MATCHDAY INFERENCE is a daily matchday zine for the 2026 World Cup — except there's no print run. Every morning of the tournament, the press assembles a brand-new issue for you specifically, then staples the next reader's, and the next.
From 11 June to 19 July 2026, you wake up to an issue built overnight against the real fixtures: your teams, your players, written through the tactical lens you picked. Eight sections, same shape every morning, completely different inside. No two readers get the same zine.
Why "Inference"?
The word does double duty, and that's the whole point.
On the pitch: "great inference by the defender to read that through ball" — anticipation, reading the game a half-second before it happens.
In the machine: model inference — the act of a trained model generating output. The zine is, literally, an inference run every morning.
Football and AI, mated in one word, with none of the usual "FootGPT" cringe. That was deliberate.
Nº 03 — The MoodNirvana, 1990. Not The Athletic.
This is a DIY fanzine, not a broadcast and not a feed. Cream paper, ink, highlighter, a photocopier that's seen things. Grunge over gloss. The criterion for every decision was simple: would Nirvana in 1990 ship this?
So: no punditry, no hot takes, no algorithmic engagement bait. Just a thing made with care, for one person, every day, until the final whistle in July.
Nº 04 — The Fine PrintWho's behind it
My name is Nicholas De Leon. I'm a longtime technology reporter, born and raised in New York City and a Tucson transplant since 2023. By day I'm a Senior Reporter at Consumer Reports; by night I build things like this. MATCHDAY INFERENCE is one of them — a one-off, made for the love of the tournament, sibling to my AI baseball project Deep Dugout.
No newsroom, no team of writers, no investors — just me, a stack of code, and a stubborn opinion about how a matchday zine should feel. It's free: no subscription, no paywall, and not affiliated with FIFA, the FA, or any sane sporting authority.
The best ways to reach me are email — [email protected] — and LinkedIn. Tips, corrections, leads, and friendly hellos all welcome.