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dot com. Hello and welcome to the rest is history. This is the second episode of our

monumental tour through the history of the Football World Cup, which of course

is coinciding with the latest iteration of the tournament in Qatar. And Tom, yesterday we were talking about the origins of the World Cup, we were talking about its political significance, the way it had been co-opted by Mussolini in the 1930s, but also the way it was wrapped up with kind of nationalism and nation building and sort of

political statements to the world. So we ended in 1950 with Brazil's defeat.

We now find ourselves with a lot more Brazil to come, but we now find ourselves

in 1954 and the entrance into our story of everybody's favorite World Cup competitor.

The Germans.

Yes.

So we said didn't we, Hitler didn't really,

he wasn't a great fan of football, and his focus for his propaganda was obviously the Olympics in 1936.

There was absolutely a German team and there was one figure in particular a man called

Sepherberger who had been involved with the

infrastructure of the German national team from 1932. The year before, he joined another organization.

Yes. The Nazi Party.

Right.

And so in 1954, when the World Cup is held in Switzerland,

he is the German manager and his diaries cover the entire period from

1932 to 1954 and you can read them and not once in all these diaries is there a single mention of the

...