Just as was the case 12 months ago, soccer exists amid mankind's fight against an enemy few could imagine would ever become real. But there is hope...
Most are a little better off than at this time last year and, if there is some light to have come out of the darkness, it is that maybe we realized how much we have in common and what we can achieve when we band together and trust in each other.
It is a lesson that can -- hopefully -- be transferred to football, which, at the very top of the game, stands divided and uncertain.