I won’t be at the World Cup

I love football, and I love the World Cup. I could watch every day for the whole tournament. In fact I did so, one year – when they were playing in Russia. I was home recovering from having my appendix out and the timing was sublime. I spent all day on the sofa watching every match I could. Earlier – when the tournament was in Brazil – I took my son and we traveled around Brazil, going to matches and mixing with everyone who made the journey. It was heaven. Watching on the big screen on Copacabana Beach was almost as good as being at the stadium. I love watching the World Cup.

I often watch premier league and World Cup matches with a group of my mates from our days playing college soccer…45 years ago! We are on our WhatsApp group, chatting away while we watch. When we heard the 2026 tournament would be in USA (and Canada and Mexico) we got excited and started planning. Our romantic idea was to rent a Winnebago and travel from site to site, scoring tickets and watching the matches – once in a lifetime opportunity, eh?

Nope.

We are on strike and have decided NOT to go to any FIFA tournament matches. It saddens us, but frankly we write “fuckfifa” in our WhatsApp group more than anything else. FIFA are a terrible, corrupt organization, making changes to the tournament just to make money. Water breaks twice a game in every single match…to allow for more tv commercials. Leaving tournament sites to pay the expenses while FIFA captures the revenues. Ticket prices are sky high….and to top it all off there was the FIFA Peace Prize that Infantino (President of FIFA) presented to Donald Trump – a made up award to make him feel better about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, Disgusting and nauseating. That did it.

#fuckfifa

So – we chose a city where there are no matches being held, so we are not victims of sky high airbnb or hotel rates. We booked a ranch in Colorado, and will watch the matches on TV. We will enjoy the mountains, go hiking, canoeing and watch all the football we want…without spending a cent on FIFA. We will get our fill of our favorite sport and our favorite tourney but won’t be at the matches.

Now as for 2030, in Spain, Portugal and Morocco…we shall see!