Pitch and Power is The Globe and Mail's World Cup podcast.In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s England was a country under strain, marked by industrial decline, social unrest and sharp political divides. In that climate, English soccer became a national problem rather than a point of pride. Stadiums crumbled, hooliganism spread and tragedy struck at Bradford, Heysel, and Hillsborough. The game felt like a relic: toxic, unsafe, unloved. Then, in the summer of 1990, something shifted.This episode traces how the 1990 World Cup helped detoxify English soccer and reframe national identity. We look at how an improbable tournament run became a cultural moment that opened the door to Britpop on the radio, “Cool Britannia” in the headlines and the Premier League era that followed. This is the story of a sport crawling out of the wreckage and a country finding a new way to love its national team.