David Rowe

Oh, yes.

I mean, a sociologist of sport like myself, totally shocked.

I thought it was all about the sport.

Sport's its own little world that isn't part of the rest of the world.

Not.

I mean, I've argued my entire academic career that this idea that sport and politics, they don't mix, they should never mix, I think is absolute nonsense.

You don't have that amount of money, that amount of power, that amount of politics involved.

of a geopolitical military kind and so on, without there being a close relationship between politics and sport.

I mean, it's extraordinary.

He was the Confederation of African Football.

He was their referee of the year.

And I mean, this is before even we kick off, this is already a big story because the concern has been

that in Trump's America, which has banned fans or severely regulated fans from many countries, including four teams who are actually playing in the tournament itself.

So they're letting some players in, but for example, Iran, which America is effectively at war with at the moment, they banned at the border the officials.

So they just let the players in, but most of the officials were barred.

And if you consider this World Cup, which is hosted by three countries, 11 of the 16 venues are in the United States, three in Mexico, two in Canada.

The Trump administration...

has said that it wants to turn Canada into the 51st state and has tried to build a wall between Mexico and the USA.

So, I mean, what could go wrong, as they say?

It's a huge disadvantage.