This is the final week of the first World Cup hosted in the Middle East. And it’s been a tournament like no other: We’ve seen Morocco advance further than any Middle East or African team has before, making the whole region proud. And we’ve seen many joyous moments go viral as fans from across the world descend on Doha.

But it’s also a World Cup shrouded in controversy, that has left many of us with mixed feelings.

So, over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been going out to speak with fans around the world to get a sense of what people make of it all, from the highs and lows of the tournament itself, to everything happening off the pitch.

This episode was produced by Ban Barkawi, Alex Atack and Ahmed Ashour, with help from Sarah Risheq, Al Shaibani, Shahd Bani-Odeh, Maher Ali, Soumaya Bouabdellah, Youssef Douazou, Sara Kaddouri and Zeina Dowidar. It was edited by Sarah Risheq and Dana Ballout. Sound design was by Paul Alouf. Our team also includes Nadeen Shaker and Finbar Anderson.

Our sister podcast - Masafat - has also released an episode about the Qatar world cup in Arabic. To hear that, search Masafat in your podcast app.

Find a transcript for this episode at our website, kerningcultures.com/kerningcultures.

Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $2 a month.