FIFA World Cup 2022: Playing football with integrity

The opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, on Nov 20, 2022. Much has been made of the amount of money the emirate has spent on hosting football's premier event, with awkward questions raised about integrity. — Bloomberg

In the first few minutes of the opening of the FIFA 2022 World Cup game in Qatar, a long free kick is pumped into the Qatari penalty box. The goalkeeper fails to punch the ball away cleanly, and it ends up in the goal. The hosts are behind straight away.

Except that they aren’t. Almost inexplicably to the commentators at the time, the goal is disallowed due to an offside. A replay and analysis by a system of 12 tracking cameras and one chip in the football eventually produced a diagram illustrating an ankle had strayed over the line.