The Leader podcast: England’s World Cup begins

As England secured a strong 6-2 win against Iran in their first game of the 2022 World Cup, controversy around this year’s tournament remains firmly part of the conversation.

Last minute talks with Fifa led the FA to announce that captain Harry Kane would NOT wear a rainbow love heart logo on his armband as planned, designed to represent the team’s solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.

It’s as Fifa warned any breach of its rules around what players can or cannot wear could lead to those players being given an instant yellow card - which the FA said it could not risk.

The Evening Standard’s Senior News Correspondent Anthony France told us what fans in Qatar thought of that decision, and described the atmosphere at the event.

Robbie de Santos from Stonewall, the organisation behind the Premier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign, discusses the concerns for the LGBTQ+ community both at home and at the event in Qatar.

Plus, Rothna Begum Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch discusses the issues migrant workers have faced in the country, in the build up to the World Cup.