the meh World Cup
The 2026 football World Cup tournament has been cornering a little piece of my attention currently. But only a little bit.
Being Cornish, I am of course supporting Mexico1. You may have expected me to be supporting England, but that would not be appropriate given it was the English who historically suppressed and then assimilated the Cornish, and made many of us move away to find a better life in many other parts of the world – including Mexico, where they had holes in the ground to dig (the Cornish were very good at digging holes in the ground).
We gave Mexico pasties and football, in exchange for them giving us a home, work, and money, for digging some holes for them. The Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans took to the Rugby better. Oddballs.
In time, they developed the football, from games starting with different Cornish miners playing among themselves to start off with, to become leagues all over Mexico. And now they'll probably beat England at it in this World Cup, if England manage to stumble past the first knockout game versus DR Congo this evening.
As always, I find myself mildly entertained when I'm actually watching a match, but the extended 'build-up' before, and the 'analysis' after a match leaves me cold.
How you can make so much TV out of "What do you think will happen?" is beyond me. Hours of endless conjecture and guessing, generally made entirely meaningless and a waste of time as soon as the match kicks off.
Likewise the 'analysis' afterwards "Do you think it was a penalty?" the host asks one of the experts.
I think to myself "Arghh... it WAS a penalty! I saw it. I watched the the match. A player took a penalty kick after the ref gave the penalty and everything. It happened. That Is What Happened."
Speculating about if it was or not now is superfluous fluff. So is playing endless replays with little arrows drawn on the screen, and other whizzy graphics being talked over by grey men who used to be players, or were failed managers, in a different era.
I can't watch build-ups before, or analysis afterwards. The match is the thing.
But the US is involved, so there are hydration breaks now.
Oh My Word. Hydration breaks!
Obviously what has happened is that the US TV companies have gone to FIFA and begged for more breaks in a game. They did not want the US public getting the idea that it is possible for sports coverage to take place for over 25 minutes without a single advertisement.
So there are hydration breaks at about 23 minutes in each half. Making each half, by stealth, two quarters.
I imagine the conversation went:
US TV: Can we get more breaks in to a soccer game?
FIFA: Absolutely not, it would be an insult to the hallowed game, the spirit of it, the traditions of it, and we are sworn to protect it at all costs.
US TV: There would be squillions of dollars in it for you.
FIFA: Ah, OK then. How many breaks would you like?
And there is one final hurdle to watching much of the World Cup 2026 tournament. The kick off times in the UK are not conducive to old people like me who can't stay awake past 10.30pm.
So I'll be shouting for Mexico. Unless their next game kicks off at 11pm GMT, in which case I'll be snoring for Mexico.
post link for sharing: https://skryblans.com/the-meh-world-cup
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Further reading about the link between the Cornish and Mexican football, because you deserve a properly written story about it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cx21q453l4jo↩