"So at a World Cup, what we get is a series of teams intent on defending playing against opponents who, even if they are minded to attack, lack the slickness of a top club side. The result is stodgy football. The 1998 World Cup didn’t feel that special at the time — it was no better than 1994 and no match for 1982 or 1986 — but it stands now as a beacon, as the last good World Cup. Perhaps the institution of the World Cup is too great to disappear, at least in the short term, but sooner or later the poverty of the product is going to become an issue. "

In Episode Ninety One of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "Why is the World Cup Boring?" by Jonathan Wilson, first published in Issue Eleven in December 2013.

Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/why-world-cup-boring

Issue Eleven, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats.

Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.