Opinion: Why this year's World Cup is such a total failure

As a seven-year-old, I remember being caught up in the national excitement when England hosted, and ultimately won, the trophy for the first time ever in 1966.

As an 11-year-old in 1970 I was well caught up in all the build-up, the wallchart produced in Shoot magazine - and the Sunday evening when England surrendered a 2-0 lead to go out to West Germany was one of the most miserable of my young life!

I even got caught up in the excitement of the tournaments in 1974, 1978 and 1994 when England didn't even qualify.

But as the World Cup prepares for its kick-off on Sunday night in Qatar I have to say I feel as if I couldn't care less about it.

Where is the excitement for this year's World Cup? (Image: PA Media)

Normally there are two or three weeks of build-up matches between the end of the domestic season and the start of the tournament. 

There's none of that this time. We've gone straight out of last weekend's great round of league matches into this tournament. 

The launch match of Qatar versus Ecuador looks about as tasty as a slab of undercooked Tofu and frankly, I get no real "buzz" about the tournament as you would normally.

People are too busy worrying about how to pay for another austerity Christmas to get excited about a tournament in a tiny country that has absolutely no footballing heritage whatsoever.

Qatar is a very small country geographically - slightly smaller the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex in terms of both area and population.

Can England reach their first World Cup Final since 1966? (Image: PA Wire)

All of the eight stadia built for the tournament are within 35 miles of each other (that's less than the distance between Ipswich and Norwich).

And many of the grounds will be "recycled" after the tournament. What a farce to describe this as a "Green" World Cup - it's a vanity project after the tournament was bought by a bunch of oil and gas magnates!

As a vanity project it's actually been a public relations disaster and a monument to the hubris of the mega-rich Qatari regime.

By any democratic standards the government of Qatar is not great and its human rights record is pretty poor.

This was demonstrated by the number of construction workers who were killed during the construction of the stadia - and the difficulties their families, mainly from the Indian sub-continent, had in finding out what happened to them.

There is also widespread concern about the country's opposition to the creation of an inclusive society - with its anti-gay laws.

In truth there are many, many countries around the world with poor human rights records and I'm not sure that Qatar is really up there with the likes of Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and Burma when it comes to abuses.

But by hosting the World Cup and going out of its way to get international attention, Qatar has managed to put itself at the top of most people's lists of countries with poor human rights records right now. I'm sure that's not what the organisers wanted!

Having said all that, I probably will watch many of the games - especially those featuring England, Wales and some of the other top teams.

I don't have a great deal of confidence in the England team's chances after its poor record over the last few months but if they do manage to pull off a miraculous victory I guess in this country we will remember the Qatar World Cup fondly.

But right now there's no festival spirit of anticipation for the tournament. No fanparks opening up for people to gather and watch the matches on big screens.

And of course, while the tournament goes on in the Middle East, most domestic football will be continuing - including Ipswich Town's matches in League One.

The fact is, this year's World Cup feels less like a glorious celebration of football than an obstacle in the normal season. 

For that, the  FIFA bosses who sold their prize asset down the Persian Gulf should hold their heads in shame - but I fear they're just too pig-headed to acknowledge their mistake.