The FIFA countdown

Every time the FIFA World Cup comes along, there’s an irresistible energy that pulls us to it and keeps us hooked like few other spectacles can. Regular consumers of the sport box up their club loyalties and pull out their dusty international jerseys, while loyal quadrennial World Cup fans sit down to trade tales of long-forgotten moments that either still keep them up at night — perhaps the infamous Roberto Baggio penalty miss in the 1994 final — or remind them where they were when the Hand of God changed the sport forever.