More traditional football fans who still love and relish their international breaks and the high profile summer tournaments pitting (presumably) the best against the best, were in for a real treat this domestic off season as we had the much talked about 2026 World Cup that is being spread between the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.
Now, this tournament has already given rise to a number of headlines that we will simply ignore here - not least those particularly controversies that would tick the political boxes, and we all know Gianni Infantino and FIFA are very much not for political statements...they even have a made up Peace Prize to prove it.
I am even going to ignore the bane of every modern day football fan and the invention that now haunts their nightly nightmares, the Video Assistant Referee technology that even Ivy Bet probably carries odds on when it comes to it pointlessly getting in the way of a good game. It is not much of an assistant, and does not even appear to be that high on the technology scale. Men drawing lines on photo editing software is not really what Tomorrow's World envisaged back in the 1970's, particularly as they are not even wearing Jet Packs.
No, one of the most familiar scenes at the World Cup in the last week and a bit has been the 'somewhat' full of itself three minute long water break. A three minute long water break that someone believes is so important for the health and wellbeing of the players given the heat and humidity that it has also been mandated to take place in the circumstances where there is an unforeseen freeze and snowshoes are required.
Its newly found importance to the American (both North and South) market and the 'beautiful game' itself is they long already hocked those three minute breaks to whichever company will pay the most for the opportunity to advertise in what is already an advertising saturated omnishambles of sporting integrity.
At the halfway point in each half, in each of the 104 games that will have taken place by the time we get back to a reality that we have long since forgotten, the Referee blows his little whistle and ushers the players off for a severe talking to by all the varying members of their coaching staff - manager included.
Very little water seems to be drunk during these now regular events, and even though we are only a few games in, managers are already running out of things to say and tactical nuances to deliver and are sitting back down and gazing around the Stadium in boredom after about 30 seconds. Players themselves seem to be even more confused and blankly look around wondering who would pay that much to watch grown adults drink a bit of water from that distance and then nobody seems to know how to play the game for about ten minutes after it finally restarts.
It is like reliving the first friendly of a pre season warm up campaign twice in 90 minutes, and given some of the results so far it is not about the quality of the team on show, it is who remembers that their legs work after a pointless interruption that ruins any sense of flow and momentum.
One thing is for sure, as fans create coping mechanisms for VAR, they might as well start bringing a good read to the Stadium in future.
