"The World Cup is a truly International event"
About this Quote
The specific intent is less to inform than to stage-manage attention. By calling it “truly International,” he elevates the match from sport to spectacle, quietly telling the viewer: this isn’t just a game you’re watching, it’s the world temporarily agreeing on a single ritual. The word “truly” matters. It’s a tiny intensifier that performs sincerity on command, papering over the fact that internationalism in football is never neutral: it’s braided with geopolitics, soft power, and the carefully curated pageantry of host nations and broadcasters alike.
The subtext is affectionate and faintly promotional. Motson, a celebrity commentator shaped by decades of British TV football, is selling scale and significance in one breath, translating local fandom into global membership. The context is a media era where the World Cup became a shared living-room event, and the commentator’s job was to make millions feel like they were witnessing history, even in the group stage. The banality becomes the message: the tournament’s power is that everyone already knows what it is, together.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Motson, John. (n.d.). The World Cup is a truly International event. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-world-cup-is-a-truly-international-event-133551/
Chicago Style
Motson, John. "The World Cup is a truly International event." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-world-cup-is-a-truly-international-event-133551/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The World Cup is a truly International event." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-world-cup-is-a-truly-international-event-133551/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.

