John Bruin

at its worst during, during the conflict, you know, back to 2000, mid 2000s.

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

But I gained an understanding of how much it meant to the people that were there from Saudi and from Tunisia that were just, you know, to be at a World Cup, to be at the whole world looking at your team, it means so much.

They're very strong teams, but it feels like this is, again, we go, we go to the sort of soothing balm of the world cup, don't we?

That,

And again, it does... This is what...

nationhood can be expressed in a slightly different way by football it's not uh it's not military it's it's it's a national pride that a team can bring uh and yeah to people from the diaspora of a country can go and watch these their team play and enjoy them and even when they lose just to be at a world cup feels so precious 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

wipes away some of the stuff that Gianni and Trump and all these people it's that's the sweet spot that they can feed off and that's the sort of unforgivable bit about the cynicism that goes on with the World Cup isn't it?

But I gained an understanding of how much it meant to the people that were there from Saudi and from Tunisia that would just, you know, to be at a World Cup, to be at the whole world looking at your team, it means so much.

Yes, I think that's true.

Yeah, I mean, Mbappé seems to turn it on at a World Cup, doesn't he?

But they've got Mbappé, they've got Dembele, they've got this Michael Ollisay, who we in England regret.

And again, it does.

He's fine, he's fine.

He's from South London.

This is what...

wipes away some of the stuff that Gianni and Trump and all these people, that's the sweet spot that they can feed off.

We regret that he chose to play for France because he is such a fantastic player.

And he was a real talent at Crystal Palace.

But since he's gone to Bayern Munich, we've seen what a brilliant player he is.