Should we have World Cup fever?

World Cup season. You love it or hate it. Or do you this year?

A few weeks ago when doing my shopping at Smithdown Asda, I spotted something that made my stomach drop. A display full of plastic tat plastered with St George’s Cross. World Cup fever was about to hit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge football fan. I’m a Liverpool Women Season ticket holder, and I normally follow tournament football excitedly. This year though, things feel different.

Lest we forget that the last Men’s World Cup was held in Qatar during the Winter due to extreme heat. At the time Qatar felt like the accumulation of FIFA’s accused corruption. It was a weird World Cup that came under much criticism from national football associations, players, managers and broadcasters. At the time, I remember people being relieved that the next World Cup would be back to normal. Mexico, Canada and the US were going to be fun hosts. It was a good trip for fans, and memories of the 1970 and 1986 Mexico Men’s World Cups and USA 1994 signalled a return to footballing heritage after the ‘new money’ host nation Qatar. When Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, I doubt the hot topic on anyone’s lips was what that would mean for the World Cup. The impact, however, has been almost incomprehensible. 

The political backdrop for this Men’s World Cup is so bleak it feels almost dystopian. During the World Cup draw last December, President Donald Trump was given the first ‘FIFA Peace Prize’. This was met with much criticism from Global Media, and proved unequivocally to fans that this World Cup cannot be removed from it’s political context. I had the draw on while doing some references for an essay, and remember literally freezing in shock at the content of FIFA’s montage that they had produced. Instead of conversations about which ties looked exciting, it was hard to look beyond the blatant political content of the whole ceremony.

In the months that have followed, it feels like a different story about the controversy surrounding the World Cup has broken every week. The eye watering prices of tickets alone are cause for upset, as FIFA is set to make $9 billion of profit. In the last few weeks the issues around immigration into the USA have ramped up. It’s the first time a host country has actively been at war with a another participant (the USA and Iran), and the US Government’s other travel bans have lead to restrictions for many supporters trying to travel to the match. This has accumulated in referee Omar Artan being denied entry to the US. Politics and football have never been separate, but this World Cup is truly like nothing ever seen before. This is before we even consider the environmental impact of what’s being deemed the most polluting World Cup of all time. 

There’s also the added ickiness that is associated with ‘England’ in 2026. The presence of the far-right mounts every day and increasingly the St George’s Cross is being associated with division and violence rather than tolerance and acceptance. It’s not the fault of the England team, but its hard to cheer for a flag that’s causing pain for so many people in England currently. For Scotland supporters its a very different story. I’m sure World Cup fever can hit in a national sense with a little less baggage, but the geopolitical tensions are still lurking. 

So, are we ‘allowed’ to have World Cup fever? Football is a tremendous source of joy and escape for millions (if not billions) of people all over the world. I shan’t list off all the football clichés, but it means something to people. So can we really blame people for wanting to keep the ‘magic’ of football alive and put politics aside? Everyday we’re barraged with the horrors of the news, and football can be a break for our mental health. At the end of the day, I don’t blame anyone who wants to watch a game of football to escape the reality of daily life. 

As for me, I don’t know how much of the World Cup I’ll end up watching. A lot of it is overnight for us anyway, but there will be plenty of matches on in daytime hours. I’ve not engaged in any pre-tournament journalism, not hung my wall chart, and on the morning of the tournament I don’t have any sense of excitement (in fact, I’m off to the cinema this evening instead). Anything could happen in the next few weeks, unfortunately not just on the pitch. World Cup fever might sweep the UK, or it may fizzle out if Scotland and England can’t deliver the goods. It’s your choice, but personally I don’t think I can watch this Men’s World Cup with a clear conscience. 

Statistics taken from BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cg4wqr2ev33o

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