The FIFA World Cup will be the biggest sporting event of the year and the largest sports marketing exercise since the last World Cup.

We will, each day through the tournament, look to cover the stories of what is happening off the field of play for our Sport for Business readers.

FAN NUMBERS

The Opening Game is supposed to have a party atmosphere and in 92 years of World Cup Finals, this has never failed to lift the host nation which had never lost in their first match.

Qatar will be different in many ways though and yesterday saw that record rolled up in a bin and consigned to the trivia books.

It did not help that many fans were leaving by half-time but good luck if you are interested in finding out how many. The official attendance was given as 67,372 which would have been fine only that the capacity of the Al Bayt stadium is listed as 60,000.

This World Cup seems to have a problem with numbers.

TODAY’S SPONSOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT -WANDA

Wanda became an official sponsor of THE FIFA World Cup in 2016, signing a deal that will bring it all the way up to 2030.

The second Chinese brand at the highest level of partnership is said to be the largest owner of five-star hotels in the world, a major owner of cinemas, shopping malls, and entertainment centres across China and lately in India.

It is also a major player in Sports having bought Infront, the agency that sells broadcast media rights to the World Cup among other properties.

It owns the World Triathlon Corporation and also the Iron Man and Rock n’ Roll Marathon series.

In terms of activation it ‘owns’ the Flag Bearer programme for the World Cup.

It has nothing to do with Wanda, the Marvel character. We don’t think.

ONE LOVE, ONE YELLOW CARD

England against Iran today will perhaps be as important for the message it sends as the play it will produce.

England are understood to be ready to kneel before kick-off in support of equality, probably without the agreement of FIFA so it may yet prove explosive depending on the timing and whether the Iranian players and the referee are in on the gesture.

There is also the question of the One Love armband which England have said throughout would be an important statement in support of LGBTQ+ rights.

FIFA has launched their own ‘message’ armbands and has suggested that any captain wearing an unauthorised armband will be shown a yellow card straight away.

Wales and Gareth Bale have promised to do the same.

This World Cup was always going to be about more than football.

GOOD LUCK NOEL

One of the closest connections that Ireland has to the Finals is through the CEO of the Welsh FA Noel Mooney, a one-time interim CEO of the FAI, long-time friend of Sport for Business, and former goalkeeper in the League of Ireland.

Wales take on the United States in the evening kick-off today, live on RTÉ2 at 7 PM.

AD OF THE TOURNAMENT

Louis Vuitton’s World Cup ad has over 60 million likes on social media and is being hailed as one of the all time greats.

The pair have never appeared together in an ad. The shot was composed and taken by Annie Liebowitz, herself as big a star in photography circles, and even the position of the chess pieces replicates a key moment in a Grandmaster clash from 2017 between Magnus Carlsen and Hikura Nakamura.

Simply brilliant in pretty much every way.