In truth, 2022 hasn't been much better than 2021 or 2020.
The angst and desperation of rising Covid-19 cases and multiple national lockdowns have been replaced by surging energy bills and a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's Russian army, sparking Europe's largest refugee crisis since the Second World War. Life isn't great for a depressingly large number of people right now.
In that light, football seems pretty irrelevant. But as Arrigo Sacchi once said, football is the most important of the least important things in life and as such, it can offer a welcome distraction from life's troubles.