What is the World Cup for?
The World Cup was born from imperial rivalry and nationalist aspiration. Almost a century later, it still oscillates between mass hope and elite spectacle.
In 2014, on the eve of hosting the World Cup, Brazil was on fire. For several years, under the stewardship of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the country had been the poster child of ...
The World Cup embodies a paradox: it is both a tool of elite control and a source of collective joy. The 2014 protests in Brazil revealed how FIFA's demands—luxury stadiums, security crackdowns—exacerbate inequality, yet the tournament's ability to unite people remains undeniable. This tension reflects FIFA's origins as a challenge to British imperialism, only to become a neoliberal institution itself. The 2026 edition, set in North America, will likely amplify this contradiction, with record vi...