The World Cup, But Not Really

In this final episode of ‘The World Cup, But Not Really’, Rune and Stefan take on football commentary from a handful of different languages, and dig into some of its most unforgettable historic moments. We travel through a few clips, starting at 1954, ending up in modern day football commentary, looking underneath ‘the commentary hood’ and talking about what’s going on during World Cups - and how it often sounds a little different when your country’s team is playing.

Football stadiums and football viewing parties might be the last place where men are allowed to cry and be really emotional in public. In this episode, Rune and Stefan try to work out why. Stefan has been noticing grown men being really emotional all over during the Word Cup, and he goes looking for an explanation in the research and by chatting with Ben Vasiliou, CEO of The Man Cave. Through their conversation they chat about the disappearing "third space," why sport's black-and-white simplicity gives men permission to feel, and where the line sits between joyous jeering and behaviour that's just aggression wearing a scarf.

In this episode of The World Cup, But Not Really, Rune heads to a training camp to meet The Bilbies, Australia's women's blind football team, where five players plays in complete darkness, and he learns how the game is played. We meet the players and learn what it means to finally find their people, a group of vision impaired women who get it, after growing up isolated and without access to sport built for them. The team lays out their mission: a seat at the table for women's blind football at the Brisbane 2032 Paralympics. The men’s game is there, but not the women’s, and as they would say, it’s about time.

Chasing that feeling of football and home, Rune stumbles into the story of the Homeless World Cup, and the people for whom that feeling isn't a memory, but a lived reality. In this episode, Rune meets Kuda, who arrived in Australia in 2008 to play in the Homeless World Cup and never left. A career-ending injury and a childhood without parents back in Zimbabwe could have been the end of his story, instead, a stranger asked him a simple question, "Do you want to join us and play in Australia?”, and football became a path for finding a new home. Rune also drops in on a Big Issue’s Community Street Soccer program, the backbone of the Homeless World Cup, where players and coaches describe two hours a week that feel less like sport and more like family. As one coach puts it, everyone walks away feeling like they've scored a goal, whether they kicked the ball or not. Is football coming home? Maybe it never left.

How does one of the happiest jerseys in football, The Canarinho, become something some Brazilians can't bring themselves to wear? And how were iconic football jerseys from the '90s made? Those are the two topics Rune deals with in part two of the 'jersey episodes'. Rune tracks down Drake Ramberg, who spent 37 years at Nike and was part of the team in 1990s Europe that designed some of football's most iconic jerseys for clubs and national teams including Arsenal, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Nigeria and Italy. Drake reveals how those now-iconic vintage shirts were created, from late nights in the dark room screen-printing to the collaborations with clubs and federations that ultimately shaped each design. Rune also chats with Brazilian SBS journalist Fernando Vivas, and learns how the Brazilian jersey slipped from a symbol that united a country into the colours of a nationalist movement, and what happens when a football shirt, that’s arguably sacred to everyone, stops belonging to some.