John Bruin

He's just an unspeaking...

guy uh you know um only only david beckham is more present for what i understand of all the advertising out there beckham is advertising everything chainsaws us i think that's really yeah that in itself is um extraordinary um and there's a whole there's a whole story to talk about there which we won't go into now with him and his family and all the rest of it but of course

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, 1986 was the last time they were in the World Cup.

And the Iraqi team actually has been quite decent.

I remember them winning the Asian Cup at a time when the country was at its worst during the conflict, you know, back in the mid-2000s.

So there's a lot of footballing legacy there, but the same for Iran as well in that region.

They're very strong teams, but it feels like,

Again, we go to the sort of soothing balm of the World Cup, don't we?

That nationhood can be expressed in a slightly different way by football.

It's not military.

It's a national pride that a team can bring.

And, yeah, to people from the diaspora of a country can go and watch their team play and enjoy them.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, 1986 was the last time they were in the World Cup.

And the Iraqi team actually has been quite decent.

And even when they lose, just to be at a World Cup feels so precious.

I remember them winning the Asian Cup at a time when the country was

I mean...

I remember the first World Cup game I ever went to was Saudi Arabia-Tunisia, which doesn't sound the most glamorous fixture, does it?