INDIA QUEUES UP FOR THE WORLD CUP

At the Qatar World Cup this year, India will be represented by its football-loving fans

- Akhil Sood

Speaking to us from Arunachal Pradesh's Itanagar, Oken Tayeng defines the upcoming Qatar World Cup in clear terms. For him, it is a celebration. "I grew up watching the World Cup on television, but I'd never seen the tournament live." He has tried going in the past, but "time and resources", he says, never aligned. This year though, he's heading to Qatar with five of his friends. "I turn 50 in August, and this is my way to celebrate. I think I deserve a World Cup."

The enthusiasm in Tayeng's voice is both infectious and justified. Few events on the sporting calendar evoke the kind of global frenzy that the football World Cup does. "It was just street events and parties every day," says Ankit Sobti, 34, who went to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup and watched a couple of games in Salvador. "Being inside a city where matches were happening meant you'd have a different group of people coming in and spending time there; the whole diaspora would change. It was fascinating." Sobti, a tech professional in the US, was based in Mumbai at the time. He remembers finding the cheapest ticket to Brazil.

For all the cheer it affords, Fifa is no stranger to controversy. The bidding process for this year's World Cup and the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar have been subjects of much scrutiny. Also, for the first time in its history, the Fifa World Cup will be held in the winter months of November and December. This has provoked some ill-advised hostility in Europe, as it'll disrupt the league seasons there. None of this noise, though, has impacted the excitement of fans, which is slowly inching to its peak.