Birdthistle—Will We See Any Good Soccer at the World Cup?

Professor William Birdthistle continues his week of guest blogging on soccer and sports law at The Volokh Conspiracy with a new post, “Will we see any good soccer at the World Cup?” Here is an excerpt:

The World Cup will kick off Thursday. So is it possible to make this soccer tournament, the world’s biggest, also the world’s best? For all the entertainment value of a good World Cup, the quality of play on the pitch is rarely the apotheosis of the art of football. For that distinction, I would nominate the Champions League. The past few seasons of Champions League play have featured explosive attacking displays by and against great teams with oodles of goals (when José Mourinho isn’t cluttering up the pitch with buses). The World Cup, by contrast, more reliably plods out low-scoring affairs most memorable for cynical efforts to stifle open play and to suborn referees.

Of course, the rules in both tournaments are exactly the same, as are many of the referees (though by no means all), so this phenomenon may be an interesting example of culture exerting more force than law. What does account for the difference?

Click here to see Prof. Birdthistle’s hypotheses.