The World Cup Own Goal

I never liked football as a child,
but still I tried to understand life.
I disliked how easily football
used to as fill television screens.

Sport on television was more about television
than ever it was about sport. The alternative
was that television was about  advertising.

I would have liked to be on the stands
and joined in the roar of the crowd.
but I could not find local matches
and from them, pick a side I liked.

Now the new American Empire has ended
legal visits to it from seventy five countries
across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East,
Asia, and Eastern Europe. This dictum excludes
citizens from across large parts of the world 
from attending World Cup matches in person,
as part of their planned summer holiday.

Countries whose citizens are not banned
from visiting America may well discourage
their citizens from attending the event.
On the grounds that the World Cup
was meant solely meant as an own-goal
scored by, and for, American democracy.

American exceptionalism wins/defeats itself again.....