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The Power of History – The New York Times


If you’ve watched all 21 previous Men’s World Cups, you’ll see that the winners and runners-up are from only two continents: Europe and South America.

This year’s World Cup may be different when Morocco has qualify for the semi-finalsbecame the first African country to go this far in football.

Morocco will play France, the defending champions, tomorrow. (The other semi-final, today, is another European and South American match: Croatia vs Argentina.) If Morocco beats France, it will be the first country outside of Europe and South America to make it through. into the final.

Today’s newsletter will look at why two continents have dominated the world’s most popular sport for so long.

History is reflected in today’s World Cup. The tournament is a European invention, first organized in 1930 by soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, after disagreements with the Olympics’ treatment of the sport. The European powers also spread the game more widely in the places they once colonized, and it quickly developed in South America. The first World Cup was even hosted by a South American country, Uruguay.

That history gave Europe and South America a head start, which over time became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The countries of Europe and South America have historical roots in the World Cup and performed better in the tournament, so organizers made way for more teams from those continents. But because Europe and South America have more positions, other continents have less room to break out.

Consider the separate World Cup slots for Europe and Africa: Each continent has roughly the same number of teams. But Europe has 13 spots to attend the 2022 World Cup, while Africa has only 5.

Money also plays a role. Based in some of the wealthiest countries in the world, European leagues, teams and governments could spend more on developing better football players and programs. The best players in the world go to europe to play in the highly lucrative professional leagues, considered by many to be the major leagues of men’s football. “Europe is the bank of football,” says my colleague Rory Smith, who is in Qatar covering the World Cup.

Due to its historic success in football, South America also has more infrastructure than other continents to develop players and host competitive, top-notch tournaments. That’s another way the self-fulfilling prophecy played out.

The public interest is also important. The United States is a very wealthy country, but has a poor record at the World Cup. That tendency is partly explained by Americans’ indifference to the sport; a star athlete in the US is more likely to follow culture, fame and money, such as American football instead of football.

All of these factors culminate in football’s social networks — conferences, tournaments, teams, training grounds and informal get-togethers in which players and coaches learn how to play. show their best. Europe and to a lesser extent South America are at the heart of these networks. These networks then maintained the dominance of Europe and South America.

Notably, Morocco has strong ties to the European network: It is neighboring Spain and many of its players were born in Europe and play in the country’s professional leagues. “They all have access to European ideas about football’s best practices,” said Rory.

Is Europe and South America’s grip on football loosening? Morocco’s success is an indication that it is possible. And so is the current World Cup-hosting Qatar, far from the centers of European and South American power.

The next World Cup could shake up the game even more. Its first rounds will include 48 teams, up from 32, allowing for more geographic diversity for those who qualify. (And a big change from just 13 teams in the first World Cup, in 1930.)

However, there are also signs of little change. The remaining three teams in this year’s World Cup are all from Europe or South America. If so, Europe has become more dominant, even than South America, in recent years: European teams have won the previous four World Cups, since 2006.

So it’s too early to tell if Morocco’s success is indicative of a larger shift in African teams. “It’s hard to say if this is the beginning of something, because we’ve never seen it before,” said Tariq Panja, my colleague, who is also in Qatar. coverage of the World Cup, said. “It has to happen again to make it a trend.”

  • The Wall Street Journal My name is Emma Tuckera longtime editor for newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch in the UK, as its lead editor.

For more than a century, American curators have pursued antiquities around the world as if they were Indiana Jones. A curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art recalls painting a Romanesque bas-relief from a church outside Italy with the help of an agent who would store the object under cushions in a station wagon his.

Now the era of treasure hunting may be over. Museums in America are return their nefarious artifact, often at the urging of law enforcement and the country of origin. The Denver Art Museum recently shipped four artifacts back to Cambodia, and the Met returned a gilded coffin to Egypt after a photo of it with Kim Kardashian revealed it had been looted.

Some officials say it is unfair to consider previously accepted practices evil. Elizabeth Marlowe, director of the museum studies program at Colgate University, said she sympathizes with curators who are “trained in different ethical standards”. That said, she added: “It’s time to step up, gentlemen. It’s a different landscape.”

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