Welcome to the Cato podcast. I'm Ryan Bourne, Cato's RF and Shave Chair for the Public

Understanding of Economics. When I first started here at Cato, there was a stronger version to

soccer. Some staff members would even say things to me like, the only thing that distinguishes

man from beasts is our opposable thumbs,

and you like a sport that uses our feet?

Others would complain that there weren't enough goals or that matches ended in ties.

Yet remarkably, soccer or football, as I prefer to call it,

is the dominant sport in the world, despite the three most populous countries,

India, China and the United States, failing to embrace it as their national game.

And starting today, the United States with Canada and Mexico is hosting the 26 FIFA World Cup,

a 48 nation festival of soccer with 104 matches to determine which country takes the ultimate crown.

It's a private tournament

run by FIFA but staged with heavy state involvement. It's a global game, but is priced

increasingly like an American premium sports product. And it's a national level competition

in which the players themselves are products of migration, global labour markets and international club football.

So today I thought that soccer would be a good case study in reviewing how market pricing works and why people dislike it,

how football became such a globalised sport, and what football's governing body teaches us about the promise and dangers of global governance. To discuss all this,

I'm joined by Stan Voiger of the American Enterprise Institute. He's an economist, World Cup

course instructor for Johns Hopkins, and most dangerously, a Dutchman still capable of believing

in the Netherlands having a chance of winning this year's tournament. So Stan, welcome to the Kato

podcast. Ryan, thank you for having me on. Do you think it's coming home? I'm not sure that it's

coming home. Let's hope so. Let's start off, Stan, with the main controversy of this

...