Hello and welcome to the G0 World Podcast.

This is where you can find extended versions of my interviews on public television.

I'm Ian Bremmer, and the World Cup kicks off this week, see what I did there, across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It's the most popular spectacle in the world, And my guest, Simon Cooper, argues that it's

always been popular, it's always been political, but it's never been more profitable. The tournament

now generates billions of dollars in revenues, attracts billions of viewers, and gives host nations,

political leaders, and of course FIFA itself, a global platform unlike any other, including the Olympics.

Cooper has covered now nine World Cups, and he spent decades writing about the intersection of sports and geopolitics.

And he says that every World Cup serves as a mirror for its era, from Argentina's military

dictatorship to South Africa's post-apartheid emergence, to Russia's quest for international

legitimacy, to Qatar's bid for global influence.

And this year's tournament is no different, arriving amid rising nationalism around the world, great power competition,

and renewed skepticism around globalism itself. It begs a few questions, like, what do host nations

gain from hosting the World Cup? And why has FIFA become one of the world's most powerful

organizations? And what does this year's tournament tell us about the state of the world today?

Simon Cooper is an award-winning writer,

longtime Financial Times columnist and author of the book World Cup Fever.

Here's our conversation. Simon Cooper, thanks for joining us today.

It's a pleasure to be here.

You have said that people love the World Cup despite the football, and I'm wondering what

you mean by that. Most of the football at this World Cup will be worse than, say, the Champions

League or the English Premier League, the top level of the game. There are teams coming like Cape Verdi

...