Jules Rimet still dreaming: how the World Cup became the biggest cultural event in history
🎧 Listen to the full episode on Copa Independent (World Cup 2026)
World Cup corruption/politics
The 2nd of December 2010 is one of the most influential moments in football history and arguably one of the most influential moments in global history, given the way two petro-states in Russia and Qatar used the World Cup.
World Cup cultural impact
People measure their lives in World Cups. Everyone can remember their first, everyone can remember where they were and what was going on in their lives at epic moments.
World Cup politics
The World Cup has this unequaled social power, that it matters so much to so many people, that also means it has a unique political power that people try to exploit.
World Cup 2026
Trump is going to be handing out the World Cup trophy. He's going to turn as much of it into a show about himself as possible.
World Cup scale
The 5 billion viewers in the 2022 World Cup, 1.5 billion watched the final and it made it the most watched sporting event in terms of a singular match ever.
World Cup frequency
When Arsène Wenger suggested doing a World Cup every two years, I think people just couldn't believe it because it's the high stakes which make the emotion so vivid.
Sportswashing
I think as a society, there is a tendency that you want to put your head in the sand about these sort of things. I think there's a tendency that you don't want your five-week vision of watching four games a day in the World Cup with your beer in your hand in the pub garden tainted.
Global reach of football
Messi and Ronaldo are probably better known, or the names are at least known in more countries, so they cross more borders than arguably anyone else on the planet, maybe bar certain religious leaders.
Tactical analysis
The quality of the football can't compare to the Champions League or club football just because the elite teams can accumulate all the best players and drill them in highly systemised ways.
Journalism ethics
If a journalist boycotts something, it basically allows a certain perspective to go out unchallenged. The core of reporting is to basically be on the ground, to go speaking to people.
