World Cup Tales
The World Cup is, of course, one of football’s most storied tournaments, so in the build-up to the 2010 finals in Brazil we decided to tell a story from each tournament, whether focusing on something narrow or a broader story relating to it.
World Cup Tales: Boycott! When Africa & Asia Said “Enough”, 1966
In England at least, the 1966 World Cup finals have been mythologised. To an extent, they have started to become the footballing equivalent of Arthurian legend - a set of values of Englishness that we either subscribe to or not. This is a shame, because the 1966 World...
World Cup Tales: When The World Cup Legitimised A Dictatorship – Argentina, 1978
There have been, over the last eighty years or so, several questionable decisions made regarding the hosting of World Cup tournaments. None, however, have been met with quite the fury that met the hosting of the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina. The decision made to...
World Cup Tales – Magyarország! The Greatest Team Never To Win A World Cup? Hungary, 1954
The story of football in the years immediately following the end of the Second World War often seemed to be following a pre-prepared script, but it was a script that, at the World Cup finals at least, the competing nations seemed unwilling to follow. In 1950, the...
World Cup Tales: The Story Of The First World Cup, 1930
It should come as no great surprise to any seasoned FIFA watchers that the entire history of the organisation has been about its politicking, and still less that this has frequently extended itself into the hosting of its showpiece tournament, the World Cup. When we...
World Cup Tales – Overcoming The Great Humiliation: Brazil, 1958
As the second favourites to win the 2010 World Cup after Spain, Brazil are used to the pressure that comes with the eyes of the world being upon them. No other country on earth's identity is so closely associated with football, yet much of the mythology that surrounds...
World Cup Tales: The Battle Of Santiago, 1962
We hear a lot about the decline and fall of western civilization these days, but moral outrage at the behaviour of footballers is nothing new and, indeed, players at the World Cup finals this summer will have to go a long way to outdo the most serious incidents of...
World Cup Tales: When The Two Germanies Collided, 1974
The Cold War spread insiduously into every aspect of life between the end of the second world war and the end of the 1980s, and sport was no exception to this rule, whether it was the Soviets and Americans boycotting each others' Olympic Games or Bobby Fischer facing...
World Cup Tales: Colombia 1986 – The World Cup That Never Was
The upcoming World Cup will the first to take place in the entire continent of Africa but there are several countries that have already held the tournament more that once, such as Italy, France and Germany. The first team to earn the honour of hosting the World Cup...
World Cup Tales: The Shame Of Gijon, 1982
Algeria make their first appearance in the World Cup finals since 1986 this year, and if they are looking for any more encouragement to perform than the prospect of playing on the world's biggest stage, then the sense of injustice at their previous treatment by the...
World Cup Tales: The Miracle Of Belo Horizonte, 1950
When the draw for the 2010 World Cup finals was made in December of last year, the British press went into a depressingly familiar mode in their dismissal of their opposition, the irony of which was all the more striking for those - and it has to be said that they may...