Column: How much of the World Cup will you watch?

The fact that the FIFA World Cup is to be held a few weeks out from Christmas is likely to drive the sports clothing market crazy for the Festive Season.

Imagine all those youngsters - boys and girls now - looking for the latest French, or Argentinian, or Brazilian jersey in their Christmas stocking on Christmas morning. If they look for an English jersey it would probably be easier to source, but might not get the best of reaction in these parts!!

Sportsgear has become a fashion industry in recent years and more and more people are wearing club jerseys - GAA, rugby, soccer etc as casual wear. In fairness, the different sporting organisations have moved with the times and their merchandise is far more fashionable now than it might have been twenty years ago. Back then, Manchester United and Liverpool seemed to have all the answers, but now every club and indeed county, has their own form of merchandising.

So, these soccer jerseys from all over the world, will be all over our screens once the action begins in Qatar in November 20th and the action will run right through to December 18th when the final will be played by the last two nations standing.

TV will be saturated with wall-to-wall coverage of the games and for all those football buffs out there it will be happy days. The fact that the World Cup is taking place in the height of winter with dark and likely cold and wet evenings prevailing , will make it more and more attractive to watch as many games as possible, sitting in front of the fire - sorry Eamon Ryan!! - with a pot of tea in hand.

It will be the finest waste of time imaginable and it can all be justified by the simple thought - sure, what else would I be doing?

Of course, there are always games in tournaments that people will be mad to see. But, watching them all is a bit of a step too far, no?

Still, there are those who will do just that, and good luck to them. This will be like their Electric Picnic - they’ll be in their element and they can bed down for the run of the games, just in time to sit down and vegetate once more over the Festive Season.

There has been much commentary about the staging of the World Cup in Qatar. The majority of the stadia have been purpose-built at a huge cost and a heavy loss of life as well. These elements are being highlighted in various quarters, but in the main, FIFA are endeavouring to focus on the games and on the festival of football which will draw the eyes of the world to their games.

Money of course, is at the back of it all and when it comes to twine, they have a fair bit of it over there in Qatar. Sure, how could we compete with them over here when it comes to bidding for the World Cup? We’ll be lucky to get the National Children’s Hospital built at the cost of six brand new stadia. And anyway - where would we put the stadia? You can imagine every politician in the place vying for the nod to have one of them built in their constituency. 'Twud make a grand constituency office when the games are finished and we'd be able to play the Junior B football final there at the weekends. Maybe the odd concert to help pay for it all as well - would Garth Brooks come back again??

There certainly seems to have been friends in low places when it came to deciding where the World Cup would be held this time round. Qatar is totally unsuitable and the players will be forced to run around in extraordinary temperatures during the course of the games - how can that be right?

We will probably notice a big dip in performance in those players when they return to their clubs after Christmas for the Premier League - remember, they will have come from playing in searing heat to playing in the bitter cold of the north of England - Tyneside vs Qatar - a bit of a difference alright.

For all the negativity surrounding the World Cup, there is also a lot of excitement for those who love sport. We’ll all be tuned in and keeping an eye on things; keeping a closer eye on England and wondering - hoping??? - I doubt it - if they can bridge that gap going back to 1966 when they last won the Jules Rimet Trophy.

The GAA has missed a trick with the split season, one could be forgiven for thinking - it will be wall-to-wall soccer for the next month, and very little hurling or football on TV.

Enjoy the games.