Commentary: Qatar World Cup is a festival of cosmopolitanism – not nationalism

LONDON: I’ve spent years writing about the rise of nationalism. Trump, Brexit, Putin, Bolsonaro and the rest were supposedly a backlash against globalisation only “elites” still liked.

Then came this World Cup, and everyone seized on a clash of civilisations. Westerners opposed Qatar’s mistreatment of migrant workers and LGBTQ people. Arabs called us hypocritical racists.

We wanted to wear OneLove armbands. Some Arab fans wear “Free Palestine” armbands. In short: Nationalism, hatred and incomprehension everywhere.

All that makes actually being at this World Cup confusing. I’m spending 16 hours a day around Doha and in stadiums, witnessing a different world.

Broadly speaking: The civilisations are getting along just fine. The World Cup is more a festival of cosmopolitanism than of nationalism. To quote Fifa’s impossibly cheesy but possibly correct slogan: “Football unites the world”.

Most fans here are affluent football tourists, from everywhere from Dubai to Durban, often supporting multiple teams. But even among the minority that’s single-mindedly backing their country, comity holds.

In a typical metro carriage during the first round, you saw male Saudi fans packed together with mixed groups of Iranians and singing Mexicans, watched benignly by shaven-headed Englishmen, everyone filming everyone else on their phones.

Women in full hijab mingle with women in shorts. Brazilians mingle with Argentines. People aren’t just tolerant of religious difference. They are tolerant of breathing in somebody’s body odour and listening to their voice messages on speaker at 1am in a crammed carriage after their own team has lost.

The main civilisational divide here is by height: Fans from rich countries seem to be on average a head taller than