England fans handed optimal schedule as future single-city World Cup considered

Doha is a late-night city.

The late games kick off at 10pm in the evening - we are three hours ahead here - and by the time we leave the stadium and get back to our apartment, it is 3am.

I’m not expecting or looking for any sympathy here but it’s amazing to see the Doha Metro still buzzing and packed into the wee, small hours of the morning.

Clearly, the games are played late so you can squeeze up to four fixtures into one day, and England will be 10pm all the way at the Al Bayt Stadium for as long as they stay in. That is 7pm back at home and it does mean that’s virtually prime time television so people can watch, tune in and support England from afar.

I’ll be honest, I’ve enjoyed the tournament from a football point of view way more than I thought I would and being in one city means you can get to see way more games.

I’m utterly convinced that a World Cup in the future will be held like this again because the fans are really enjoying the whole atmosphere and being able to travel. I do think it’s possible to enjoy the football and the tournament - without condoning how we got here in the first place.

And that’s a very important distinction especially when we are still seeing issues at security with fans being stopped from entering if they are wearing rainbow T-shirts or whatever.

Can you really appreciate the Stadium 974 knowing that construction workers died building it? Definitely not. We were out at Al Wakrah yesterday and saw two men holding hands walking near the beachfront and looking as normal as it should be.

How far will England go at the World Cup? Have your say in the comments!

England will play the remainder of their matches - except a potential final - at the Al Bayt Stadium at 10pm local time (Markus Gilliar - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)

But imagine living in a city where that’s deemed unacceptable? Everything here comes with a caveat. It’s a good tournament, but…

I love football so much, I’m so passionate about England and want them to do well. I’m enjoying the tournament for what it is, the football.

But at no point should we be swept along and start believing that the football and the enjoyment of the tournament makes us forget about everything else.

That’s not what this World Cup should be about. If it does bring about genuine change then that is progress. But we'll believe it when we see it.