Europe, the world, a ball that at every latitude, and in every era, has the flavor of a madeleine dipped in tea. “Because every new World Cup, like Proust’s little cake, reminds us of past ones and the people with whom we watched them.” “World Cup Fever,” the new book by Simon Kuper\u2014a journalist and writer born in Uganda to South African parents, childhood in the Netherlands, degree from Oxford, and since 1998 a home in Paris\u2014is a journey through nine editions of the Football World Cup, from the “village festival” of 1990 to the “planetary celebration” of 2022. A sentimental education that has nothing to do with Flaubert’s unfulfilled passions; quite the opposite. In the many stories of winners and losers that have resurfaced from the more than two hundred notebooks filled with a reporter’s enthusiasm, there is one constant, which he himself reveals at the end of this interview: “There’s so much unhappiness in the world, and the World Cup creates happiness and unforgettable memories.” From an Italian summer to an Arab winter, they have been and will continue to be magical nights. Thirty-two years of World Cups, balanced between autobiography and geopolitical analysis, writes Kuper, “the tournament unites the entire world, at least for a month.” For FIFA’s founder, the Frenchman Jules Rimet, sport was meant to be a vehicle for peace, and even the worst among us could be a brother in football: is it still like that? “It’s certainly still how FIFA operates. Any autocracy is welcome to finance football or host the World Cup\u2014see Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia. Rimet and his FIFA in the 1930s were happy to let Mussolini host the tournament in 1934 and to work with the Germans even after the outbreak of World War II. I wish FIFA would establish ethical limits against autocracies and other negative actors. However, I like the way fans from hostile countries can enjoy the World Cup\u2014for example, traditionally both Israelis and Palestinians root for Brazil at the World Cup. As I say in the book, the tournament unites the entire world.”<\/p>\n
When Rimet established the World Cup, Europe was the center of the world, not only in football: today we risk no longer being so, not even in football. “It’s true that Europe has lost control of organizing the World Cup: Western Europe hosted most World Cups until 1998. Now, the region hasn’t hosted a World Cup since 2006. But on the field, Western Europe continues to dominate. If you look at the teams that reached the podium from 2006 to 2022, all except Messi’s Argentina were European. It’s bizarre: the whole world plays football, but Western Europe (plus Messi) dominates.” Europeans have perhaps become a people primarily through football, even when they were political enemies. Kuper cites the French who, in 1938, applauded the Italians in black jerseys celebrating with the fascist salute. For years, however, we have been divided over whether Russians and Belarusians should be admitted to sporting competitions. “We Europeans play football among ourselves and against each other every week during the regular season, and these are mostly happy and harmonious events. I agree that football has helped build the idea of Europe: the Champions Cup began in 1955, only two years before the Treaty of Rome created the European Community. We Europeans also agree on most moral issues: there’s strong European support for excluding Russia from our competitions. There was disagreement about Israel, it’s true. But in football as elsewhere, these disagreements aren’t so much between different European countries as between different political movements. For example, the French and Italian far right agree on many things, as do the French and Italian left.” Kuper says that “our region today is probably the most integrated in world history: we watch the same football teams, we travel and trade among ourselves without showing passports, we live in peace. It’s impossible now to imagine a war between two EU countries.”<\/p>\n
In Italy\u2014which in 2026 celebrates 20 years since its last World Cup victory\u2014we complain that since the World Cup expanded to include more participants, the percentage of places allocated to Europe has decreased. “But the absolute number has increased,” Kuper clarifies. “In 2022 we had 13 places out of 32, that’s 41 percent. In 2026 we’ll have 16 places out of 48, 33 percent. Europe has never had so many in a World Cup. If Italy can’t qualify among the 16 best teams in Europe, it can only blame itself. I really don’t know what happened to your football. Is it fair that Europe has ‘only’ 33 percent of the places? I think so. A World Cup that includes all continents is weaker in footballing terms, but it’s more representative of the real world.”<\/p>\n
In 2018 in Russia, in 2022 in Qatar, next year under Trump, in 2034 in Saudi Arabia: football flirts with autocrats and, after all, Rimet too had struck deals with dictators, except he did it for peace among peoples, while Infantino… “Rimet wasn’t motivated by money. He was an unpaid FIFA president. Infantino now essentially lives in Miami, where he spends much of his life trying to stay close to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Infantino will work with any politician if that politician can be advantageous for FIFA. The difference between Trump and Saudi Arabia is that Trump isn’t investing money in football. He’s important to Infantino now because the United States will host the next World Cup. But Saudi Arabia is much more important in the long term.” Final question (those who read the book will understand): will the Netherlands ever win a World Cup? “I don’t think they will anymore. The Dutch team is better than the Italian one, but it’s not as strong as it once was. If they won, I’d be very happy. Even though I’m a journalist, I still have a heart.”<\/p>\n
Simon Kuper is a writer and journalist for the Financial Times. His latest book is “World Cup Fever: A Footballing Journey in Nine Tournaments”.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Europe, the world, a ball that at every latitude, and in every era, has the flavor of a madeleine dipped in tea. “Because every new World Cup, like Proust’s little cake, reminds us of past ones and the people with whom we watched them.” “World Cup Fever,” the new book by Simon Kuper\u2014a journalist and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":5970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":23,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6041"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6076,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions\/6076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}