This is a tournament that is unloved before it has even started. And only one thing can even begin to change that. The football.

IT is hot here in Qatar, but you already knew that. So far, the organisation is like clockwork, but you already knew that.

It is a mighty chore to find a legal beer – and mightily expensive if you manage to – but you already knew that.

It is, by Western standards, an extremely conservative place, but you already knew that.

No dancing bare-chested on the streets, that is for sure. Indeed, knee-length shorts in public earn more than the odd disapproving glance.

There is no pre-tournament carnival feel about Qatar – to put it mildly, this will be a World Cup like no other.

And it is hard to remember a World Cup that has been so characterised by political and human rights issues, which, considering we were in Russia last time around, is some going.

Already, one visiting TV company has been involved in a row with local security about what it can and cannot film.

As Rasmus Tantholdt broadcast live for Danish station TV2, security staff threatened to break the camera that was filming him.

In the aftermath of the incident, the Qatar Supreme Committee apologised to Tantholdt and TV2.

But this will be only the first of these types of scenarios.

A little later, an American journalist claimed he was told to delete photos he had taken of a slogan on a wall – as the media rightly refuse to heed Gianni Infantino’s plea to focus solely on the football.

That a bright light is shone on these issues is absolutely proper and you get a feeling the organisers are braced for more of it.

Unsurprisingly – but commendable all the same – the helpfulness of the officials, volunteers and general public has been exemplary.

And, as for the infrastructure and logistical operation, it is astonishing.

However many billions you are told it cost to make Qatar a World Cup venue, double it.

Entire underground, state-of-the-art transit systems have been built just for a football tournament.

But it is not like the organisers can loudly trumpet their construction achievements when the foundations of these achievements were built on a controversial labour system.

No matter how impressive the set-ups at the stadiums, the training complexes, the media centres, the transport hubs, this is a tournament that is unloved before it has even started.

And only one thing can even begin to change that. The football.

In the Al Wakrah area of Doha, not far from the coast, England staged their first proper session on Wednesday.

While there was a knot of expat fans outside the training facility to welcome the squad, it was hardly Beatlemania.

But the sight of Steve Holland, Gareth Southgate’s right-hand man, putting the players through their paces was a reminder a tournament is not that far away.

At least James Maddison’s unbridled enthusiasm in the first England press conference in Qatar was a whetting of the appetite for the action on the pitch. At least there was news seeping through of injury worries from all the other camps dotted around Qatar.

There still feels like a long way to go before matters get started when the hosts meet Ecuador on Sunday.

There is still a lot of intense scrutiny on hugely important societal issues to be had prior to the first ball being kicked.

An awful lot of people are here, but probably think they should not be here.

Ahead of every single tournament, there always comes a moment in the build-up when it feels as if the football cannot start soon enough.

For the Qataris, that moment has well and truly arrived.