India, July 19 -- When the referee at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey brings the ball into play on Sunday, something quiet and coordinated will begin to happen across time zones. In a Delhi flat, perhaps, a mobile phone will be turned face down. In a Buenos Aires bar, the volume on an overhead television would climb. In a Casablanca cafe, chairs may be dragged into a tighter arc around a screen.

For the 90 minutes that follow - over 120, if it stretches to extra time and penalties - the ordinary business of the planet might bend, dim or halt around a football match.

The pattern is now measurable, though in bits and pieces. Broadcasters, utility engineers, hospital wards, police forces, stock exchanges and maternity units have kept records...