By the final whistle it was Wayne Rooney, the prolific England and Man U striker, so often derided as “Shrek” for his love of a bevvy, his trysts with hookers and his thatch of transplanted hair, who called it right.
It was–not to put too fine a point on it–quite simply “crap!”
Rooney was referring to the half-time concert at the FIFA 2026 World Cup final in the New York New Jersey stadium.
But he might as well have been calling the game, which–thank the sporting Gods–ended in a narrow but justly-deserved 1-0 victory for Spain in extra time.
Lucky Stars
Around the world the bookies, too, were thanking their lucky stars.
For they like nothing more than a 0-0 full time deadlock, which negates most of the potentially-heavy payouts associated with a 90-minutes win.
And from the betting business perspective, it was some recompense after all the tournament favourites pretty much doing their thing in 104 matches during six weeks of mostly-fabulous football across Canada, the United States and Mexico.
According to early estimates by gambling data crunchers Macquarie, some US$50 billion (£37.26bn) was placed on markets and outcomes at planet football’s greatest show – the biggest handle in single-event sporting history and the equivalent of US$500,000 (£372,652) a game.
The biggest takeaways? Undoubtedly the growth of the U.S. and Brazil regulated football/soccer betting markets. The supersession of traditional pre-game punts by in-play or parlay betting. And, impossible to ignore, the entrance of prediction markets.
Although FIFA’s official ADI Predictstreet performed like a damp squib – or England after they went 1-0 up against Argentina in their semi-final.
Ticky-Tacky Death
Despite the interminably boring Spain-Argentina final, likened to a Spanish inquisition of death by a thousand passes; entirely plausible pro-Argentina conspiracy theories–every one of 15 VAR decisions involving the South Americans went in their favour–and the shenanigans of a certain Mr Trump and his FIFA presidential acolyte Gianni Infantino; the “Beautiful Game”, “football, bloody football”, triumphed.
Short time will now tell whether the bookies walk away with the real winnings of any major tournament — thousands of new and loyal customers.
On the field of play, meantime, it was refreshing to see that the best team won.
And in the commentary room it was a joy to welcome a new superstar pundit: a certain Wayne Rooney, no less.
