Noon thursday, Pacific time, it starts

The Football world cup. Like it or not. Like the nasty political nonsense by a certain country the first gameis Mexico v South Africa.

As a former referee I like to keep track of the laws. Prevents me from making too much of an ass of myself commenting on the laws of the game. So here is the site of the group that does all the law updating. This link will give you the 2026-2027 rule book. It is effective July first but the teams will be playing under these laws as written.

https://theifab.com/

Under the 'hamburger"symbol, 3 horizontal ines, drops down and you can get the laws one at a time.
This gives you a pick list including changes for this year.
Expand Laws of the Game. That will get you a list including laws 1-17, and a glossary.

there is a section on VAR protocol and for the soccer geeks, guidlines for match officials.

Enjoy the matches. I don't know if I will see many as we are 9 hours ahead and except for Germany's matches I will have to pay for find an outdoor venue. The first USA match is at 3 AM our time.....