With thousands of expat volunteers, fans and tourists, India will be all over the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar

In the run-up to the World Cup, fan clubs in Qatar, comprising mostly Indian migrant workers, have organised several promotional events

One of the most memorable scenes of the 2018 FIFA World Cup did not play out on the football pitches of Russia, but on a public park in Moscow that the organisers had converted into a viewing area for fans unable to make it to the matches.

Hassan Sedky, a wheelchair-bound fan from Egypt, found himself in the middle of the park, straining to catch the action on the big screen. Before he knew it, Sedky, in his red Egypt jersey, was being hoisted up in the air by a group of Colombian fans in yellow and Mexican fans in green. As he held aloft the Egyptian flag to deafening cheers from the hundreds of fans around him, Sedky must have felt like he had just won the Cup.

A lot of the FIFA marquee event will inevitably be about football and the best footballers in the world. As is the case with almost everything these days, geopolitical and socio-economic realities will cast a shadow. Ahead of Qatar 2022, the major talking points, quite rightly, include corruption allegations, the mistreatment of migrant workers and homophobia.

But underneath all the headlines, the World Cup is unparalleled as an exercise in cultural exchange. It is where people meet and discover they are not so different from each other.

This has been true of every edition of the World Cup so far. In Russia four years ago, fans who booked their tickets expecting hordes of Russian hooligans returned with tales of  babushkas in trains handing out sweets to foreigners. After the initial round of matches, a remorseful British fan admitted to this reporter that he was only staying for one more week. “Volgograd [venue of England’s first game against Tunisia] was the best experience that I have had,” he had said. “If I had known things were going to be like this, I would have stayed a lot longer.” It is perhaps ironic that, for all the goodwill that the tournament generated, the callousness of Russia’s leaders means that its people are no longer welcome on this stage four years later.

Russia 2018 was arguably the first Google Translate World Cup. Moscow’s Red Square and Nikolskaya Street, two of the busiest hangout spots during the tournament, were witness to fans stopping to click selfies and chat with one other, despite often not having a common language between them. You could spot fans from Panama, many of whom had to take four different flights to get to Russia, pose with a group of Tunisians. Iranian fans drew cheers wherever they went, for the women among them were finally free of their headscarves. When a young Polish fan in Kazan found himself in tears after his team crashed out with a loss to Colombia, he was immediately surrounded by a group of Colombians trying to console him with chants of ‘Polska’.

This bonhomie will be true of Qatar 2022 too, when Ecuadorians will meet Mexicans and Canadians will meet Croatians. But this time, there will be a flavourful addition to this potpourri of nationalities — Indians.