This time around I have been keeping an eye on the World Cup from afar. It made no difference to FIFA whether I watched the games or not.

But, after its shambolic and embarrassing decision to move into the peace prize business, I decided enough was enough. It has now joined the list of organisations I am boycotting - Amazon, Facebook and X among them.

Sadly, as the constant stream of parcels from Amazon to our house testifies, I have yet to convince the rest of my family to follow suit.

And, in the interests of transparency, I must confess that my daughter and her football-mad boyfriend followed the Scotland team to oblivion in New York, Boston and Miami. Clearly there’s little prospect of me becoming an ‘influencer’, in our house at least.

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Given that England’s difficulty is always Ireland’s opportunity, the colonialist’s performance has been of interest. I consoled myself that its steady progress through the competition would make its eventual defeat all the more sweet. In a winner-take-all competition, coming third is nothing, even if they beat the........

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