{"id":1391,"date":"2026-06-23T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.30yardsniper.co.uk\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2026-06-23T15:28:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:28:01","slug":"spenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.30yardsniper.co.uk\/?p=1391","title":{"rendered":"SPENGE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For various yet obvious reasons, I\u2019m yet to feel any real enthusiasm about this World Cup as a whole. FIFA stinks. The principal host country is appalling. The bloated format is dreadful. Then you\u2019re into unsociable kickoff times, stifling weather conditions, Sam Matterface. The list goes on and on. I just don\u2019t have the same keen-eyed desire to lap up every last drop of the action in the way I used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just external factors. Non-footballing commitments such as work and parenting take up most of my free time, so by the time the kitchen is tidied up after dinner, it\u2019s usually about 9pm and I have about 30-60 minutes of free time before dragging myself off to bed. That\u2019s at most one hour of free time a day, and whilst I\u2019m extremely grateful for its existence at all, it means I\u2019ve become a lot more choosy about what I do with it. Assuming you even feel like watching TV, do you want subject your significant other to Norway vs Senegal? Sure, it was a fun game with lots of goals, but that\u2019s beside the point. There\u2019s perilously few situations I\u2019m going to spend my leisure time on if it involves listening to Guy Mowbray commentating on anything<\/em> (sorry, Gladiators).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said all that, it\u2019s been quite enjoyable catching up on the highlights over the course of breakfast and\/or the morning commute. I haven\u2019t felt anything like the immersion of Major Tournaments past, but then that\u2019s probably true of most people doing parenting or with more demanding life schedules. For me, this is the Tournament of Highlights. And that\u2019s fine. My attention span is wrecked as anyone\u2019s in the year 2026, and whilst I will always love sitting down to really engage with 90 minutes of football, it feels like a nice way of staying in touch with everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the one exception to all this was England vs Croatia. The first half gave me the sinking feeling that I was once again watching Arsenal trying to stodge their way to the title. Not only that, it felt like it was the \u201cMajor Tournament\u201d version of England we\u2019ve been used to seeing since, well, forever. No rhythm to the play, no attacking plan, just sit in and wait for a spark of genius or a set piece. Luckily Tuchel managed to SPENGE it out of them at half time and it felt like it was England playing the way they \u201cshould\u201d have been for the last 10 years, all zippy passing and fluid attacking intent. It was beautiful and liberating to watch, and it may yet prove to be our finest hour, even as I write this on the day of England\u2019s 2nd group game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than igniting my passion for the tournament as a whole, though, I don\u2019t think I bothered watching any other matches or even highlights for the next 2 days. The emotional trauma of re-living Arsenal\u2019s crawl to the title in the first half was quickly forgotten, yet I still felt like I couldn\u2019t be arsed. In some ways, it\u2019s the World Cup you dream of – big names scoring bags of goals, along with interesting match-ups you wouldn\u2019t normally get to see. From a purely footballing perspective, what\u2019s not to love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m just not there at the moment. As I\u2019ve got older, the month of June has become more and more difficult for me in terms of mental health, and so the things I would usually enjoy don\u2019t resonate as much. More broadly, I\u2019m just finding I\u2019m not that bothered about football in general anymore, and that\u2019s with Arsenal winning the league<\/em> this season. From my narrow vista on the few places I visit online, this is not uncommon among men around the same age as me. There\u2019s a disconnect in the way modern football is presented and described – \u201cthe GREATEST and MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER\u201d – compared to the way it makes me feel when I watch it. Like generative AI, it may sort of look authentic around the edges, but what\u2019s inside is a hollowed out sloppy mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My somewhat muted interest in this year\u2019s World Cup has however thrown up some questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n