Tommy Vietor

And so ultimately, politicians of all stripes are drawn to football and have been since the very beginning.

1934, Second World Cup was held in Italy by Mussolini.

who wanted to present Italy to the world, subsidize foreign travel to Italy for the tournament.

The detail I love most about this story is that he made sure the tickets were intricate paper cuts so that fans would go home afterwards and be like,

These are the tickets in Italy.

Look what an advanced country it is.

So from the very beginning, the roots of the tournament have always had a geopolitical reality when two teams take the field, the nation's history, the nation's politics, the nation's culture takes the field alongside and that's what gives it its epic power.

Everything matters.

I love American sports.

When my Chicago Bears play the LA Rams, it's a big game.

It's exciting.

I know the narrative.

But when Germany plays England,

The levels of history, I think, was it Emerson who said it contains multitudes?

The World Cup contains multitudes and every politician knows that.

And President Trump has embraced football.

There was a tournament here last, almost a dry run called the Club World Cup.

He presented the trophy right at the end.

The ritual of trophy presenting in football is that whoever gives it, it's often a head of state trophy.

We'll hand the trophy over to the, you know, the sweaty footballers on a podium and then step out of the way so that they can lift it up and smoke comes off and confetti blows up and then the footballers bounce up and down, waving their arms like this, which is the standard football guy dance.