World Cup Fever
By Simon Kuper
The World Cup is the biggest sporting competition on Earth – a chance every four years for the greatest players to win international glory, and a month-long media spectacle that’s watched by an audience of billions.
But the tournament has changed beyond recognition since the inaugural event in Uruguay in 1930. What was once a semi-professional meeting beset by haphazard play has evolved to become a game of multinational buyouts, dubious ethics and questionable aims – and the new era of football has much to tell us about the globalised world.
Simon Kuper has attended every World Cup since 1990. World Cup Fever is his journey to find the heart of football, through the nine tournaments he’s experienced first-hand – from watching matches in half-empty stands during Italia 90, a tournament that at times felt like a village fete, to witnessing the French triumph at home in 1998, South Africa’s national dream in 2010 and the troubling legacy of Qatar 2022.
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352 pages, hardback
