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Series ・ 10 parts

The World Cup: A Century of Power

A ball once kicked around by British factory workers somehow came to carry the weight of a nation's honour. In 1930, the first World Cup was born in the small country of Uruguay, as it celebrated a century of independence. Behind the fervour lay one man's vision — and the moment where nation and sport first became one.

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  1. 01 How Football Became a Matter of National Pride — 1930 and the First World Cup A ball once kicked around by British factory workers somehow came to carry the weight of a nation's honour. In 1930, the first World Cup was born in the small country of Uruguay, as it celebrated a century of independence. Behind the fervour lay one man's vision — and the moment where nation and sport first became one.
  2. 02 The Dictator's Tournament — Mussolini and the Politicisation of the World Cup (1934/1938) A dictator saw football's power to send a nation into raptures — and seized it. The 1934 Italy tournament became a grand stage of propaganda, broadcasting the might of Fascism to the world. The glory of back-to-back home triumphs, and the shadow of political pressure whispered behind them. This is the moment sport became a tool of national glorification.
  3. 03 A Story of Recovery: The Maracanã Tragedy and the Miracle of Bern In an instant, the joy of 200,000 people fell silent at the Maracanã in 1950. Four years later, a country in ruins—West Germany—lifted the trophy at Bern in 1954. In the postwar world, football became a story of national self-recovery, capable of shattering a nation's pride and then rebuilding it. This is the era when the ball began to carry history on its back.
  4. 04 The Cathode-Ray Revolution: Pelé, Television, and Global Commodification Pelé astonished the world at seventeen, leading a golden Brazil. Then, at the 1970 Mexico tournament, satellites carried color footage to every corner of the earth for the first time in history. The national story that leapt into living rooms transformed into a vast audience market—a mega-business. This is the moment the World Cup became a 'global commodity.'
  5. 05 Dictatorship Behind the Stadium — Argentina 1978 A few blocks from a packed stadium roaring with joy, people were being made to disappear. Held under a military dictatorship, the 1978 Argentina World Cup was the first monument to football's festival being used as a smokescreen. In the fever of Buenos Aires, we glimpse the prototype of sportswashing.
  6. 06 Empire of Money — Havelange, Adidas, and Broadcast Rights In 1974, a Brazilian seized FIFA's throne. João Havelange. Joining forces with Horst Dassler, the emperor of sporting goods, he turned football into a colossal business through broadcast rights and sponsors. FIFA as a power transcending nations — this is the scene of its birth.
  7. 07 Maradona and the Nation — 1986, the 'Hand of God' (In the Shadow of the Falklands) Mexico, 1986. In the searing heat of the Azteca Stadium, a single number 10 scored two goals — one from heaven, one from hell — in the space of four minutes. The 'Hand of God' and the 'slalom of five.' Into those ninety minutes flowed the unhealed grudge of two nations that, four years earlier, had fought a war in the cold waters of the South Atlantic. This is the story of the moment an individual carried the emotions of an entire country.
  8. 08 The Architecture of Corruption — FIFA, the Den of Demons (Blatter and 2015) On the morning of May 27, 2015, FIFA officials were led out one by one from a luxury hotel in Zurich, hidden behind bedsheets. The raid was carried out not by the Swiss authorities but by the United States Department of Justice, an ocean away. A quarter-century of bribes, piled up around broadcasting rights and host-nation bids, had eaten into the giant organization. We unravel the structure that earned the body governing world football the name 'den of demons.'
  9. 09 Oil Money in the Desert — Qatar 2022 A desert nation of fewer than three million people staged the first ever winter World Cup. But the road that led there was also the culmination of a longer arc — the 2002 Korea/Japan tournament (Asia's first), then 2010 South Africa (Africa's first) — as hosting spread beyond traditional Europe and South America. A reading of a tournament where geographic expansion, oil money, and sportswashing all intersect, told as a story of globalization.
  10. 10 2026, and Beyond — The Expanding World Cup and the Future of Nations In 2026, the World Cup swells to a first-ever three-nation co-hosting and 48 teams. The staggering commercial might of North America, a ballooning number of matches, and geopolitics. From Uruguay in 1930 to the present day, the final chapter witnesses the culmination of a history of power woven from nations, money, and politics — and asks anew what this mirror has reflected.