Why Social Democracies Win World Cups

About this episode

Simon Kuper discusses the success of social democracies in football and the geopolitical implications of the World Cup.

The FT's Simon Kuper joins us to kick off our World Cup series, on why tiny social democracies keep producing the best football teams, why FIFA is laundering reputations for dictators, and why this tournament will say more about geopolitics than any leaders' summit this year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Hosts: David McWilliams, John Davis

Guest: Simon Kuper

Topics covered

• social democracies
• football
• geopolitics
• FIFA
• World Cup

Keywords

• social democracies
• football teams
• FIFA
• geopolitics
• World Cup

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FIFA

Places: World Cup

More episodes of The David McWilliams Podcast

• Inside the World Cup's Narco State · June 11, 2026 · 41 min
• The Coming Water Crisis · June 4, 2026 · 29 min
• Why Trump Is About to Come for Ireland · June 2, 2026 · 41 min
• How Trump Could Kill the Dollar · May 28, 2026 · 48 min
• Why Nobody's Having Babies Anymore · May 26, 2026 · 51 min
• Britain Is Broke · May 21, 2026 · 36 min