World Cup 2026 Trivia Bonanza

[00:00:00] This show is nominated for a 2026 Golden Lobes Podcast Award. Get in! Hello, I'm Will. And I'm Hugh. And this is Legitimate Likes, the podcast where we take a look at some of humanity's most popular fascinations. And we try to work out, are they really worthy of the hype? They may be likes, but are they Legitimate Likes? This week, we're talking about the World Cup, with producers Onya and Michael! Yeah, I mean, we're sort of talking about the World Cup, right? Because obviously the World Cup is mostly about football.

[00:00:28] But what we're doing here is it's also just a group of 48 countries. So we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about each country in the World Cup, give you a little bit of trivia, something that makes the country stand out. Just make this whole thing a little bit more interesting when you're watching all that football over the next few weeks. Yeah, because people watch the football and they're like, oh, I wish I knew more about the country. Absolutely. So what we've done is Will, Onya and I have each taken some of the footballing groups. What would you call them? What are they called, those groups? Groups. I'd call them groups in the world.

[00:00:58] Categories of bands. Yeah, no, I'd call them groups in the world cup. Each of the cohorts, each of the lettered cohorts. They're not called the cohort stages. They're entering into the world cup. We're going to go through each of them and take the countries in turn. So, Will, you've got group A. Mexico. National dish, mole poblano, a thick, rich, velvety sauce from a complex blend of ingredients, much like the country. What do we think of Mexico, guys? Mexico's pretty great. I mean, the first thing I thought of, too, was food. Music is pretty good, too.

[00:01:26] I like their bands with the mariachi bands. That's fun. That's always fun. Yeah. Hugh, you're grimacing a bit. I mean, famously, we had a game against Mexico. Ireland played Mexico in 1994, and it was an absolute disgrace because we went 1-0 down. And then we tried to make a substitution and bring on John Aldridge. And the referee wouldn't let the substitution happen. And by the time Aldridge came on, we were 2-0 down. And it was absolutely shocking.

[00:01:53] Also, it was 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which I think is about 48 degrees Celsius. And the ref wouldn't let us take a drink. And poor old Steve Staunton was there wearing a cap. Hugh, that's far too much football for this episode. Will, what's your next country? The next in the group is South Africa. Their national dish is braai, which is, yes, just a barbecue, which, like South Africans themselves, hot, inflammatory, and quite aggressive. Have you ever been? Yes, I have. And I've been at a braai.

[00:02:18] It is a bit of a thin veneer to build an entire sort of culture around, isn't it? Like, I mean, loads of people cook meat with fire, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're like, oh, this is so much better than your barbecues. And you go to them, and it's like, this, the same as the barbecues. It's the same. It's not the same as a barbecue, though, because it's a big fire. Yeah. How do you do a barbecue? It's a barbecue on you. Yeah, but you're like on a Komodo egg or whatever they are. Is that what it's called? A Komodo egg. I wear a Komodo and I eat eggs. Fair enough.

[00:02:48] Hugh, South Africa? Yeah. Quota systems involved in sports, which is kind of complicated. But then a lot of South Africa's racial history is complicated. Next country. Well, let's move on to the Korea Republic. National dish. Bibimbap. So like Korea itself, warm, warm bits with crunchy, spicy stuff on top. And the spicy, crunchy bit on top of Korea is North Korea.

[00:03:16] There's like 60 million people in South Korea, aren't there? Are there? And like 45 million in North Korea. Wow. A lot of people live in Korea. Czechia. Svikkova is their national dish. You might be seeing a theme of what I've gone for research-wise for the countries. They're beef in a creamy sauce, much like Czech men who are beefy and creamy. Michael, you like beefy and creamy men? We do like beefy men. No, but beef and cream does not go well together. Like, let's be honest. Beef straggenoff? Beef and cream goes very well.

[00:03:46] That's just beef and beef, to be honest. If someone served you a beef that had been drenched in it, you would absolutely ravage it. Like you'd trouble it out of the troughs. I bet you love when at a wedding there's a beef straggenoff or whatever. I've never... Yeah, okay. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Okay, you've turned me around. It does sound delicious. Yeah, okay. Where are we going? Group A. Anya, time for group E, I think, right? Group E. Is that B or E?

[00:04:16] Is it four candles or four candles? Group E for Emma, as opposed to Bema. Okay, obviously we go to group E next. Yeah, Michael gave us, me, A to D. So then he's just realized that now he's going to have to go A, E. It's going to have to go in a really stupid order. Germany, national fruit is the apple. The apple. The national fruit? Oh. The apple. Of course, because they drink applesaft. Yeah, that's true. Okay, Curacao.

[00:04:46] Fun fact about Curacao is they have incredible tap water there because it's very dry and arid and the water is desalinated and contains no chlorine or calcium and it's crisp, tasteless and odorless. Like you, Michael. We've got the Ivory Coast. So they're a national football team. Does anyone know what they're called? What their nickname is? The Tusks. Ivory Coasters? The roller coasters. Les Elephants. Les Elephants. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Okay. And then, is that all I have? Oh, I forgot Ecuador. I don't have a fact for Ecuador. Ecuador. Okay, Hugh.

[00:05:16] Hugh, your time to shine. You've got to have a fact about Ecuador in your head. Ecuador qualify for all the World Cups, not necessarily because they're all that good, but because Quito, their capital city, is one of the highest capital cities in the world and therefore the altitude at which they play is something that they're very used to, but not many other teams are. So they tend to perform very well at home and then they get to the World Cups and do quite poorly. There you go. Also, they own the Galapagos. That's fun, isn't it? Michael, you're Group I?

[00:05:45] Yeah, Group I, which is France, Senegal, Iraq and Norway. Of course, you're Group I. It's Group I, me, no one else. There's no I in Group. So France, obviously France in modern times have an unjust reputation of being a bit kind of wimpy. But do you know that France is the country with the most battle wins ever in history?

[00:06:09] They participated in over 1,100 battles where they won. Onya, can anyone else hear that? Is someone crinkling incredibly loudly next to the microphone? Onya, you've turned off your video but you've left your mic on and you can just hear you sighing and crinkling. Possibly typing, but sighing as well. I literally couldn't hear myself think there.

[00:06:40] She doesn't know. She's still doing it like, right? I do know, I'm listening. She's been laughing away. But you haven't stopped. I'm sorry. What were you doing? I was rustling around. I'm sorry. No, no, no. We need more than that. What were you rustling around for? My charger. All the conversations we've had about improving audio quality.

[00:07:05] And you're just rustling around, seemingly in a pit of metal. Just clanging against things. I mean... Yeah. That's exactly what it sounded like. Okay. Okay. Next country of the group is Senegal. Capital of Senegal is Dakar. Anyone know who went missing for a few days during the 1982 Paris-Dakar rally? Did he forget to get in Dakar? That's very good on you.

[00:07:33] No, it was Mark Thatcher, son of Maggie Thatcher and also Dennis Thatcher, I guess. Yeah. Anyone else know how else he lost his way in Africa more recently? He did some fraud. Yeah. In 2005, he was convicted and given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined in South Africa for funding the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup attempt. So actually, not fraud. Their lawyers are on to me. There was no fraud involved. No fraud. It was a simple coup. Okay. Another Irish podcast saying bad things about the Thatcher family.

[00:08:02] How terrible. Yeah. Next question. Iraq, the cradle of civilization. Why wouldn't you give someone in Iraq the thumbs up? Because... It's rude. It's considered rude. Is it? It's considered very rude. And as a result, all of the US troops were considered very rude when they rode through the towns on their tanks, giving everyone basically an up yours symbol. What would be a better way to do it if you wanted to be sound to someone in Iraq?

[00:08:28] Maybe if you got like a sack of some sort and then said... And then like put it over everyone's father's head. And you're like, look. And they're like, what are you going to do? You're going to like, I'm going to Baghdad. Oh my God. I thought that was an Abu Ghraib joke. And actually, it unintentionally was. Place your hand over your heart. That's how you're sound. That's how you're sound. That's how you're sound. That's how you're sound. That's how you're sound. Is it? Abu Ghraib. Yeah.

[00:08:57] Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Those were the days. And finally, Norway. That eats more frozen pizza per capita than any other country. That's it. I'm out. That was group I. You're welcome, everyone. Will, group B. In group B, we've got Canada. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Qatar and Switzerland. The national dishes. What are all these teams in the World Cup? National dishes of Canada. Poutine. It's like America, but it's nicer because they've got curds on it. Cheese curds. Delicious. I must say I did all of mine based on the national dish. Yes. We're getting that.

[00:09:27] Yeah. Sevapi, which is Bosnia and Herzegovina. Lots of separate delicious mints brought together into something greater. A bit like Bosnia and Herzegovina coming together. Yeah. Switzerland is fondue. Incredibly rich in the middle and high edges. That's a fondue pot and also Switzerland. And then Qatar, which is match booze, which is rice and meat. And it's also what I do whenever they play. I do match booze. Boo.

[00:09:57] That's group B. Okay. Group F. Netherlands. The king used to fly for KLM. It was pretty cool. Oh, they're pretty cool. Difficulty with planes in Holland as they're in Netherlands. Carry on. Nice. We've got Japan. Did you guys know that Japan has over 30 melody roads? And as you drive over specific grooved sections of asphalt, the friction creates musical vibrations that play a tune for you in your car. That's fun. That's the coolest thing I've ever heard.

[00:10:28] So fun. We've got Sweden. Did you guys know that Sweden is the third largest exporter of music in the world after the UK and the US? We've got ABBA, Roxette, Swedish House Mafia. They are churning out a lot of music. Wow. I mean, none of those are super contemporary references, I guess. But, you know. Yeah, that's okay. Oh, Tunisia. So did you guys know Tatooine was named after the real life Tunisian town of Tatooine? No. Yes, I did.

[00:10:59] Many original filming locations are still standing in the Sahara from when they filmed some Star Wars there. Wow. Pretty cool. And they also filmed Life of Brian in Tunisia. No way. Yeah. I feel like people used to love going to Tunisia on holidays and then someone got shot on the beach there. So. You as a family or us as a people? Us as a people. This is a very war on terror themed episode, I would say. Yeah, that's true. That's me. Group J. So this is Argentina, Algeria, Austria and Jordan.

[00:11:28] So clearly somebody messed up here. Australia should be in this group. All the countries otherwise begin with and end with A. So I don't know what they were doing. That would have been fun. Argentina. We've got Messi. We've got Maradona. Messi is due to play in this World Cup. And obviously they've been very dominant in football. But you know what other sport Argentina also totally dominates? Polo. Hiding Nazis. Polo. Well done. Well done. I've seen them on TV. Good answer. Yeah. Well done, Anya. They are so good at hiding Nazis though.

[00:11:58] Algeria. My fun fact about Algeria is that it is absolutely massive. It is the largest country in Africa. It's way bigger than you think it is. Way bigger. How big do you think I think it is? Because I think it's really big. I just feel like this might be a personal. No, you're way off. Way bigger than you think it is to look at it, see it, measure it. It's just much bigger than you think. 10th largest country in the world. So big. I think it's as big as Russia. Okay. You're way. Here you go. Okay. Right. All right. You win. You win.

[00:12:27] I guess it's smaller than I think it is. Particularly Vienna is recognized worldwide as the historical capital of classical music. Having produced legends like Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and Schubert. And no other famous people throughout history. Just those guys. That was pretty much it. They're the only people who ever came from Austria and did anything. Jordan. Jordan, or real name Katie Price, is an English media personality, model and businesswoman.

[00:12:55] She gained recognition in the late 1990s for her glamour modelling work in British tabloid newspapers. It's always a bit uncomfortable to watch celebrities try to remain relevant. She's been on Celebrity Big Brother. She's been in the jungle. And now she's going to field herself as a team in the 2026 World Cup. I think it's a bold move by Jordan. She's going to leave a lot of space to cover out there on the pitch. But I wish her every success.

[00:13:22] Especially considering her husband is currently missing for a load of fraud and scam investigations. And no one can find where he is. Right. Really? Yeah. Hopefully she can turn her fortunes around at this World Cup. You know what? She's such a hustler. I wouldn't be surprised if she did. Yeah. At least make it through to the quarters or something. And then go out on penalties. So Will, you're up next. Okay. You have to guess the people in this group. And by people, I mean countries. Based on their national dish. So we've got felgioada.

[00:13:52] Which is a stew with pork or beef and beans. Ooh. South American. Morocco. It's Brazil. Yes. Next one. Couscous. Morocco. Yes. Yes. Couscous sucks so much. It sucks so much. I'm just never happy to see it coming. It is dry. It is dry. I try if you cook it bad. It's hard to make it right. But it can be nice.

[00:14:21] But I do see what you're saying. It's not like. Like you'd never be like my favourite grain. Can't wait for some couscous. Yeah. Yeah. And Will, as a vegetarian, a lot of times people are like, the vegetarian special today is a couscous salad or something. Do you know what I mean? No. Why? Michael, you're going to like this. Always pasta. This is griot, which is crispy marinated fried pork, which Michael would like. But the rest of us would what? That's so good. The rest of us would Haiti. Haiti. Haiti.

[00:14:51] Yeah. And then this one, this is probably the most difficult one to guess. Haggis. Scotland. Scotland, that's right. And just like Scotland, horrible exterior, worse stuff in the inside. And their team is awful. Their team is awful. Helpful. Well, I love it. On your group. What is this? G? Okay. So Belgium. Famous for inventing the saxophone.

[00:15:21] But you didn't know that. No, I didn't know that. I did not know that. Not as a country, I guess. The inventor of the saxophone must have been Belgium. So Egypt. The Statue of Liberty was actually meant to be in Egypt at the entrance of the Suez Canal. But the project fell through. So went to New York instead. The Statue of Liberty was going to be in the Suez Canal. Is this true? I don't know. Yeah. That's wild. That's a genuinely impressive fact. Iran. I mean, there's a lot we could say there, really.

[00:15:47] But they produced over 90% of the world's saffron, making it the epicenter for this prized and delicious spice. Wow. It's fun. You know what? I was thinking recently about spices. If you brought someone back from the 16th century and they saw you making porridge, they'd be like, what on earth? Because you'd be grating cinnamon onto porridge. To them would be like grating solid gold onto your breakfast. Onto horse food. Yeah. Or even bananas. Even throwing a banana in there. Yeah. God. What's a big yellow finger you're sticking in?

[00:16:17] Okay. And then my last one for this group is New Zealand. Did you guys know that New Zealand has, well, there's a lot of caveats here. It has no native land predators other than a couple of, no, hang on, wait. Other than Michael when he visits. Aside from a couple of bat species, New Zealand had no native land mammals until humans arrived. Humans arrived. And that allowed birds to evolve in unique ways. And that's why you have the kiwi bird and the kakapo, which is the world's largest flightless parrot.

[00:16:47] So obviously the New Zealand rugby team are called the All Blacks. That's my group. And the New Zealand football team are called the All Whites. But the New Zealand basketball team you might enjoy are called the Tall Blacks. Oh, it's like a coffee order. Yeah. Now you're famous for their flat whites as well. Oh, and the flat whites are like the bobsled team. Oh, that's good. I love it. So Portugal, Portugal's got Ronaldo.

[00:17:13] So we could have a World Cup where Ronaldo and Messi could meet in 2026 in what this analyst, for one, describes as a potentially historic ding dong. Next country then is Dr. Congo. It's the only country in the world with a medical degree. It's the second largest country in Africa, but it actually wears the world's largest white doctor's coat and has the world's largest stethoscope. It's a fun Dr. Congo fact for you. And then Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is doubly landlocked.

[00:17:44] It's one of only two other countries, two countries in the world that is double landlocked, meaning it has no access to the sea. And that all of its neighboring countries are landlocked as well. Do we know which the other country is? Hungary. No. Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein. Bulgaria. Well done. Well done. It's also the only country who all the countries that it's touched, their names end in Stan as well. Isn't that fun? Final Uzbek fun fact. They have the world's sweetest melons.

[00:18:13] Michael, you can't say that. And also, you're getting three fun facts in per country. Yeah. Michael stopped. This won't make the edit. He stopped the recording to make sure we kept on task and went quickly through it. And then he's just like, and here's another fun fact about that. Slowing us down. I could have come up with more on Japan other than the musical road thing. Yeah, I know. Well, look, if you go across the phrase, the world's sweetest melons, you pass it up. Yeah, that's true. That's fair.

[00:18:43] A stronger man than I would do that. Okay. Well, you're only a man, I suppose. Is that the end? Where are we? Group, group, group D, is it, Will? A congealed mass of gross stuff with fake buns is the United States cheeseburger. Like cheeseburgers? That's a national dish. Look, I was a bit fast and loose with the national dish. It was like, ah, it's probably a cheeseburger, you know? What would you say is the national dish of America? Freedom? The French fry, ironically. Yeah.

[00:19:13] Cold rod. Paraguay. The freedom fry. God, everything is just coming back to the war on terror here. I really love just to take that conversation on the open road. Should we do an episode on the war on terror? We don't have time now. So far, Paraguay. Cornbread, where unsung ingredients come together and make less than the sum of their parts, much like the Paraguayan football team. And then we've got Australia, which apparently their national dish is Vegemite on toast. So like most of Australia, hot, divisive and preferably mostly white.

[00:19:46] Is it me? Oh, wait, no. I forgot about Turkey. The kebab. And the Turkish team is so bad, they too are often in contact with a pole because they hit the post all the time. Well done. That's very good. Okay. Spain. Their national anthem is one of only four in the world, but no official lyrics. What? So you just make up your own? I think so. Yeah. Okay. Will, I want you to make up the Spanish national anthem. Tapas and croquetas, a tortilla made for you.

[00:20:16] It's time to have a siesta. Por favor, come to you. Mi casa es su casa. Barcelona and Madrid. The greatest mountains, beautiful. Feliz Navidad. Beautiful. Okay. So Cape Verde, we're back to mammals. Cape Verde only has one mammal native to it and it's the long-eared bat. Saudi Arabia.

[00:20:44] Saudi Arabia has no permanent rivers, even though it's absolutely enormous. Finally, Uruguay. On the 24th of August every year, the country celebrates Noche de la Nostalgia and everyone goes to bars and clubs to play classic hits from the 60s through the 90s. And as I'm hearing that, that just doesn't sound real, you know? Yeah, that sounds like an AI hallucination you've got there on you. Yeah. Not Changed Nostalgia. That feels like they make America great again. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my last group.

[00:21:13] So are we on to the final, final group now? This is Group L. Yeah? Okay. So this is England, Croatia, Ghana and Panama. England. England is a world leader in soft power. So through its language, music and the Premier League, which is the world's most watched sports league, it consistently ranks number one or number two in global cultural influence. And the question I've got for you, Will, is would you consider yourself to be part of England's soft power arsenal?

[00:21:43] I think I'm soft, but I'm neither power nor arsenal. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the necktie, the tie that people wear today traces back to Croatian mercenaries serving in France during the 30 Years War, which is in the 1600s.

[00:22:09] And they used to wear this frilly thing around their neck and they were known as cravats. And that was the original cravat, which then evolved over time into the necktie. So Croatia gave us the tie. Thanks, Croatia. Hopefully there won't be too many ties in the World Cup. Am I right? Oh, that's nice. A World Cup tie. They could actually have World Cup ties. Yeah. I bet you're good at tying a tie, Michael. Yeah. Bing bang bosh. Absolutely. Bing bang bosh. It's bish bash bosh. Bing bang bosh.

[00:22:37] Gonna make the world's best coffins. So have you guys ever seen pictures of these? They have custom-made fantasy coffins. They're known as abebu adekai. And they are basically crafted to reflect the deceased's profession, their passions, or their life story. So some of the coffins will be like big elaborate airplanes. They're multicolored, genuinely resembling an airplane with wings and all.

[00:23:04] If you're a coffin maker, would your coffin just look like a regular coffin? I guess it would. Be a bit of a busman's afterlife, wouldn't it? Yeah, it really would. But there was a guy who was a... I think he specialized in circumcision. And so his coffin was just a giant penis that he was buried in. Well, I mean, it should have been a guy's foreskin, surely. Are they your wishes, Michael? To be buried like that? No, I don't think so. Yeah. No.

[00:23:33] Well, he can't be buried in himself, can he, aren't you? I want to be clear. I want to be clear. The perfect meeting of form and... Function. Yeah. I guess that was kind of like your coffin is making sweet love to the ground. Would you make it go in and out and in and out? Oh, no. I don't like this. Then Michael's corpse pops out the end of it and then he gets buried. Oh. And final country is Panama.

[00:24:03] So we're going to announce... Oh, wait, sorry. You get fired out the end of it, Michael, into another protective coffin and then someone ties a knot in the end of it and parries you. I can't wait. No, I can't wait for the reading of your will. Obviously, I hope it's not. But I know you'll have written in loads of weird stipulations and conditions and stuff. Oh, totally. Yeah. Well, the stuff I'm going to burden you with.

[00:24:33] Final country then in the World Cup is Panama. Canals, hats and tailors. That's what they do. They're world leaders in all three. Wow. So that's been our World Cup, guys. Hugh, have you enjoyed the World Cup? Yeah. I mean, like a lot of the teams in the newly expanded World Cup, I'm not exactly sure why I got here. Yeah. I don't think I've added anything to it. I haven't scored. But I assume I'll get quite a large payout for it. Yeah.

[00:25:03] I think we've upped you a fee for this. Because basically, to let the listener buy in the curtain, Hugh does all the editing. So he thought, we'll save him having to do the preparation. And it's probably difficult for the listener to learn that any of us did any preparation. I think what's important, though, is you didn't save me from spending the time on the recording. I did also wonder this. Why were we doing this? Why were we not including... You know, I should have spoken up. When they came for Hugh, I did not speak up.

[00:25:30] When they came for me, there was nobody to speak for me. That's not how the phone goes. How's it going? They came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist. That kind of thing. Exactly. When they came for the editors, I did not speak up because I was not an editor. Just listen to this every day during the World Cup, and everything should be clear for you. What we could do is release just the section about each country every single day for the whole World Cup. Collect them all.

[00:26:00] That'd be good. I've had a wonderful time. That fun fact about the Statue of Liberty. That's the main thing. Yeah, that's the main thing. Is everybody going to watch the World Cup? Are we all going to actually watch it? Because I can tell you right now, I will not be. I won't be. Absolutely. No. Yeah, I don't care. Fun times. Enjoy the World Cup, everyone. As always, we've been legitimate likes. Yeah. And we've never ended an episode like that. Goodbye, everybody. Happy World Cup. Bye. Love you. Bye.

[00:26:30] Bye. This podcast is part of Podomity, the UK's podcast comedy network. Why not laugh at what else we've got? Visit podomity.com.