JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In exactly 100 days, the 2026 World Cup is scheduled to get underway. The tournament held every four years is expected to captivate the attention of millions of soccer fans throughout the world. And this year, it's taking place here in the United States with some games in Mexico and Canada as well. We asked one of America's leading voices on soccer why people all over the planet feel so strongly about the World Cup.
ROGER BENNETT: The power of this tournament and its true glory is that when two teams take the field, their nation's histories, their nation's politics, their nation's cultures take the field alongside them. And that's what gives the tournament its unparalleled emotional weight.
SUMMERS: That's Roger Bennett. He's the CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network, which covers soccer on multiple platforms. And he's got a new book. It's out today, and it's called "We Are The World (Cup)." It's a mostly light-hearted exploration of Bennett's relationship with the tournament from growing up in England rooting for his local soccer heroes to watching in amazement every four years as teams from all over the globe take the spotlight on the World Cup stage. But when we spoke recently, I also asked Bennett whether he thought the tournament will be affected this year by the strained relations between the United States and many other countries right now.
BENNETT: Look, I've always believed - and I write about this in my book - the joy of football, the joy of the World Cup is that it holds up a mirror to the society that surrounds it, and that has been one of the greatest joys in my lifetime. But it also holds up a mirror in times of challenge. But I can say this one that every World Cup of the modern period - 2010, the World Cup was in South Africa, and for the year going into it, the darkest doomsday prophecies filled the media, the level of carjackings, the level of violence. It was going to be a horror show for any brave tourist who dared to attend. Still in my lifetime, the South African World Cup was one of the most ebullient sporting endeavors I've ever witnessed with Nelson Mandela at the center of it.
2014, again, the World Cup returned to Brazil, the soul of football. In the run-up for the year, spent a lot of time over there. There was economic and social unrest at remarkable levels. The people were demonstrating in the streets and around the soccer stadium in the run-up, demanding that the money be spent not on global football, but on education and social services. It was predicted to be an absolute horror show in the making. But again, once the tournament kicked off, Brazil was one of the greatest parties I've ever attended.
SUMMERS: FIFA's president, Gianni Infantino, has developed an unusually close relationship with U.S. President Trump, even creating a FIFA Peace Prize for him. How has that gone over with fans?
BENNETT: Football bureaucracy is like any bureaucracy, you know, any commissioner. Roger Goodell, in this nation, takes the stage...
SUMMERS: The NFL commissioner.
BENNETT: ...At the NFL draft...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
BENNETT: ...Yeah, the NFL commissioner - and, you know, almost now invites the boos of fans. Football administration is no different to the IOC, to the NFL. You know, it's not why fans watch. It's not why fans care. It's not what they want. They care about the games. They care about the players. And FIFA is very much the same. FIFA is the most powerful sporting organization in the world. FIFA, in the modern period, takes on the fore (ph) wherever it goes. You know, the last World Cup was very, very embedded in Qatar, the World Cup before became deeply embedded in Russia, Brazil before that, South Africa before that. And football ultimately is deep, deep power and gravitates towards power. So we're seeing that. So I mean, for some, it's incredibly hard to watch. For others, it's just what sports is and what sports does. It's almost become expected.
SUMMERS: This year will mark the second time that the World Cup is held here in the U.S., which is Bennett's adopted home country. He remembers how it was almost impossible to watch soccer live on TV here until the 1994 World Cup. And even then, he recalls, the opening match was overshadowed by the infamous OJ Simpson freeway chase in a white Bronco.
BENNETT: Oh, it was an agony. You know, this World Cup, '94, the men's World Cup came to the United States. It was football's effort to face a nation that was like space to Captain Kirk, the one final frontier for the game of football, the game of soccer to conquer. And this World Cup was meant to make America overnight into a true football-loving nation. You know, I was very nervous in the run-up. I'd just moved to America. Everything was here that I loved - the Chicago Bears, you know, the movies of John Hughes, like, where I was in Chicago felt so present, the music of Public Enemy. The one thing that was missing was football. I desperately needed this World Cup to go well. I needed that to change.
In the run-up to the World Cup, there was so much doomsdaying (ph). There was a poll released that revealed that 71% of Americans didn't know the World Cup was coming to America and the other 29% didn't care. There was - another study was released that said soccer was America's 67th favorite sport. I think tractor pulling was 66, Juana.
SUMMERS: (Laughter).
BENNETT: So it all felt very, very high stakes for the sport I loved in America. And then the OJ Simpson chase happened that first night and completely overshadowed the opening day and made it feel almost like an utter irrelevancy. And it wasn't until a couple of days later in the Meadowlands, Ireland played Italy, and the whole of New Jersey packed that stadium - half like "Angela's Ashes," the other half like the cast of "The Sopranos." It was a magnificent game, and America suddenly looked at that and realized that there was an opportunity, this global tournament, to connect to your hyphenated identity, and that game was like the match that lit an inferno. It still one of the best attended World Cup of all time. Americans love a circus. America showed up.
SUMMERS: Fast-forward 32 years, and we're on the eve of another World Cup on U.S. soil. I asked Roger Bennett who he'll be rooting for this summer.
BENNETT: The winners probably will be one of the favorites. France are stacked. Spain have a cacophony of talent. Norway have qualified for the first time in the generation, a dizzying squad led by a giant, almost Shaquille O'Neal in cleats, a gentleman, Erling Haaland, who's like a footballer if generated by ChatGPT. But I do hope at the end of the day that the winner is the United States. And it's my hope that all of us are able to come together, feel that sense of joy, feel that sense of community, project a great America to the world, a joyous America and experience that kind of incredibly dizzying global connectivity that's all too rare in our world and that I first felt when I watched the World Cup when I was 7 years old.
SUMMERS: Roger Bennett, he's the CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network, and his new book is called "We Are The World (Cup)." Roger, thank you.
BENNETT: Thanks for having me on, Juana. Courage.
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