the World Cup - about 25% football matches

The 2026 football World Cup tournament has been cornering a little piece of my attention currently. But only a little bit. Being Cornish, I am of course supporting Mexico1. You may have expected me to be supporting England, but that would not be appropriate given it was the English who historically suppressed and then assimilated the Cornish, and made many of us move away to find a better life in many other parts of the world – including Mexico, where they had holes in the ground to dig (the Cornish were very good at digging holes in the ground, possibly because it was the only known way of getting rid of a pasty crust). We gave Mexico pasties and football, in exchange for them giving us a home, work, and money, for digging some holes for them. The Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans took to the Rugby better. Oddballs. In time, they developed their football, from games starting with different teams of Cornish miners playing among themselves to start off with, to become…