How stressful is watching the World Cup? Scientists tested me to find out

Image caption, Prof Damian Bailey hooks James up to scientific equipment to track his responses By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent Published 23 June 2026, 00:27 BST Updated 4 hours ago Supporting England is an emotional rollercoaster. There's the nervous anticipation as the national anthems rings out around the stadium, the thrill of Kane smacking the ball in the goal, and the ecstasy of victory. And there's that sinking feeling too when we let a lead slip, the dread of a penalty shoot-out and the despair of losing to Italy and then Spain in the last two Euros finals. You can feel your heart race and your hands get clammy as you experience every kick of the ball. Clearly, watching football influences the body - but is it good or bad for our health? To find out I persuaded two scientists from the University of South Wales to put national pride to one side and join me for a little experiment during England's opening World Cup match. They packed up their lab into the boot of a car, and we met in the Wiper and True Taproom in Bristol. I do love the researcher's homeland, but we all agreed that "scientifically" we should avoid doing the experiment in a Welsh pub and hopped across the border. Wires, gizmos and cuffs To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, James and the crowd react to Harry Kane's dramatic penalty against Croatia We arrive early and camp out at the back of a row of benches with a good view of the projector screen. Then the expensive scientific kit comes out. "None of this is beer-proof let alone waterproof," says Prof Damian Bailey, with only the briefest flicker of somebody regretting their life choices. Damian and his PhD student Danny Walmsley spend about 15 minutes wiring me up as I slowly morph into some kind of partially robotic lifeform. My left arm and hand are enveloped in a mass of probes, wires, gizmos and cuffs. It gets stranger still as a pair of ultrasound probes are fixed to my head, complete with splodges of slimy gel above the ears - to measure the blood flow to my brain. I gently chew on an absorbent stick – which makes cardboard taste appealing – to get a saliva sample which can be tested for 2,000 different proteins including stress hormones like cortisol – although I am worried I've contaminated the sample with a pre-match pepperoni pizza. Measuring my stress response Image caption, Football fans Tim and Dan disagree on whether watching England is good for their health As kick-off approaches I start breathing into a device that looks like a child's spinning top to record how quickly I'm breathing and how much carbon dioxide I'm breathing out. By this point I'm starting to look like an extra in a low-budget Star Wars parody – and we are definitely the pre-match entertainment in a pub which is now heaving. But the gear should allow us to monitor how my body changes – second by second - over the course of the Croatia match