There will never be a football World Cup more joyous than summer 2018

Heatwaves, beer gardens and not an anti-LGBT+ rhetoric in sight. Laura Hampson asks whether the 2018 football World Cup was the best we’ll ever get

England’s run to the 2018 semi-finals gripped the entire country (Getty)

If we cast our minds back to the summer of 2018, it seemed like a much simpler time. The terms of Brexit were still being finalised, Russia was playing (somewhat) nice towards Ukraine, we were still basking in the glow of the Sussex’s marriage, and we were a mere 18 months away from hearing the first murmurs of something called “coronavirus”.

Yes, it was a blissful time, and made even more so by that year’s men’s football World Cup. Now look, I’ll be the first to say I’m not an avid fan of football by any means. The closest I’ve ever come to supporting a particular team is when a guy I dated liked Tottenham and I was dragged to a pub nearby so we could “soak in the atmosphere” of the game without actually stepping foot in the stadium. This could be why I married a rugby fan instead.

Alas, that summer I was taken over by the football mania. The World Cup in 2018 took place in June and July. Memories of that time see the air thick with a sticky heatwave, football fans spilling out of beer gardens, and passers-by seemingly drawn to the cheers when a team nearly scored, simply wanting to soak in the good vibes.

Perhaps it was the weather, or the fact that England did better than we ever thought they would. Or perhaps, even, it was Gareth Southgate’s waistcoat collection. Whatever it was, there was something that made those few weeks so joyous, so exciting, so unifying.

Fast forward four years and it’s safe to say we’re feeling a little … haggard. We’re only just getting over the toll that Covid took on us and have been stung with a recession and a cost of living crisis. This year’s World Cup was meant to be something that would unify us once again, and you might want to call me old fashioned, but reports of worker deaths in Qatar and the anti-LGBT+ rhetoric coming from the Middle Eastern nation has certainly put a damper on this year’s events.

Besides, you know, alleged human rights violations, England’s cold weather and the fact that no one can afford to do, well, anything, means that we’re just not feeling that same level of joy this time around. Perhaps this will change in 2026, when it’s hosted by the continent of North America, but for now, it’s just not something I can find myself getting behind.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Yours,

Laura Hampson

Deputy lifestyle editor