Simon Skinner in LRB: ‘The World Cup, launched in 1930, is the most popular sporting event on the planet: one of Fifa’s less implausible recent claims is that 1.5 billion people watched the 2022 final in Doha.’

And: ‘It is a global soap opera with a cast of geographically varying heroes and villains and imperishable stereotypes, and we check back in confident of picking up where we left off: (…) elite French not considered French by many French, joyous Senegalese, inexhaustible South Koreans, tragic Dutch, hapless English, even more hapless Scots and inexplicably absent Italians.’

As well: ‘And a gallery of timeless images serves as the World Cup’s wallpaper, scrolling from blurry monochrome to UHD: (…) Frank Rijkaard’s fleck of gob caught mid-parabola towards Rudi Völler’s perm, and Gazza’s tears, and Maradona’s tears (Italy 1990).’

That’s what I watch soccer for. Waiting for another fleck of gob.