There isn’t anything like it. Olympics, spread over 32 sports, keep you up for just the really big-ticket items. And some of those last less than 10 seconds. ICC World Cup, cricket being played seriously in a dozen-odd nations, won’t even elicit a laugh among seasoned international sports journalists. In 6 of the 12 Test cricket-playing nations, football is the much more followed sport. But the football World Cup is such a spectacle that even countries like us — India ranked 139th in the world — end up spending ridiculous amounts of time waking up at unearthly hours to watch favourites France fumble, or hail Haiti’s heroics. And this year, as seemingly always in the last few editions, disaster has been predicted. If 2014 was all about the stand-off between Fifa and the Brazilian government over legal disputes — that included tussles over discounted tickets for students and senior citizens, and the government ban of alcohol in stadiums — and the last-minute rush to finish stadiums, 2018 about how the Russian bear would treat spectators and officials, and 2022 about high temperatures and migrant worker issues in Qatar, 2026 has started with, perhaps, the worst treatment of officials and teams ever dished out in a senior Fifa event.Never mind the hotel and stadium ticket prices that make even tech bro billionaires look twice at invoices. Trump refusing to leave the stage during the Fifa Club World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey even after giving the winners their trophy certainly does not bode too well for how this tournament will go. Fifa has already shot their bolt by awarding the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize to Trump—less than three months before he announced the US joining Israel to wage war on Iran. There isn’t any more silverware the world footballing body can invent or legitimately give the president of one of three host nations of this World Cup. But in the end, while activists and protestors will shout themselves hoarse about how this World Cup sucks, someone will produce a piece of football that will transfix us all. Like Senegal defeating defending champions France in their first match in 2002 in South Korea. (The two meet again this time on June 17.) A club footballer of the tiny Pacific island of Reunion Roger Milla taking Italia 1990 by storm, scoring for Cameroon--and teaching us to dance around flagpoles. Or a Maradona just taking the tournament by the scruff of the neck in 1986 in Mexico and producing a moment of sublime brilliance after one of the worst-refereed goals in modern history. Because that is what this cursed tournament does. It makes the impossible happen, somehow. And the funny part of it is, we really don’t know which or how many of the 104 matches from tomorrow till the final game on July 20 will produce that magic, give us that blockbuster. The World Cup is, after all, the film festival to beat all film festivals, where successful directors often have a second chance at dazzling you, or leaving you cold after a great start. Which also means that dictators since Mussolini in 1934, the Argentine junta in 1978, and a few others much more recently, have managed to ‘sportswash’ themselves by hosting a World Cup. Remember, 78 of the 104 games this World Cup are being hosted in a country run by members of the Mar-a-Lago Club. Yes, we know the trick. We know how it works. But it doesn’t matter when a Mario Kempes, or a Diego Maradona, or a Kylian Mbappé make us forget everything, but those glorious moments. Data centres are draining our water. Tech goliaths are blowing billions to reach other planets when clean drinking water and nutrition on Planet A are distant dreams. Tankers are being hit by missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, and Ukrainians are living through a storm of drones, while 2026 is well on track to be the second hottest year in recorded history. And yet……at 2 a.m., Diomande or Olise or Yamal, or someone I’ve not even heard of yet will suddenly make me feel like a 10-year-old, looking at my WhatsApp to see which of my friends are still up to share this moment. Or if it’s that special, not bothering to check and call them anyway. Because this is the World Cup. The Greatest Show on Earth.