World Cup | Origins In Empire | 1

2026-06-23

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How did a game scribbled into rules by Victorian schoolboys end up watched by four billion people? Why do the countries that were colonised take such fierce joy in beating the ones that colonised them? And by the time Mussolini was watching from the stands, was the World Cup ever really just about football?Peter and Afua follow football out along the empire's trade routes — from a London rulebook in 1863 to the first World Cups, where conquest, nationhood and fascism were already stitched into the world's game.[0:00] Twenty-two players, a ball, n...

Peter and Afua follow football out along the empire's trade routes — from a London rulebook in 1863 to the first World Cups, where conquest, nationhood and fascism were already stitched into the world's game.

[0:00] Twenty-two players, a ball, ninety minutes — and something far older underneath

[7:52] Afua on cheering full Ghana against the country that once ruled it

[17:19] The game nobody owns: how 1863 and a single rulebook started everything

[20:19] Two footballs, a rulebook, and the Scotsman's son who infected Brazil

[22:06] The British invent the game — so why do the French end up running it?

[25:22] One final, two nations, and a fight over whose ball to even use

[27:42] Mussolini works out exactly what football is for

[37:28] 1938: empires line up on the pitch, and almost none bring their colonies

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