New Delhi, June 5 -- The ball turns, the world turns," wrote the inimitable Eduardo Galeano, in Football in Sun and Shadow (1995), the book one must turn to when World Cups come around.

As the 2026 version of humanity's greatest sporting spectacle looms closer, it seems that the world and the ball are turning in opposite directions. Call this the cup of chaos, but when has it ever happened that the football World Cup has actively tried to make itself a hellish experience for those who want to witness it?

There are three hosts for this edition, but Canada and Mexico have just a handful of matches, dropping entirely off the radar by the time it reaches the quarterfinal stage. That leaves us with the spectre of host-country-in-chief US imp...