Football Daily | A paean to those heady days of four back-to-back World Cup matches

Will we ever see the likes of the Human Rights World Cup (2022) group stage again? Eleven hours of four essential back-to-back association football matches, every day, for two weeks. In the UK, the kick-off times were 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm, scheduling that would neatly block out the working day, bring the already faltering British economy to a grinding halt and send the daytime sales of Tin rocketing. But if productivity was down, happiness was at an all-time high as supporters feasted on such delights as Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia, Qatar 1-3 Senegal and South Korea 2-3 Ghana.

My understanding of the Schrödinger’s cat experiment (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) is that the cat was in a box with some sort of poison or explosive. Given Manchester United’s results so far this season, Noble Francis may yet find support among the fanbase for his, er, dressing-room renovation proposal” – Mike Wilner.

I don’t know if Ryan Baldi, author of this week’s Arsène Who? prize, has ever laced on a pair of boots. But if he has, I would love to see him in a midfield two with Ansu Fati, if only to give hope to those of us who have seen better days” – Jim Deery.

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