This 2026 World Cup was reaching its final round of 16 without me having watched a single match. It was purely by chance, while lingering in a restaurant, that I caught a glimpse of the game between Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Egypt.
It is strange to think that back in the day, a football enthusiast would meticulously draw up their own ‘final bracket,’ scrupulously transcribe every result, and instantly update the standings in each group: the layout of the knockout matches would take shape before their eyes, and they would play at forecasting simply for the pleasure of it, without any speculation. How distant that time seems—1986, when I nearly cracked my skull against a doorframe after Germany equalized, overcoming a two-goal deficit (only to eventually fall to Diego Maradona’s Argentina). And all those ‘imprecations’ (a charming euphemism) and other ‘smashings’ for missed opportunities, often the prelude to bitter defeats and cruel eliminations that one ruminates over for four years.
The 1978 World Cup in Argentina was organized into four groups of four teams; the number of qualifiers was increased to 24 for the 1982 World Cup, and the 1998 tournament was the first edition to bring together 32 countries. The current expansion to 48 participants has sparked criticism regarding the sporting interest of teams like Jordan, Uzbekistan, Curaçao, Haiti, Congo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. At least, this global exposure has given visibility to the archipelago of Cape Verde (Cabo Verde, 527,326 Portuguese-speaking inhabitants off the coast of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean; capital: Praia on the island of Santiago), which had a remarkable run with three undefeated matches in the first round, including a draw against Spain, before being eliminated after extra time in the round of 16 against Argentina.
Between the UEFA Champions League (new format) and the World Cup (expanded), the gladiators with their astronomical salaries and juicy bonuses are enslaved to an ever-increasing number of matches. When you multiply playing time, it is a mathematical certainty that old records will fall one after another. A ‘GOAT’ metric based on a goals-per-minute ratio would be fairer, though much less ‘sexy.’
Statistics, that old obsession, are biased: in 1958, a still-amateur era of football, Just Fontaine scored his 13 goals in six matches; Gerd Müller brought the total to 14 goals over two World Cups; Miroslav Klose needed four final tournaments to reach 16 goals. Temporarily the all-time top scorer (21 goals) following the round of 16 of this 2026 World Cup, Lionel Messi was playing his 31st match across six tournaments.
48 finalists, three co-hosting countries, a ticket costing 17,199 euros for Spain vs. Uruguay, and over 2 million dollars on the resale market to attend the final. FIFA officially organizes a ‘ticket resale or exchange market’ with fees amounting to 15% of the total price, promising to redistribute proceeds to small national federations ‘for the development of football.’ Every break, which can be multiplied at will—even if it means chopping up matches and distorting the sport—offers just as many advertising slots. The good old ‘baolina an-tanimbary’ (rice-field football) has become a massive business.
Hegel claimed that reading the newspaper was the morning prayer of the modern man. It is clear that this gentleman was speaking learnedly from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries—a prehistoric era without World Cups, Grand Slam tournaments, or Formula 1 Grands Prix. But even that modernity has become irrelevant to me since I got rid of my TV and canceled my subscription to satellite packages, which have become so insipid and frankly vulgar compared to the early days just a quarter-century ago. One risks fewer strokes by simply checking the previous day’s results at dawn.
Nasolo-Valiavo Andriamihaja
Captured & Published at: 2026-07-09 06:43:39 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/07/temps-additionnel.html