The Guardian · US news · Original story
The World Cup of Calvinball: Fifa’s hasty changes turn refereeing into a free-for-all | Beau Dure
Match officials are enforcing tweaks to the laws of the game that have hardly been tested. The results? Drama, ‘mistaken identities’ and lots of confusion
In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters occasionally played a game known as Calvinball.
The rules were amorphous. At any moment, something like a “30-yard base wicket” may become part of the game. Determining a “winner” was besides the point, as the score for one game was given as “Q to 12.” The fictional, farcical sport entered public consciousness and was even cited by US supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a blistering dissent last year.
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Beau Dure · Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 2:00 AM
US news | The Guardian
Match officials are enforcing tweaks to the laws of the game that have hardly been tested. The results? Drama, ‘mistaken identities’ and lots of confusion
In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters occasionally played a game known as Calvinball.
The rules were amorphous. At any moment, something like a “30-yard base wicket” may become part of the game. Determining a “winner” was besides the point, as the score for one game was given as “Q to 12.” The fictional, farcical sport entered public consciousness and was even cited by US supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a blistering dissent last year.
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