatar World Cup apps, EU data authorities warn – POLITICO) and with fan clubs getting paid by Qatar to boost the image of the world cup ('Fake' fans at the 2022 FIFA World Cup: The claims, Qatar’s response and which supporters are travelling | Sporting News Canada)
For me it’s important to highlight that this world cup isn’t without problem, that isn’t to say I won’t still watch and most likely enjoy some of the games, it makes me feel a bit iffy about the whole thing. Mainly that Qatar will be the center of attention for a while, and get to show all the beautiful sides, while in some countries news about the horrific truths behind how the tournament was possible might now even reach the news. It just bothers me when people don’t even have a choice whether they want to watch or not based on a controversy cause they aren’t informed. Sure, it might be slightly hypocritical that I’m well informed and will watch anyway, but I’ve had time to consider the facts and make a choice on it I can be okay with.
That said, it’s time to get into the sport side of things
So, if I understood correctly 2/4 of each group continue to the knockout fase. So for the group fase these are my predictions of countries moving on:
A: Netherlands and Ecuador
B: England and USA
C: Argentina and Poland
D: France and Denmark
E: Spain and Germany
F: Belgium and Canada
G: Brazil and Serbia
H: Portugal and Uruguay
This is very European and Americas heavy sadly. I’m not sure if it are my own biases surrounding football tho 
I mean, 21 out of 32 countries are from either of those 2 regions, so there is some bias in the qualification already…
Either way, for my final top 4, without a single game having been played, I wanna go for France, Brazil, England and I would love it to be Netherlands.
So, a lot of information on this thread, but I have a few questions for you:
- Did you already hear about those controversies? How does it affect the way you look at this world cup?
- Is your country playing, if yes, do you think they have a good chance of making it through the group fase, if no, for which other country are you rooting?
- Which countries do you expect to do well this world cup?
