It’s a World Cup final edition of Greatest Games! Herbie Sykes joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss Italy’s first World Cup triumph on home soil in 1934.

Mussolini’s Italy greeted the world for the second Fifa World Cup competition, the first to feature teams from three continents. In a tournament designed to highlight Italian superiority and values, the only team left standing in their way of lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy – then called “Victory” – was Czechoslovakia.

Italy would emerge victorious, albeit in a victory shrouded by accusations of bribery, corruption and meddling, and the fascist anthem Giovinezza would play out in celebration around the Stadio Nazionale in Rome.

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About the panel:

Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored  Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.

Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.

Herbie Sykes is a Turin-based journalist who specialises in the history of road bicycle racing and an author of a number of books including the award-winning The Race Against The Stasi and recently Juve: 100 Years of an Italian Footballing Dynasty.

Order our latest quarterly –  including how the COVID-19 pandemic changed football, a look at a selection of infamous footballing individuals and an investigation of the Afghanistan women’s national team and their fight for justice – Issue 40.

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