Is Trump Too Busy for His Own World Cup?
Plus: A new name for surging Americans, the Legend of Tim Payne continues, and one nitpick
The World Cup is in full swing. Here are six sports business(ish) items that have stood out so far ⚽…
What I’m Wondering 🏅: In the build-up to this summer’s World Cup, President Donald Trump seemed to be everywhere. Receiving FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize. Hosting Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the White House. Threatening to pull matches from Boston. Commenting on the price of tickets.
Then the games started, and he’s… gone quiet?
Trump has made himself a presence at plenty of sporting events, from the Super Bowl to the NBA Finals. And he’s expected to be on-hand for the World Cup final. But despite being active on Truth Social over the last week, he hasn’t posted about a pair of strong U.S. performances. The Athletic has a good dive this morning on what’s going on inside the White House (including, naturally, some confusing social media behavior from governmental agencies1).
What I Want 🇺🇸: A better name for the U.S. men’s national team.
The Americans are getting everyone’s hopes up through two matches, with their odds of winning a first World Cup nearly doubling (though they’re still an extreme longshot at ~3%).
If we’re going to keep talking about them through multiple knockout rounds, we can’t keep calling them USMNT. It looks bad in print and is even more annoying to say in conversation.
Other countries have great nicknames: Samurai Blue, The Three Lions, White Wolves etc. etc. etc. Off the top of my head,2 here are five better names we should be calling the U.S. side:
5 - The American Dream. This was Ben Mathis-Lilley’s suggestion back in 2014. Maybe just The Dream for short. Plays off the U.S.’s past basketball dream teams, obviously. I like it.
4 - The Yanks. Some foreigners seem to use this for us already. It’s fine, if a bit close to that baseball team from the Bronx for my liking.
3 - Stars and Stripes. Here’s the most common alternative to USMNT I’ve seen, and Nike is playing into it with this summer’s kit design. But it’s still a bit of a mouthful.
2 - Uncles Sam. If we’re not always winning on the pitch, we can at least be grammatically correct.
1 - Rock Stars. This is the one, I think. You get to keep the stars iconography, while also referencing America’s cultural power3. Jamaica are known as the Reggae Boyz, so musical influence has been proven to work. Let’s rock! 👨🎤🎸
What I’m Loving ⚽: The World Cup!
There was plenty of doom and gloom heading into the competition, but I’m feeling good about my prediction that we’d look back on this event as a success.
In particular, FIFA deserves credit for the quality of play. Goals are up 📈, time-wasting is down 📉. The “hydration” breaks suck, but if that’s the cost of getting games that consistently deliver the excitement we’ve seen so far (and always start on time), I’ll take it.
What I Hate 😡: Ok, hate is a strong word for what I’m about to complain about, but if Club Sportico exists for one reason, it’s for me to complain about broadcast minutiae.
In recent tournaments, the “wipe” transition that carries viewers from replays back to live action has featured the tournament’s logo, which is generally a nod to a host country’s local iconography. 2022’s was particularly impressive, I thought, with video “emerging” from a twisty version of FIFA’s trophy.
This year, however, we just get a golden FIFA logo over and over and over again. Here’s how the wipes have evolved over the last 20 years. As always, my apologies if this impacts your World Cup viewing experience.
The Group Stage’s Biggest Winner 💰: Before the World Cup, Argentinian influencer “El Scarso” picked the “least-known” player in the tournament to support. At the time, New Zealand defender Tim Payne had under 5,000 followers on Instagram, playing on the World Cup’s lowest-ranked team. Payne embraced the spotlight, and now, in addition to 5.8 million IG followers, he’s got a one-year deal with Paraguay’s Olimpia, which just won its domestic league. His announcement has more than a million views on X.4
What I’m Listening To 🎧: I’ve enjoyed hearing British podcasters break down the World Cup—both on and off the pitch—from their perspective, in particular on The Athletic’s Tifo Football Podcast and Netflix’s The Rest Is Football.
Three other soccer-focused podcasts have risen in the top 10 on Apple’s list of top sports shows. I’ll be fascinated to see how well these podcasts can retain their audiences over the summer and beyond. But I already believe that the improved ability to watch European soccer year-round and consume content about the games online will make it a lot easier to become—and remain—a fan of the game than it was the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup.
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.
Not including TSA’s multiple posts about how to safely pack ranch dressing. What a timeline we live in…
I actually spent all weekend thinking about this
I think it’s best to steer clear of anything vaguely military power-related for obvious reasons