AL KHOR, Qatar —Finally.
After 12 years of planning, $220 billion in government investment and countless controversies involving everything from workers' rights to beer sales, the 2022 World Cup kicked off Sunday night on the edge of the Qatari desert in a massive stadium built to look like a Bedouin tent.
It was a spectacular setting for the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and the first to be held in a majority-Muslim country. And the night began with pomp worthy of those circumstances, with Morgan Freeman hosting a 30-minute opening ceremony that involved two sheiks, three camels, four drummers, the last 14 World Cup mascots and 32 dancers dressed as giant replicas of the participating teams' jerseys.
