I guess what will what's that mango? So you know I love the World Cup, right, And one of the people I always think about when the World Cup starts now is Kim Jong Ill, like the Korean dictator? What
what what's you have to do with soccer? Yeah, so I'm not sure if you remember this, but in two thousand ten, North Korea sent this team to the World Cup and the coach of the team claimed that when the North Korean scored, or if they ever won games, it was only because he was getting guidance during the game from Kim Jong Il. The guy's got so many talents. So how exactly did this work? So it's in it's
an amazing way he did this. The dictator was apparently sending him telepathic signals through this invisible cell phone technology that he'd invented I guess one year before, and and that's what dictators do in their spare time. But before you laugh at how ludicrous that sounds, you do have to remember that this is the same man who the first time he played golf supposedly scored five holes in one.
I mean, it might sound just like borderline ridiculou list, but anyway, but it was the North Korean team any good? I mean, they did get to the World Cup, which is, you know, a huge heat, but it's hard to compete against superstar nations and they ended up losing seven zero to Portugal. And supposedly when they arrived back in pyong Young, they were put on a stage and humiliated for six hours and from these elite government officials and which just
sounds miserable, like it's a no win situation. But that's actually the first of nine World Cup facts we've got for you today. So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome the part time genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangues Ticket and sitting behind that soundproof glass, he's cross stitching again, Mango. He is cross stitching a tribute, this time to pull the World Cup predicting octopus. He's so good at needle point,
he really is. Well, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. All right, Mago. It's obviously World Cup season and we're talking about soccer today. But I'm curious before we dive in, why do you love the tournament so much? So part of it is that I grew up in the States and I only got to visit my relatives in India every I don't know, three or four years, and it was always doing the monsoons. But when it was a
World Cup year, it was just so exciting. And I remember, particularly like when I was in fifth grade, my grandparents had one of the few color TVs around, and this was obviously a long time ago, but we'd all stay up to watch the games live and you play cards, you chat to just be so much anticipation for these games.
And then my cousins friends would come over and so we'd all huddle around this tiny TV and just root for underdogs and and you know, you'd be watching like Roger Mila, who was I don't know, like thirty eight or thirty nine score goals, and you'd be so excited for him or or you know, you see these colonial rivalries play out on the pitch, and and it was just really fun, partially because soccer is so much a game of upsets, like more upsets happened in soccer than
other sports. But I had this amazing experience in two thousand and six when I wanted to watch this Ivory Coast game in Brooklyn, and this was before soccer seemed to be that big in New York. I was in Clinton Hill. I was I was walking to a bar and they didn't have the game on. And then I walked to this other bar and they didn't have this game on, and I was like increasingly irritated that I
couldn't watch this game. And then I walked by this empty African barbershop and I heard these cheers in the back. So I just kind of looked in and there was this guy standing in the back. He kind of just pointed at me and he said, you want to watch the game? And I was like nodding, and he pulled this curtain open and in the back of the barbershop there was this room full of people just huddled around
this tiny TV. And he motioned me to come in and and so I just watched the game on the floor, surrounded by people, and it just reminded me of India and and it was just so wonderful. I love that. I love that story. That's pretty great. And you know, I obviously love international soccer. I love men's soccer, women's soccer, but uh, I'm excited that you actually had to research soccer for this episode, right right, I'm curious what story
you're gonna lead off with. Yeah, you know it actually had a lot of fun researching for this this episode, and I think though that I'm going to stick with your dictator's team. And this is a story that involves Mussolini. So I think we both know that FIFA is a pretty corrupt organization, but it's hard to imagine anything is brazen as when Italy held the World Cup. This was
back in nineteen thirty four. Now, according to a book by the BBC's Chris Hunt, Mussolini started things off by making the trophy way more ostentatious, which is not surprising. That's kind of the dictator's thing to do. He built his own trophy for the Cup that was six times the size, six times the size of the traditional World Cup trophy. Then he proceeded it to rig the matches,
at least that's what people think. So there's this rumor that he hand picked every ref in the tournament, and when Italy beat Austria in the semifinals, it really showed, I mean apparently not only were their penalties and bad calls against Austria that shouldn't have been called. But during one play in Austrian kicked the ball to go out of bounds and the ref actually headed the ball back
in and passed it to an Italian player. That's ridiculous, But I mean, I guess if you're going to the trouble of creating a trophy that six times that big, like you might as well ring the tournament. It's true, it's true, And like you said, soccer is a game of upsets, so it's possible that they could have won on their own. And apparently Mussolini didn't even like soccer, and he often described the sport as unmanly, but he knew that it was important to be seen as victorious
on this huge world stage. And they're actually academic papers about this that speculate it would have been hard for Italy to have gotten those results without at least some help from the refs. That's really crazy. So one of the things I've enjoyed doing is seeing what the World
Cup teams demand at hotels. And for some reason, this was leaked in two thousand ten, and some of the things makes sense, right, Like Portugal wanted the hotel to provide these four bodyguards for Cristiano Ronaldo, who's obviously a massive superstar. Um Algeria wanted Karen's in every room, and and Ecuador wanted a daily banana basket delivered to each player.
Has just fun banana basket. I think that should just be a thing everywhere, right, But perhaps one of the strangest request was that France had this outright ban on bar soap for their players. And they demand that the hotel only provide liquid soaps. So I honestly get all of the others, but but why the bar soap thing.
You know, I'm not sure about this entirely. I do know the French manager is a little cookie, or was a little cookie, and and at the time he was really into astrology, so he wouldn't like let Aleo be a defender on the team or whatever. But I think this was just a way to prevent any chance of slipping on bar so open in the shower or or in the bathroom. I don't know. It's kind of crazy, okay, I mean, I guess, I guess I can see where he's coming from on that. But all right, Well, here's
a quick one about the World Cup trophy. So for starters, it's strange that it's called the World Cup when the trophy isn't really shaped like a cup anymore. But one of the facts I saw about this, did you know that the trophy is actually running out of room? So how do you mean? Well, currently there's only space to etch in maybe three or four more winning teams onto
the trophies. So if you look ahead to the twenty thirty World Cup, they'll either need to extend the trophy with a bigger basse or they'll just have to make a new trophy. That's pretty funny. So one thing I've heard repeated over and over since I was a kid was that India made the nine World Cup, but then
they had to withdraw. And I've heard different variations of the story, right, Like I've heard that the team refused to play in shoes, or or because they wanted to play barefoot, or like the Indian government refused to buy them shoes, or they did wear shoes but they couldn't play in them, and and I was curious if there was any truth to this. Right, it turns out in the Summer Olympics, the Indian national team competed against France
and it was actually a close game. It was two to one, but they did it playing barefoot, which actually shocked the world community. But then nine fifty when they made the World Cup, they actually backed out for a
different reason. So according to historians, while the team might have been annoyed that they had to play in soccer shoes, it had more to do with the fact that the World Cup was announced late and they had this super short practice schedule, and the fact that the newly independent Indian government didn't think that the World Cup was that big a tournament, so like they didn't want to fund the team to go halfway around the world of Brazil.
You know, if it had been another Olympics, they would have happily ponied up for that, but they didn't see this as that big a world event. And the strange part is that soccer isn't that big an Indian now, like everyone is cricket crazy. But if they had sent that team to the World Cup, there are a lot of historians who think that India would have been more ested in soccer over the years and and had a
much stronger team today. Yeah, and I mean that makes sense when you think about the impact of of this worldwide tournament. But well, here's a funny little tradition. So in the nineteen sixty two World Cup, Chile's team ate Swiss cheese before defeating the Swiss. Then they ate spaghetti before playing Italy and beat them. Then they drank vodka shots to prepare for the USSR match, which they also won.
And then they drank coffee before a brazil match. But apparently it was really the wrong stereotypical food to ingest because their luck ran out in that game. Unfortunately. I don't know what Brazilian food you should have eaten to make sure you beat the Brazilian team, but the tough one. Here's another weird one about superstitions, and this comes from an argentinean goldie named Sergio Goccia, and he used to leave it all out on the field before penalty shootouts.
And actually I'm going to let him describe it. This is from an interview with The Guardian, So quote reporter, didn't you you used to prepare for shootouts by urinating on the pitch? You know, by the rules of the game until the match finishes, you cannot abandoned the field, and if you have any necessary human urges, you have to go on the field. So That's what happened against Yugoslavia in the ninety World Cup quarterfinals. At the end of the game, I really had to go, so I
had no choice, but we won. So then when the semifinal against Italy went to penalties, I did it again and it worked. So from that moment on, I did it before every shootout. It was my lucky charm. That is so strange, but you know, you do hear about so many of these athletes being superstitious, and there's so much on the line that you know, it's not surprising they developed superstitions, But that one is a little weird. I don't know that I know many that are weirder
than that. But all right, we've got two more facts before we declare a winner. But before we get to those, let's take a quick break. Welcome back to Part time Genius. We're talking about the World Cup. So before we get to our last couple of facts, Mango, I'm curious, are you enjoying the tournament this year? Yeah? I am. I I love all the upsets, I love following different nations and stuff, but I haven't watched as much as i'd like because you know, the games are on during the day.
It's it's funny. As we have watched though, Lizzie has had this funny theory about the managers of the teams, like she thinks they either all look like they could be French presidents or disheveled retirees. And it's actually a pretty good way to like organize the managers if if you see them, they neatly fit into those two categories. It's sometimes they're the most entertaining part of these matches. Like I've loved watching the Synegal coach. He was so animated.
It's it's been pretty entertaining. And I mean he looks like he should be a French president. It's a category. You're right, it's a good theory. Here, what's your last factor? All right, Well, this isn't exact actually a World Cup fact, but there's a stadium that I wanted to talk about, and it's a Studio Milton Coorea, which is also called Big Zero or the Big Zero. And what's awesome about it is that the midfield line is located exactly on the equator. And so here's what I think is fun
about that. So when you're playing there, each team is actually playing for and defending an entire hemisphere. So I don't know why I find that so amusing. I mean, it feels like that's where the World Cup finals should be held every year, you know, if this perfect sense? All right, Well, what's your last fact, Mago. Well, if you've been watching the World Cup, there's been a little speculation about whether Russia should be winning as much as
they have, and it is actually a good team. I mean, they came in sort of mediocre, but they've played smart. But there are questions about Vladimir Putin and Russian corruption. But the Russians are actually responsible for one of the most honest moments in World Cup history. And there's this player named Igornetto. Uh. This was in the nineteen two World Cup. His his team was tied up with Uruguay and he scored a goal, but it actually went through
the net on the side of the goal. So Netto went to the ref and he urged him not to count it because it wouldn't be fair to win that way. And and I can't even imagine a player being that honest today, you know, I mean, people fake injuries to get penalties, people do all these things. But you know, he asked for a goal to be retracted, and luckily the team scored and won in the nine minute of
the game. But years later he recalled why he did that, and he said, quote, we should win without relying on the referee's mistakes, and when it was changed, I finally felt a sense of relief. Yeah wow, I mean, you know, it is so rare in sports to see that level of of honesty. So you know, I kind of want to give you the trophy for that one. And then of course, thinking back about the goal, Coachia, you know, uh, urinating on the pitch and all of that, like that
is just so strange. But I gotta be honest, I'm super impressed with Lizzie's theory of organizing the managers. I feel like she's kind of swooped in and stolen the trophy this week. Or are you good with that? Yeah, I'm fine with that. All right. Well, thank you guys for listening. We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow.