‘The beautiful game’? The FIFA World Cup and English perceptions of Brazil and Argentina, 1958-1986

It was media, especially television, coverage of the FIFA World Cup from 1958 which first drew South American football into a more mainstream position in English popular culture. Argentina came to be demonised in England as defensive, brutal and unsporting whereas ‘tropical-modern’ Brazil was perceived as fair-minded, beautiful and instinctive. How can we account for the sharply differing perceptions and impact of Argentinian and Brazilian football in twentieth century England? What were the historical forces also at play, ranging from Britain’s legacy of ‘informal empire’ to deeply ingrained and racialised perceptions of Argentina as ‘European’ and Brazil as racially exotic.