Allan Buluku, in Dallas, Texas As the 2026 Fifa World Cup opens in Mexico City tonight, a familiar fever climbs across the British Isles. The English press, never a friend of moderation, has slipped into its quadrennial trance, printing back-page coronations for the Three Lions before a single whistle has blown. Television pundits vibrate with premature certainty. Millions of delusional fans, from London to Nairobi, have resumed the national pastime of bragging as if destiny were a family heirloom.