It's Coming Home - Brenda gets World Cup Fever

Rakhee and Heather tackle England's full-back dilemma, Japan's 100-year plan to win the World Cup and whether football really is coming home... Just kidding. Well... a little bit. What we actually do is ask whether the biggest sporting event on Earth is really worth the billions spent hosting it. Does the FIFA World Cup genuinely transform economies? Are the promised tourism booms real? Is winning the tournament actually better for a country's finances than hosting it? Along the way we somehow end up discussing Taylor Swift, Ryan Reynolds, Barcelona, Wrexham, Olympic legacies and why economists are the people least likely to believe the hype. There's also Brenda's Sporting Economics Quiz, where Heather discovers that football trivia is much easier when there aren't any football questions. Whether you're a lifelong football fan or someone who only tunes in when England are involved, this episode is less about tactics and more about the business behind the beautiful game. Sources: Goldman Sachs International (Kevin Daly & Mambuna Njie) https://www.sgieurope.com/sporting-events/world-cup-2026-big-event-small-economic-impact/121493.article FIFA / WTO GoalEconomy & OpenEconomics https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/fifa-wto-study-estimates-usd-47-billion-economic-output-from-fifa-club-world Victor Matheson (College of the Holy Cross) https://www.sgieurope.com/sporting-events/world-cup-2026-big-event-small-economic-impact/121493.article American Hotel & Lodging Association (via Euronews) https://www.euronews.com/business/2026/06/02/the-2026-world-cup-billions-promised-but-will-the-economic-boom-arrive Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking https://home.cib.natixis.com/articles/beyond-the-game-the-economics-of-the-2026-fifa-world-cup Saxo Bank https://www.home.saxo/content/articles/equities/world-cup-2026-eng-26052026 Deloitte Spanish Latin America https://mexiconewsdaily.com/business/deloitte-report-mexicos-windfall-as-world-cup-host Moody's Local México https://mexicobusiness.news/finance/news/moodys-cuts-mexico-world-cup-economic-boost-forecast University of Surrey https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/world-cup-win-could-boost-economy University of Oxford (Flyvbjerg et al.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.02728 Olympic.org – Barcelona 1992 Legacy https://www.olympic.org/news/barcelona-1992-the-model-games University of Michigan – Welcome to Wrexham https://news.umich.edu/welcome-to-wrexham-brought-the-world-to-this-welsh-city-and-transformed-its-economy/ International Olympic Committee https://www.olympic.org/news/the-ioc-awards-the-olympic-games-2024-to-paris-and-2028-to-los-angeles LA84 Foundation https://la84.org/about/ Utah Ski Info https://utahskiinfo.com/2002-winter-olympics-effect-on-utah-skiing/ The Guardian – Qatar World Cup Costs https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/18/how-much-did-qatar-spend-on-the-world-cup