About this episode

The episode explores the impact of decolonisation on football and the World Cup, highlighting the stories of various nations and players during this transformative period.

What happens when the nations that invented football start losing their grip on it? How does a team representing a country that doesn't officially exist end up touring the world and unnerving an empire? And why did thirty-one African nations refuse to play at all? Afua and Peter follow football into the age of decolonisation — Algeria's phantom side, Nkrumah's Black Stars, a seventeen-year-old in tears in Stockholm — as the colonised stop asking permission and take the game for themselves. [0:00] 1950: the empires are gone, but nobody's told the World Cup [6:55] Bandung — half the planet decides to stop being spectators [9:27] Algeria's ghost team: the national side that didn't officially exist [12:46] Nkrumah, the Black Star, and building a nation out of nothing [17:48] South Korea lose 9–0 — and it still counts as a triumph [19:51] A teenager weeps on his teammates' shoulders and reorders the game [26:37] Thirty-one nations walk out of the World Cup at once [29:33] Eusébio: the man winning for the empire that denied his own Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram…

People in this episode

Hosts: Afua, Peter

Topics covered

• football
• decolonisation
• World Cup
• African nations
• post-colonialism
• history of football

Keywords

• football
• World Cup
• decolonisation
• Algeria
• Nkrumah
• Eusébio
• African nations
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Algeria, South Korea, Africa, Stockholm

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