 Hello, welcome to Trophy TV. Today I'm joined live from Qatar by Patrick Ridge, who is a journalist for Stats Perform, and they're delighted to have a chance to have a chat with you, Patrick. How are you? Yeah, good time mate. I'm missing home a bit, but not missing the weather. Although I was saying that it was 34 degrees here yesterday, so the last few days have been very, very hot. It's just started, it's 28 today, and coming in I felt a bit chilly. Weirdly how quickly you adapt when you're out and about in it. Oh mate, it's five here today, so it's cold. So it's very, very cold. So when did you get over to Qatar? Right, so I've been here since the 29th now. I got here on the 18th, so 11 days ago now. So I arrived just right on the eve of the tournament really. Full flight out from Manchester, actually on the plane. There was a pretty large group of Welsh fans, and things like that, a few relatively famous faces I suppose, but obviously everybody linked to the tournament. And it's been a hectic week and a half. Today is the first day that the schedule is kind of eased up a bit, and that's purely because obviously the games are all on at the same time. Filling and just got another two and a half weeks left now, or three weeks left. Well, well, been busy. What's it actually been like? Obviously there was a lot of talk before this of, you know, it's a strange time, isn't it, of course, to have a Whale Cup, but it's alien to us all. The Premier League stop and other leagues around the world, of course, will stop. There was a lot of talk about going into this, what it was going to be like. We've seen bits and pieces over here. We've seen reporters moved on from reporting in the street. There's obviously a lot of stuff about the rainbow stuff, the armbands. There's been lots of talking points, shall we say, but what's it been like for you being on the ground over there? Have you found it? I think I was on the podcast with Steve and Ed just before I flew out, and that was the day after the Danish reporter had been kind of accosted for filming in a public area. Ultimately, he did get apologised to and right. Before we came out, there was a lot made by the company in FIFA with their massive media guide and everything saying how and why you can't film, what you can't take photos of, things like that. I think generally, I'm not saying that people break. I'm not saying I agree with the rules necessarily, but there's certain places in... It's not even a customary thing. I suppose the organisers in FIFA don't necessarily want people who aren't wanting to be filmed, just filmed just because they're there, which is fair enough in a way, and you can't take pictures of government buildings, you can't film in front of government buildings, things like that. I suppose it was just getting used to everything, and the first few days you were kind of like you didn't want to push the boat out or you didn't want to do anything wrong. Gradually and gradually, once you get into the swing of things, and I'm at the media centre now, so this behind me, if the camera's working and not breaking up or this behind me is the working area for the written editorial journalists, I'm about a third of the way, two thirds of the way through the room back that way. It's just this massive exhibition hall, and a lot's done at the media centre, so the media centre is pretty incredible. It's got everything, and I think from what I'm led to believe, it's more like an Olympics in that sense because it's Doha's basically the whole city for this, which has never happened at a World Cup. There's one ground that's not in Doha, which is still about five minutes an hour away, so all the media are in one place, and I think once everybody's got used to that idea, then there's been a lot less problems with that. The media centre basically acts as the hub for everything, which obviously, watching as a fan, you wouldn't really realise, because why would you, but it basically acts as the hub for the photographers, the written media, the camera crews, all the FIFA broadcasters, everything like that. The BBC don't send camera crews out as FIFA's camera crew. They do all that, and obviously the broadcasters all use FIFA's feeds and things like that, so everything's based out of here. I think it was just teething issues, really. That's from my point of view. I am lucky. I suppose I'm a white journalist. I'm a man, I'm not a woman. No one's asked if I'm gay or straight, but I've not been wearing rainbow things, and I'm not saying there's a problem with that, but I've not done it, and I've been made to feel, I've not really been on social media much, but what I have seen is the kind of... I suppose the decline of the catarric in general, and I think there's all, there's parts of it that we definitely don't agree with, and I obviously stand with people who criticise that, and I like to criticise it in my opinion, but in terms of the actual people themselves, the working people I'm staying in Al Rhaiann, which is a very... There's nothing touristy there, really. It's a very real area for lack of a better word, and the people have all been brilliant and so welcoming. So I can only speak from my experience, but it's been busy, but it's been made to feel really welcome. Well, is there a McDonald's in the media centre? We've heard these rumours that there's a McDonald's with the press and stuff. Is that right? Oh yeah, there is. There's no other ways. It's a McAfee, it's just down. Yeah, I've actually been. They keep giving out free vouchers, so I've been using it for a cappuccino every day, pretty much every day. Yeah, the media centre's got, I think it's got, it's got a full restaurant, it's got a little supermarket, it's got a gym, it's got a hair... You can get your hair cut somewhere in it. I don't know, I haven't found that yet. It has got a bar. It has got a bar that sells Budweiser for an extortionate price. Right, okay. But you know, it's better than nothing. And yeah, it's got about three cafes and stuff dotted around, and one of them is a little Mac. That's standard, that's standard. What games have you been to then, Patsy? So I've got, I was at Brazil, Switzerland last night. So, unfortunately, I didn't get to see near my play, but it was ended up being a pretty un-Brazil-like game, I guess, but you know it, that was really brilliant to be at. That was one of the best atmospheres I've been at before the match. There's been a lot of issues with the grounds not being full, and FIFA have said 94% capacity in everything, and those figures actually include people like me, who are just, we get tickets for the games, you see, so they're actually including those, they're actually including journalists within that as well, so it's fudging the figures a bit in that sense. But you know, the atmosphere was brilliant last night. I went, the first game I went towards Wales USA, I was hurt, which ended up being a decent game. The best game I've been to so far, weirdly enough, the best atmosphere I've been at so far was Tunisia Denmark. That was just a brilliant atmosphere. The Tunisian fans were incredible, and I think what we've noticed at this World Cup is the European nations aren't as well followed as they would be normally, and there's a lot of reasons for that, whether that's people boycotting it, whether that's people just can't afford a flight to get over here, and it's a seven hour flight, they're not cheap, accommodation isn't cheap or easy. But the Arab nations, especially the North African and Arab nations, they're so well followed, so I suppose it's just that it's just not what we used to at World Cups, and I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing. I was at the France, I went to France, I've forgotten who they played, I've been to six so far, so I'm emerging into one. Australia, that one? France, no, France there. France Denmark. The other day, sorry, I went, yeah. So I'm Bapé, scored twice, and I did a feature on that, actually my feature kind of focused on how the atmosphere felt so flat, considering it was the world champions, killing them Bapé, it was about, I could have counted maybe 2,000 empty seats across from me, so I don't know where I forgot the figures from, but it was nearly full, but the games generally have been good. There's been a lot made about, I know you've been watching them all, covering them live, there were definitely some bore draws, but I think if you look at previous World Cups, those first games are normally cagey, and I think you could tell that teams haven't had a lot of time to prepare for this one, and now that the group stages are opening up a bit, we're seeing more exciting games, especially between the Leicester teams, who don't have the talent necessarily, so they can't control games as easily, so they just have to go for it, like Ghana were brilliant to watch, I did Ghana, Portugal Ghana, I've got Ghana Uruguay next week, which is a grudge match from the 2010 World Cups, so that will be later this week, sorry, so they're really good, and the African nations are really well supported as well, so I think six games I've been so far, I've got England Wales tonight, which should be a good one, and I've got no complaints so far, I just want to see Argentina play, I've not managed to get to one of their games yet, but I'm hoping to win the knockouts if they get through. No, you've got to go and see Messi. Just before I come back on to the England game now, but what's it been like around the stadiums, because obviously our experiences of World Cups have been very much, you see what's going on outside the stadium, you see fans, it's very much a carnival type atmosphere, atmosphere at World Cups and all that, and what we've noticed a bit, the coverage is, it hasn't really shown anything other than what's going on within the stadium, normally there's features on where the World Cups are being held, there's features on the area, the local fans, what the travelling fans are like and all that, and we haven't really seen any of that side of it, or not too much anyway, so what's it like being a reporter or a journalist on the ground, are you seeing stuff outside the stadium, is it very similar to what we would, or is it a very sanitised, might be too strong a way, but is that the way it is? No, I agree with that to be honest, it's maybe not sanitised to an extent, but a word I've used a few times and it's kind of artificial, and I don't necessarily mean fake fans or anything like that, but I've never been to this area of the world before, and some of it's amazing and I don't get me wrong, some of the skyscrapers and things like that, and the Lysail, where I played last night in that stadium, Lysail is a city that's basically grown out of nowhere in the last ten years, but this is the kind of thing, it is artificial, it's man-made in the sense everywhere it's man-made, but man-made in record time, and I think that's almost transferred to some of the games, so like I said, there's some games, the Tunisia game that I went to on the Metro, which is amazing by the way, it's the state of the art, it drives itself, never late, it's incredible, it's a monorail and a subway in one, it is remarkable, but that's just the wealth that the country has, or certain parts of the country have, but I went on the Metro to the game, and you got the atmosphere there, you soaked up the atmosphere, it felt like going to a game at home, maybe where you go on the train, or you go on the bus before or whatever, and you're with the fans, and all my colleagues who have worked on games involving the Arab countries, they've had the same experience with that, South American countries, Argentina and Brazil and Mexico, and Mexico, obviously Central America, really well followed, and there is stuff happening outside the grounds then, so the Brazil game yesterday, there was a standard band outside the ground, there were lots of people congregating outside it, but most of them do make their way into the ground pretty quickly, or into the ground perimeter really pretty quickly, but obviously they're not standing around buying drink, drinking it to drink, or have an alcoholic drink, but I've not seen it, I think that is a very European thing as well in a way, the South American fans don't usually need a baby to be up for it, did they? No, not at all. So, that atmosphere was really good, but then over time, the media centre does act as a hub for all the shuttles that we get on, so the game I'm going to tonight is kind of out of town near, well, go out of town, basically the last thing, and then it's just desert on the other side of the motorway, so I'll get a bus to that tonight, and that takes pretty much direct to the media entrance, so it's kind of hard to get a full gauge of it, because I'm going in two hours before kick-off, but yeah, there's definitely been, there's announcers before the games, and they're always saying the same thing, and trying to get the crowd up, and it's like two or three announcers doing it, so that gets a bit wary after the, when you know what they're going to say, and you know what song they're playing at, because they don't want anybody there, until the ground won't fill up as you see it on TV, until maybe five minutes, ten minutes before kick-off, just before the Amphons, it is crazy. I was at the game last night, and there were tonnes of tons outside, and I thought, well, there's no way this is going to be any empty seat, but five minutes before kick-off, there were empty seats, and it was only just as kick-off happened that they started to fill up, so I don't know if it's just a mix of local fans, and maybe they're just used to turning up and leaving when they want to, as well, like you've seen. Yeah, exactly, and like getting off at halftime, I don't know. I don't know if it's just a cultural thing, whereas obviously the people who have followed the teams around are staying around and turning up early, but yeah, I generally think you're probably right, and I don't know if the coverage has been done because they don't want to show more of Qatar, but into an extent that I think there is only a certain amount because there's a lot of museums, there's a lot of cultural stuff around, and I'm hoping to get to it a bit more when the schedule opens up a bit. I think from that point of view there is a lot to do, but in terms of general fan stuff, there's the fan parks, but no one can go to them in the day because it's just too hot and there's no other shelter, so yeah, like I said, the last few days have just been mad, but when the sun goes down about half-four here now, by five o'clock it's at least starting to cool down, so I'm not seeing if the fan park is busy or not, so yeah, I'm sure there is stuff going on, we've seen on the big screens that the fan parks look busy, there were some problems I think the first few days, again with like over-policing really, not that we've seen much different to that in Europe too, but like obviously it's been highlighted a bit more and rightly so, but yeah, from my perspective I think you're right there, but as I think artificial and sanitised could be worth to describe some of it, and then others, especially the South American and Arabian teams, like I said, they are, that's definitely real and that's definitely passionate and they're definitely attending the games in big numbers. Just going back then before I let you go back to tonight, you're off to Wales, England tonight. What have you made of England so far, obviously had a great result, the first game 6-2 against Iran and then disappointing display against the United States on Friday night, so still I expect them to win tonight, I think Wales just a little bit limited I expect England to get through, but what have you made of England so far? Yeah, so probably for a person to ask me, it's weird like I've seen so much more of the world cup when I've done it from home than here because you spend so much time travelling around I guess and it's hard to catch all the games but I did see most of the Iran game and I think it was a mixture of England being on it from an attacking point of view and not being scared or too pragmatic really I think it would be the word. They kind of went for it because they knew that Iran Iran didn't look on it and Iran are a decent team I think but they've had a lot to deal with contextually around what's going on in their country and with all the stuff with the one love-arm band well Iran are the one team that actually did do something and were nearly punished for it and the players had to basically sing for the anthem and put their teeth in the next game but I think you could tell that England were on it that day and Iran were off it and we got what we got the United States game sorry like I did the Wales US game as I said and the USA was the better team for an hour of that and they just didn't have the cutting edge and they didn't have the I think it's because they're such a young team as well and they don't really have an outstanding striker they didn't beat Wales pretty easily so I was no surprise really to see them go to England and I know Southgate's come under criticism and he's a very pragmatic manager and ultimately that pragmatism is what's got England so far in tournaments but there is a time when you feel like he has to let them off a leash a little bit because they should have still been good enough to beat the US but from the sense of the general group like I'm going to it tonight and England are in full control they've got to lose 4-0 to not go through and realistically that's not going to happen Wales are pretty limited I like what they've done I think it's a great story and that's amazing but I've just had the setup in the first game reminding me of Everton Bay basically before the break it was just all wrong just massive gaps between the players when they're on the ball and everybody having to hit these long passes to get anywhere so I think Wales will be up for it I think England should probably win but I don't expect it to be high scoring I just don't think the Iran game was a real exception to the rule with England it would be nice to see him go a bit more adventurous but then on the flip side I'm a bit of a fair weather England supporter I'm happy when they're doing well all my motion goes on to Everton I can't have another disappointment so I just look at it from an objective standpoint it's like they're in control of the group and if that was ever in a free game for example you'd just go and get the result that you need to so I think that would be the approach tonight but in the knockout stages he has got to find a way to let us down in previous tournaments it's not having the midfielders against Croatia and then against Italy last year just not going for it when we're in control I agree, I agree they've got the players to really go with teams if the front players are almost as good as anything else that's in the tournament really I don't know what's like obviously it's weird, I feel attached from everything at the moment because I can't see anything I can't see any of the coverage I don't know how it's going on and I suppose what's from your guys perspective who have you been most impressed with in the tournament so far France have looked obviously in Bapai when you've got in Bapai you've got a chance I like Brazil but I know last night in Switzerland we come not to play in all I have 10 men behind the ball and Brazil struggle a little bit I think it's been hit misses I think from those teams but I expect those three or four teams and I put England in there as well just because of the quality players they've got they're the kind of teams that I think you're looking at to go far in the competition Argentina have not really done it and they've relied on certainly the other day a bit of messy magic to open the game up for them I think overall probably France or Spain have looked a little bit better than everybody else but there has been hit misses Garner have looked good yesterday but then other games it is what it is isn't it I spoke to a few Garner players after the game against Portscull and Taric Lampti was pretty good on it and he said they did stick to the game plan so I was at that Portugal game they were so defensive for the first hour but you knew they had that attacking talent a bit like with England but on a much smaller scale when they really went at Portugal that's when they created the chances and it was only really some poorly timed substitutions from the manager who I think is a very young manager but he speaks really well Otto Otto in his press conferences he speaks really well and he is very clearly a very intelligent manager but probably has a bit to learn and some of the Garner players felt like they followed the game plan perfectly and that they trust the game plan but then I got the sense that they think they can go and push a bit more as well so they showed that I guess against Korea yesterday so yeah I think you know it's just one of those things that now the teams are getting more time with each other and they haven't had that build up they haven't had those two weeks to train together and play friendlies and maybe once the nerves are out of the way and they just know that this is what we're going to need to do hopefully the games will get better like that Cameroon game was incredible and the one thing I'm definitely jealous of not being at home is the timings of the games are like perfect but back at home and you know my game the England game kicks off at 10 o'clock here tonight so it's going to be like a 3am finish but I'm happy to be covering a world cup but that's one thing I'm probably jealous of is the nice 7 o'clock kick off time I'm jealous of the weather but there you go yeah well that's the trade off Right Patrick I'm going to leave it there but hopefully it'll catch up with you again because you're over there for another couple of weeks so it'd be great to have another little catch up obviously we'll stay in touch but enjoy the game tonight and hopefully there's a lot of goals and a good atmosphere for you but thanks very much for taking the time to join us No worries mate thanks a lot for doing it alright cheers mate take care alright bye Patrick big thanks there to Patrick for joining us live from Cata giving us his views on the world cup so far now he's found it so we will catch up with him again over the next couple of weeks but thanks for watching give the video a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't and check out stats perform see you later