Trumpery

Ishaan Tharoor, for the Washington Post — “The World Cup has always been about politics”:

…Trump is expected to tether himself to the tournament, and like the Emir of Qatar, the 2022 host, will be on the field of the final next July, handing out the famous trophy to the victors. The prestige he could soak up in the moment might well obscure other concerns that loom over the tournament, including the staggering costs of tickets in many stadiums and the difficulties and obstacles that U.S. immigration authorities may place for foreign fans hoping to attend.

The World Cup has always been embedded in national and global politics, as acclaimed soccer writer Jonathan Wilson sketches in his new book, “The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup.” The tournament played a role in early 20th century nation building, helped both buttress and undermine autocratic governments, and always reflects the shifting politics and culture of a globalizing world…

What distinguishes the World Cup from an event like the Olympics, which also draws on countless millions of casual fans?
The Olympics has different sports and different countries take different sports with a different degree of seriousness. The World Cup is the one global event where everybody is focused on the same thing. Everybody’s focused on it, and it’s pretty much the only sport that pretty much all of the world plays and cares about.

And that simplicity perhaps makes it a greater vehicle for societal meaning?
When you have the eyes of a world on you, then political actors will try to take advantage of that. And you see that in quite grotesque ways, in terms of how [Italian dictator Benito] Mussolini used it in ’34, the Argentinian junta used it in ’78. And it’s not just the hosts: You look at how the Brazilian military dictatorship used it in 1970.

But there’s even quite benign ways: Consider Uruguay 1930. Why did they want to host it? They wanted to host it to show off, to say, “Look, we’re really good at football. We are the best in the world at this global sport, and also we’re playing it in the Centenario stadium” — 100 years since they signed their [first] Constitution. It’s about a projection of Uruguay: “We’re not just a sort of northern state of Argentina. We are important in our own right.”

After Uruguay came fascist Italy. Can you tell us more about what the 1934 World Cup meant for Mussolini?
Mussolini didn’t particularly like football, like a lot of dictators. He found it too unpredictable. He liked cars. He liked cycling. He preferred individual sports. It’s easy to predict who’s going to win in an individual sport. But you recognize that football had this power. And then he thought: “What’s the best way to ensure we win it?” So they win the bid [to host the World Cup] against Sweden, and then it suddenly becomes not just about winning the tournament, but about putting on a great show.

And so he essentially invents, certainly from a football point of view, sports marketing or merchandising: That you can buy your Italy World Cup tea tray or whatever, and it’ll be made incredibly well, by top Italian craftsmen, because he wants to show off Italy as this country that does things properly. The tickets were printed on really high quality paper because he wanted people to keep them as a souvenir. And they are all branded with the fascist logo…

To fast forward to the present, we see a different status quo, with the sport awash with money and influence from the wealthy Arab kingdoms, controlling everything from lucrative television contracts to major European clubs. How much of the main story now is the Gulf capture of the sport?
A huge amount: The way that things were arranged so Saudi Arabia could host in 2034; the fact that Qatar was allowed to host in 2022 despite, I think, a huge number of reasons it shouldn’t have. But FIFA seems to be hooked on Middle Eastern cash…

The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow

— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) December 5, 2025 at 11:29 PM

Another Make-A-Wish moment for the Oval Office Occupant…

Also Donald Trump is a toddler. He literally gets joy from presents like a toddler.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) December 5, 2025 at 12:41 PM