“They’re not interested in the beautiful game. They’re not interested in the elegance of football. In my day, we used to think and put on a little show.”
In 2014, before Germany won the World Cup in Brazil, Pele, perhaps the greatest player of all time, said the words of Pele, which says it all about the current state of the world’s most popular game.
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This tournament was a turning point for Brazil. The aim was to showcase the individual talents of Neymar, Oscar, Hulk and others in front of a global audience.
Instead, Brazil humiliated a mercilessly competent German team 7-1 in the semifinals. This defeat still haunts Brazil.
Germany’s success was a perfect example of how hard-running, athletic teams that follow a strict tactical game plan can be a dominant force in soccer, rather than teams that are full of individual talent and aim to play quickly, entertain, and win.
Pele’s team, which won the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, is considered by many soccer historians to be the last great team to win a World Cup and the embodiment of the “beautiful game”.
Four years later, at the World Cup in West Germany, Brazil was tactically overtaken by other teams such as the Netherlands, whose motto was “total football.”
1974 was a pivotal year, marking the corporatization of gaming.
That same year, Joan Havelanger was elected FIFA president, ushering in a new era of lucrative global sponsorship deals.
Previous agreements were local and independent, but by the mid-to-late 1970s, premium partnerships and global brands such as Adidas and Coca-Cola had become established FIFA partners in commercial marketing relationships, which continue to this day.
Broadcasting rights reflected this trend, with the advent of national network contracts increasing the cost of television contracts, followed by sports cable subscriptions beginning around 1980.
Soccer is now big money, and the stakes have been raised as a result.
Increased sponsorship and broadcasting revenues have brought financial rewards to teams to levels previously unimaginable. Soccer became about winning at all costs, and the way the game was played became increasingly seen as outdated.
Beautifully recreated: Netherlands ’74 and Brazil ’82
But even as the sport becomes big business, there are still teams that continue to play the beautiful game.
The main examples in the World Cup are the 1974 finalist teams Netherlands and 1982 Brazil.
The Dutch team that reached the final of the 1974 World Cup may have replaced the creative freedom of match play of Pele’s famous Brazil team with the concept of total football – simply put, a system in which outfield players had no fixed positions and a winger could play as a centre-back, for example – but the result was a team that played fast, fluid and attacking football, led by the incomparable Johan Cruyff.
In doing so, the Dutch proved that this beautiful game could also be played in Europe, but in the 1974 final the Dutch system was exposed as the more pragmatic West Germany found a way to exploit their tactical weaknesses. However, more than half a century later, it is the Dutch team that remains in people’s memories, not the actual winners.
The same thing happened in the 1982 World Cup in Spain against Brazil.
Boasting generational talent such as Socrates, Zico, Eder and Junior, the team wowed spectators and television viewers around the world, creating a brand of football reminiscent of the 1970 Brazil team.
However, like the Netherlands in 1974, Brazil was unable to win the World Cup, losing to eventual champions Italy. But like the Netherlands, Brazil in 1982 was immortalized for its style of play, even though it ultimately failed.
Fast forward to 2026, and the so-called “people’s game” has become even more disconnected from its casual fan base.
In Britain, where the modern game was born, football was once a working-class sport, providing cheap entertainment and escape for everyday people.
Tickets for English Premier League matches are currently very expensive to buy, with regular fans being priced out of the market.
Ticket prices for English top-flight football have increased by 800 per cent since 1990, according to a recent study by an England supporters group.
Meanwhile, in international soccer, the World Cup is FIFA’s cash cow. Tickets for current tournaments range from $60 to more than $10,000, helping gaming organizations generate nearly $9 billion in revenue.
Ticket prices have steadily increased since the World Cup was last held in the United States in 1994. A 1994 Category 1 World Cup final ticket cost $475, which would be $1,074.45 adjusted for inflation by 2026.
Statistically, the biggest increase in prices from World Cup to World Cup was from 2022 to 2026, with Category 1 tickets increasing by 600%. Adjusted for inflation, the price rose from $1,833.91 to $10,990.
Overall, watching the 2026 World Cup matches live has become an experience for a relatively select few wealthy people.
One positive note
But the magic and beauty of soccer still comes through from time to time, even during this most commercial of World Cups.
FIFA’s idea to expand the tournament to 48 teams brought in additional revenue through more matches and more ad breaks between games, but it also allowed smaller countries to play on the sport’s biggest stage.
One of those small countries, Cape Verde, defied the odds and won the hearts of fans around the world in their first World Cup.
They defeated defending champion Argentina 3-2 in overtime, and were eliminated after battling until the end.
Their performances against the likes of past champions Spain, Uruguay and Argentina prove that football can still be beautiful in its essence.
