When President Trump placed aggressive tariffs on Canadian exports, I completely swore off travel to the United States. So, when Fifa selected me during the Domestic Exclusivity phase, I leapt at the opportunity to buy tickets to a match in Canada. Each step of the online process was somewhat confusing, including a counter-clockwise circular countdown with imperceptibly slow movement and multiple login requests. Nevertheless, after a 90-minute wait, I was able to purchase tickets for my family to Canada's last group game.
The walkouts came after the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs the glitzy annual event met to discuss concerns about Israel's participation, which some countries oppose over its conduct of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. At the meeting, EBU members voted to adopt tougher contest voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of their contestants, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.