IT should be the start of the countdown to a global party.

Today marks 100 days before the first kick-off at the biggest World Cup in history.

The 2026 World Cup, which will be held in Canada, Mexico and the USA, kicks off on June 11Credit: AFP

But President Trump’s striking of Iran with Israel has potentially plunged the tournament into chaosCredit: AP
Just the 104 matches to be played across three countries and 16 cities over 39 days.

The best players in the world, playing for the greatest prize.

A tournament with a glittering history, where legends are made and heroes perform feats that echo through the decades.

Something every football fan should be looking forward to — especially those of first-time minnows Curacao, Cape Verde and Jordan.

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And, let us not forget, the Scots who will add tam o’shanters, ginger beards and kilts to the occasion.

Yet while the football will still, hopefully, be great — and could have a golden ending for Thomas Tuchel and England — there is precious little enthusiasm from supporters.

And you can’t blame them.

It’s one thing to wonder whether you can afford to go to the World Cup.

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Police will be in a state of high alert throughout the tournamentCredit: AP

Fans, England ones included, will have safety concerns ahead of the tournamentCredit: Sunday Times
Quite another when you can’t be sure you will be safe.

Events in the Middle East over the past 72 hours or so have only added to that sense of concern, an extra cloud of worry to furrow brows.

Security issues will be even more all-consuming, with parallels to the situation that saw a Japanese battleship patrolling the waters in front of England’s hotel on Awaji Island in 2002, in the aftermath of September 11 and the operations in Afghanistan.

Not that supporters flying into the USA will get that level of protection.

There is a legitimate worry that police, all carrying guns and on a state of high alert, might misconstrue what in Europe and South America would be simply fan exuberance, especially if it has been powered by alcohol.

That comes on top of the gripes and anger from all the extra costs supporters will have to deal with.

Hotel prices in host cities have gone through the roof as have flight fares.

Then there is the basic “affordability” implications — the cost of food and living issues that are dictating American domestic politics.

Try to get a breakfast worthy of the description in New York for less than $20.

Meanwhile, in some cities, booze is London prices-plus. And, of course, there are the controversial ticket costs.

Fifa insist that US laws that make the secondary ticket market legal — effectively the green light for touts to rake in hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds for a single seat — mean they are powerless to interfere.

But at the highest levels, while expectations of sell-outs at most if not all the games remain high, there is an acceptance that the pricing structure could have been different.

Too late for anything to change   now. For many,  the entire World Cup experience has already been soured.

Thankfully, once we get to June, things will change. Probably.

Pubs will be full, glasses will be charged, and patriotic fervour will, for a few weeks at least, rule the roost.

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The country will get behind Tuchel and his troops.

The soundtrack to the summer will be Football’s Coming Home.

And yet it feels overshadowed by greater things.

It seems incongruous to want to be excited by something taking place under the shadow of such a backdrop.

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Football has long been “the most important of the unimportant things”.
It can be again this summer.

But you can’t be certain it will be. And that’s the biggest shame of all.