Harry Kane eyes talks with other international captains over 'unified approach' to Qatar World Cup issues

England's Harry Kane is keen to hold talks with other international captains to address the controversies surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Concerns have been raised about Qatar's human rights stance, with homosexuality against the law in the country, while the preparations for the tournament have also been littered with issues relating to migrant workers losing their lives during the building of the stadiums.

Manager Gareth Southgate has vowed to educate his team on the issues during the current international break, and Kane admitted he hopes to play his part too.

"As players we didn't choose where this World Cup was going to be," Kane said. "But what it has done is it has shone a light on important issues which might not have come to light if the World Cup wasn't there.

"We have to try to help as much as possible to understand the issues and the situations. We're no experts in that field at the moment in terms of what we know but as always we try to help in any way we can, we try to use our platform to help in any way we can.

"I understand there has been some progress on certain issues in the country so far. What my hope is that having the World Cup there and having this light on the country will help try and progress some of the issues which have been going on for a long time.

"There's a couple of other national team captains in my team at Tottenham, maybe [I will be] talking to other national team captains to see whether we can be unified in what we try and do and approach it. That's something myself and some of the senior players in the team will look to try to achieve over the coming months.

"There's still a lot of progress to be made. But hopefully all of us, like we have done in the past, can try to make change with the platforms that we have."

As well as making a difference off the pitch, Kane confessed that his England team-mates are determined to make history in Qatar.

“From where we were pre-World Cup 2018 to where we are now, we’ve made massive strides with the squad, with the team, with the connection with the fans,” Kane said. “There is definitely an expectation on us now.

“Obviously the final in the summer still hurts. It still has a bitter taste in the mouth. It gives you more hunger, more fire in the belly to hopefully try and achieve that one step further and win a major tournament.

“We’re working towards that, we feel like we’ve been improving every year and this year is no different. Hopefully we can take big strides into becoming one of the best teams in the history of the England national team.”