The Power and the Glory : A New History of the World Cup

The football World Cup is the most watched sporting event on the planet.It has become a global obsession: 211 nations initially entered the 2022 edition.It has been running for almost a century. Yet there is no comprehensive history of the tournament: based on fresh interviews and meticulously researched this book will change that.By 1930, football had outgrown the Olympic Games. A new competition, run by Fifa, would take international football to the next level.After a shambolic start to the first cup in Uruguay - an incomplete stadium, shoddy refereeing and physios accidentally injuring players - the thrilling final saw Uruguay take on Argentina, beating them 4-2.From those chaotic beginnings grew the modern World Cup, a cultural phenomenon that draws the world together like nothing else, and that gives it a profound importance.Ask a random person on a random street to name a moment in the history of Senegal and they may well say Pape Bouba Diop's winner against France in the 2002 Wo