The correct way of following this World Cup is to first recognise that its principal host, the United States of America, is a disordered, flailing, naked behemoth and the tournament is a small, inadequate fig leaf.
It is not because it didn’t qualify; Russia was barred from participating because of its war on Ukraine.
Since we’re talking about Russia, think of the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycotted by the US, China, Japan, West Germany, Egypt and many other countries because the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan the previous year.
And yet we have the US, currently engaged in a ‘hot’ war with Iran, which it has attacked twice in the past year in concert with Israel, hosting the World Cup along with Canada and Mexico.
The US is also the arch enabler of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians on the West Bank.
