After this World Cup, here’s what I feel: a kind of messy hope | Jonathan Liew
Kazakhs cheering Uzbeks, Bengalis wild for Argentina … This tournament was once a playground for nationalism. Now it shows how flimsy that allegiance is It’s the World Cup final , so you pick a side. And don’t worry if you happen to be part of the 98.9% of...
A commentary in The Guardian argues that this World Cup has exposed how fragile football’s old national allegiances can be, replacing clear-cut rivalries with temporary, shifting loyalties that often look improvised rather than inherited.
In the piece, Jonathan Liew describes the final as a setting where spectators and celebrities alike seemed free to choose sides for reasons that had little to do with nationality. He points to a mix of symbols and identities in the crowd, including former boxer Mike Tyson in an Argentina shirt and comedian Trevor Noah in a Spain shirt, as well as what he says was a largely American audience at MetLife Stadium. The result, he suggests, was less a traditional international showdown than a kind of staged, casual fandom shaped by fashion, celebrity and personal preference.
Liew’s larger point is that the tournament no longer functions simply as a playground for nationalism. Instead, it reflects how weak and reversible those loyalties can be in a globalized sporting culture. He contrasts older ideas of World Cup support with a more fragmented reality in which fans may back a team for its kit, a star player, a political feeling or a memory from long ago. He uses examples such as Kazakhs cheering for Uzbeks and Bengalis supporting Argentina to show how far support can travel beyond borders.
The article presents that shift as both faintly absurd and oddly hopeful. Rather than treating the blurring of allegiance as a loss, Liew frames it as evidence that sporting identity is more flexible than the hard politics often attached to it. His closing mood is not one of certainty but of “messy hope,” suggesting that the World Cup can still gather people together even when the reasons for belonging are inconsistent, improvised or contradictory.
This report is based on a monitored public feed and summarizes a commentary published by The Guardian Football. Source attribution is included below.
Source: The Guardian Football - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/20/world-cup-football-messy-hope
