BTS’s Morgan Freeman and Jung Kook Take Center Stage at World Cup Opening Ceremony in Qatar; Fox Sports avoids controversy, BBC highlights human rights abuses

The opening ceremony of the controversial 2022 World Cup in Qatar today featured Morgan Freeman and some BTS from start to finish.

“From this country we heard a call for the world to connect and – if only for a moment – to return to what can bring us together,” said the Oscar winner’s distinctive, authoritative voice during a video with wild desert and sea scenes off. the event. Today was “really the first real opening ceremony at a World Cup that definitely had an Olympic feel,” Fox Sports’ energetic Rob Stone previously said.

Stone wasn’t wrong, but there were also a lot of mixed messages at play.

“So here we gather as one great tribe, and the earth is the tent in which we live,” a tight-lipped and solemn Freeman said on the field at Al Bayt Stadium during the opening minutes of the flamboyant opening ceremony.

There was no small irony in the fact that Freeman had such a large part of the United States’ bid for the 2022 World Cup in 2010. Shawshank Redemption star was the voice and face of America’s last and ultimately unsuccessful pitch for FIFA jackets for the Zurich 2010 tournament – but that is clearly now in the distant past.

Aside from Freedman, however, the real star of the nearly hour-long ceremony was BTS’s Jung Kook, who performed his new song “Dreamers” in front of the 60,000-seat stadium. Flanked by dancers and Qatari singer Fahad Al-Kubaisi, the international superstar and South Korean supporter set standards for sheer star power at the World Cup opening ceremony. At the same time, unlike the much more subdued start to 2018 in Russia, which saw Robbie Williams give the cameras a certain middle finger, today’s fast-paced and often choppy ceremony for the first Winter World Cup went off the script.

When the mascot Le’eeb flew around in 2022, camels, Bedouins, dancers, drums, graphics on the field and in the stands, flags galore and more transformed the redesigned arena into a whirlwind spectacle. It was a parade designed to show Qatar’s best face to the world after calls for human rights abuses, discrimination against the LGBTQ community and beer bans galore. “With tolerance and respect we can live together,” said one artist, addressing the elephant in the tournament without ever naming it. On Fox Sports, they all added a chorus of ‘good news’, although there was little mention of Qatar’s critics, its politics and its shady acquisition of this year’s World Cup.

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In the United Kingdom, World Cup broadcaster BBC One did not broadcast the opening ceremony, but broadcast debates and news programmes. Popular BBC viral video journalist Ros Atkin explained the human and environmental costs of organizing the event in Qatar. A panel discussion with Alan Shearer and Alex Scott explored the moral ambiguities, and main presenter and England legend Gary Lineker interviewed BBC journalist and Middle East expert Jeremy Bowen before the focus returned to football itself.

BBC One didn’t start until 3pm UK time, around 30 minutes after the start of the ceremony, when a match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur Women’s Super League was played. The ceremony was streamed on BBC iPlayer, online and on the BBC’s Red Button services.

In another thread from the UK, comedian and presenter Joe Lycett got the upper hand by threatening to drop £10,000 (US$11,800) if David Beckham did not take on his controversial and highly paid role as ambassador for the World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar. Lycett posted a video of himself wearing a rainbow-colored poncho-style top and earmuffs, silently taking a wad of cash and throwing it into an industrial shredder before bowing and leaving the area.

The move should shed some light on Beckham’s sportswear relationship with World Cup organisers. While the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and LA Galaxy star is usually seen as a strong supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, he has taken up a lucrative ambassadorial role for the tournament – a move that has angered many of Qatar’s hard stance on homosexuality. Whether Lycett actually shredded money or used counterfeit banknotes matters, as shredding money in a week when the UK officially announced it was entering recession could spark its own debate outside of Qatar.

Oddly, with Qatar due to make its World Cup debut against Ecuador this morning, there wasn’t much football at the opening ceremony, save for a reference to Freeman’s “nice game”, some throwback videos and mascots at this year’s opener. . The Black Eyed Peas did not arrive as rumored. Yet there was a Grammy line-up from Lebanese singer Myriam Fares who sang the official FIFA Fan Festival song ‘Tukoh Taka’ live on the pitch alongside Nicki Minaj and Maluma alongside Bollywood’s Nora Fatehi.

All heading to the finals on December 18th at 10:00 am ET / 7:00 am PT at Lusail Stadium, the 32-team tournament includes reigning champions Les Blues of France as well as the current world top team Brazil, who have five World Cup victories. can boast the most in history. With the heat out, Team USA will make their Group B debut for this World Cup against Wales on November 21st at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT on Fox.

So when the World Cup is over, the ball will be in the net for 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico.