Roger Bennett

speaker

657 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 30 Jul

Roger Bennett’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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And I do, I can talk about that very, I've talked about that a lot in a lot of places. matched

But two things are true. matched

The way Iran were treated were unprecedented. matched

The host nation was at war with one of the qualifiers, Iran, who were meant to play games in Los Angeles and Seattle. matched

They had to move their training camp last minute after geopolitical brinksmanship about whether they'd be allowed to participate or not. matched

They had to move from the United States. matched

They ultimately trained in Mexico. matched

By the way, the Mexicans, the welcome, even in darkness, there's light. matched

And that part of the story... matched

It's beautiful. matched

But Iran, they played in LA. matched

That was very complicated because it's the Islamic Republic of Iran. matched

And LA is the greatest density of Iranian emigres in the United States. matched

And they're a symbol of the state, the Islamic state. matched

But the players are also heroes. matched

So we were there and it was remarkable. matched

There was a lot of demonstrations around the first game. matched

But once the game kicked off, many of the demonstrators were actually rooting for the players. matched

It was emotionally deeply complex and fascinating to watch. matched

But then they were told very quickly by American officials they had to leave almost immediately after kickoff and sent right back to Mexico. matched

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