World Cup Soccer

There’s a certain poetry to calling soccer “the beautiful game.” And then there’s FIFA.

Because if the game itself is beautiful, the experience of trying to watch it—at least at this World Cup—is starting to look like a masterclass in how to alienate the very fans who make the sport matter.

Consider the latest revelation: fans who paid hundreds of dollars for mid-tier tickets are only now discovering they’ve been assigned seats in the upper reaches of the stadium, nosebleed territory, a few rows shy of needing oxygen.