About this episode

The episode explores the financial and cultural implications of hosting the World Cup in a country where football is not the primary sport.

How does a country where football is a minority sport end up hosting — and cashing in on — the biggest World Cup in history? What happens when FIFA stops behaving like a sporting federation and starts behaving like a multinational? And when the tournament generates $14 billion in a single World Cup, who's actually footing the bill? Twelve global sponsors, three and a half million fans through the turnstiles, and a World Cup final so dull it needed penalties to save it — Peter and Afua follow the money to USA '94. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] A World Cup arrives in a country that doesn't even like football [3:56] João Havelange and the birth of FIFA's global sponsorship machine [9:54] Nigeria and Saudi Arabia arrive to rewrite the football map [19:24] The post-communist world gets its own flag on the pitch for the first time [20:49] Hristo Stoichkov and Gheorghe Hagi become the stars of the tournament [23:37] Andrés Escobar's own goal, and a tragedy nobody saw coming [25:47] Brazil finally get the ending football's most-loved nation deserved [27:00] Why an African team winning the World Cup…

People in this episode

Hosts: Peter, Afua

Topics covered

• World Cup
• FIFA
• sponsorship
• football history
• economic impact
• sports culture

Keywords

• World Cup
• FIFA
• sponsorship
• football
• USA 1994
• economic impact
• sports history
• João Havelange
• Hristo Stoichkov
• Andrés Escobar

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FIFA

Places: USA, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Brazil

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