Pitch and Power: How the ’90 World Cup captured England’s heart
Pitch and Power is The Globe and Mail's World Cup podcast.
In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s England was a country under strain, marked by industrial decline, social unrest and sharp political divides. In that climate, English soccer became a national problem rather than a point of pride. Stadiums crumbled, hooliganism spread and tragedy struck at Bradford, Heysel, and Hillsborough. The game felt like a relic: toxic, unsafe, unloved. Then, in the summer of 1990, something shifted.
This episode traces how the 1990 World Cup helped detoxify English soccer and reframe national identity. We look…
The skinny
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