By Dean Bilton, ABC
Hydration breaks are called at the referee's discretion midway through each half.
To follow and love football at its highest levels in the year 2026 is to willingly sign a certain nefarious contract with a certain nefarious creature.
By agreeing to the terms presented, the fan receives almost constant access to the most beloved game on earth, and its unique ability to provoke spontaneous joy. The kind created by Nestory Irankunda on Sunday, the kind every other game on earth has tried but mostly failed to replicate.
There is football available permanently these days, all over the world, and sometimes it is magical. Even when it is not, you engage anyway in the knowledge that at any moment, from any angle, it might become so.
