The standard story is that fascist regimes brainwashed the masses through sport. But Lucio Lombardo Radici, a communist who attended the 1934 final, dismissed this entirely: 'No one ever became fascist because they supported Vittorio Pozzo's Italian team.' By the late 1970s, Brazil's military dictatorship was collapsing despite having overseen the 1970 World Cup win. Argentina's junta was gone within four years of 1978.