Climatism killed football. And not just.

Thirty years ago, Bulgaria’s national team made football history by coming fourth at the 1994 World Cup. The championship was held in the U.S. and I remember how commentators constantly fretted about how hot it was and how the boys were struggling to play in the heat. We fretted, too, stuck to our TV screens, watching history being made. Despite the heat. 1994 was a happy year for a lot of us.

This year, the Euro 2024 championship was held in Germany. Temperatures, I gathered from online weather services, were around 31-32 C, at least for the games I watched. Imagine my shock when smack in the middle of one of those games the players suddenly left the pitch… for what I soon learned was “a cooling break”. I witnessed two of these “cooling breaks” that apparently also involved snacks.

Thirty years ago, footballers played. They may have struggled in the heat but there were no “cooling breaks” for anyone. Thirty years ago, sports were not just a show but a demonstration of skills, resilience and talent. This year, football died of dehydration and extreme weather—those 31-32 C were accompanied by a red code for excessive heat. Red code, the highest alert in the EU’s colour code alert system. For temperatures that are so typical of the season formerly known as summer no one used to even notice them.

I fully expect that in less than a decade there will be no more football championships to save the lives of the players. Sure, they make a lot of money but is it worth risking so many lives, people would start wondering. Is it worth doing any sports on a boiling planet, the question might eventually become, further evolving to whether it is worth doing anything but sitting home and receiving some universal basic income, enough to cover a few hours of power a day and some basic — vegan — groceries.

It makes for a bleak image, granted, but we would have entertainment although it wouldn’t be called that. It would be called news, as much of current entertainment is called, and will probably deal with ambitious climate change fighting plans such as building a lift to the Moon to import critical materials.

You think this is a fantasy? Well, so is the idea of a 2,500-mile cable to bring wind and solar power from Morocco to the UK but there are people actually investing money in it — and a lot of other fantastical ideas. Because before climatism killed football, it did common sense in, brutally.