As Episode 1 of "The World According to Football" (2023 release; 5 episodes ranging from 46 to 52 min each) opens, we are in Brazil, where football is a religion, at least football as played by the men. The women? Not so much. Turns out it was illegal for decades for women to play football and Brazilian TV disregarded the Women's World Cup altogether until very recently... At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.
Couple of comments: this mini-series is narrated by TV personality/comedian Trevor Noah. He assesses the state of football (a/k/a soccer) in 5 countries: Brazil, the US, the UK, France, and Qatar. If you are under the impression that this mini-series is about the beautiful game itself, as I did, then you will be massively disappointed. This mini-series instead looks at the social aspects of football: why is Brazil so uninterested in women's football? Why is soccer in the US based on the pay-to-play model? Why are footballers in the UK not dealing better with mental health issues? Are you getting the point here? It's as if "60 Minutes" decided to assess soccer's state of the game. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's simply not what I had expected. Not at all.
"The World According to Football" premiered on Showtime a week ago, and is also streaming on SOH on Paramount+, where I caught it this week. I'll be honest: I didn't watch the last 2 episodes, dealing with France (focusing on racial injustice) and Qatar (focusing on the human cost of building the stadiums for last year's WC). Of course, don't take my word for it, so if you are a football fan, please check it out and draw your own conclusion.
