Joshua Robinson

My first real memory of the tournament was USA 94.

I grew up in England, but I'm also French.

Uh-huh.

So France is my team.

And then the moment that kind of sealed it for me was France winning it in 98.

Their winning the World Cup in 1998 launched me on a life of sin and sports journalism.

At every major turn, there have been suspicions and very loud whispers that there were brown paper envelopes full of cash, that there were duffel bags full of cash.

Infantino loves being close to power.

And in Trump, he kind of found a kindred spirit.

So I have a take here.

I think the whole football versus soccer debate is the most tedious thing in sports.

The World Cup is sort of born out of this early 20th century Corinthian Olympic movement where countries have decided that actually the best way to keep peace in the world is to get all of these rivalries out, you know, on the field of play, various athletic competitions.

The first major international football competitions are actually at the Olympics.

And then an organization known as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, aka FIFA, is founded and decides to set up a tournament that they call the World Cup.

And the problem is that in 1930, Uruguay is an incredibly long way away from most of the countries playing soccer in the world.

It's three weeks by boat from Europe.

That's a long trip.

So a couple of teams decide that they're going to sail together, and a ship called the Conte Verde sets sail and starts picking them up in Genoa, Spain, and I think something like four or five teams end up on this boat.

And it was going to be a 14-team event, but Egypt misses the boat.

And so the first World Cup has 13 teams instead.