Overview
United Passions (French: United Passions: La Légende du football, literally United Passions: The Legend of Football, also known as United Passions: The Birth of the World Cup) is a 2014 English-language French drama film. It is about the origins of the world governing body of association football, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Ninety-percent funded by FIFA, it stars Tim Roth, Gérard Depardieu and Sam Neill, and is directed by Frédéric Auburtin. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2014.
The film's North American release on 5 June 2015 was particularly unsuccessful, coinciding with the 2015 FIFA corruption case. In the United States, the film grossed $918 in its opening weekend, was lambasted by critics as propaganda, and is considered to be one of the worst films of all time. The film was also a major box-office bomb, losing $26.8 million worldwide and failing to obtain theatrical distribution in many markets.
Plot
In 1905, after the English football federation rejects an offer to join the formation of an international governing body for football, Robert Guérin forms FIFA, and makes himself the first president. Years after its formation, it is all but unknown. Jules Rimet, then president of FIFA, publicly mocks Uruguay's victory in the 1924 Summer Olympic football games, hoping that this audacious move will make FIFA more publicly visible. However, the media does not publish his mockery. Still optimistic, he decides that the only way to make themselves known is to organize a truly international tournament: the World Cup.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
