Jonathan Liew
speaker
674 appearances
5 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 7 Sep
Jonathan Liew’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
He has the keys to the world's most powerful cultural force.
And this is what he's done with it.
Sadly, I think it will to a large extent.
That is ultimately what Infantino and FIFA and the Trump administration are banking on, that once the matches get underway, which they did last night, everyone will just forget about it.
It will sort of evaporate away.
That's what makes football so worth buying if you're a dictator or you're running a liberal regime or you want to project yourself because football,
Once the ball starts moving, people are utterly transfixed by that.
And, you know, like you say, in Qatar...
that tournament is not remembered for migrant worker policies or LGBT rights or all of the kind of iniquities and backroom deals that led to that tournament being awarded.
It's remembered for potentially the greatest final in the history of the tournament, that Argentina-France final, which we all watched and we all enjoyed.
And that, I think, is the rub.
This thing that we love so much, we can't tear our eyes away from it.
Yeah, I mean, these are the best players, the best coaches increasingly, you know, a lot of great coaches at this tournament.
And there will be unbelievable moments.
You know, this is the power of the World Cup.
It makes people on every continent in the world feel things.
And I will say, people boycotting it, I have a lot of regard for people who take that stance.
I think for a lot of fans who feel more conflicted about it, I think it's really important to be able to carry these two ideas in your head at once, that yes, this competition is built on greed and moral corruption and rupture of the planet and exploitation of the planet and
the most unbelievable cruelty and horror, and also being able to hold the idea that at its best, it is this wonderful, unifying spectacle.
The horror and the beauty come from the same place.
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