The most political World Cup ever?
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What makes the upcoming World Cup the most political ever?
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This is the Football Daily Podcast from Find Life Sports.
Hello, it's the Football Daily. I'm John Murray, and this is a special programme in which I've got together with some of the BBC's other favourite podcasts, Newscast and Americast. I have been to seven World Cups. This will be my eighth. It feels as though politics have been involved in almost all of them, as well as the football. But this may well be the biggest example of that yet, which is saying something. There is so much to discuss. For this, before I fly off to Mexico for the opening match, we've got together with newscasts Adam Fleming and AmeriCast's Mariana Spring and Anthony Zirka. So this will be the first of three episodes that look at the politics going on around the World Cup. And if Football Daily fans want to hear the other two, go to the newscast or AmeriCast feeds to listen.
And also... Subscribe if you like what you hear. But for the moment, we hope you like this one.
Hello, it's Adam in the Newscast Studio.
And it is Marianna sitting next to Adam in the Newscast Studio.
And it's Anthony in the BBC Bureau in Washington, DC.
And this is John sitting at my desk where I am putting my final preparations to what I'm planning to use once I get to the World Cup for our commentaries.
John, does that mean you have a big binder? That's a stationary item very close to my heart.
I'm looking around my desk here, Adam, and I've got piles of paper. I've got the current edition of World Soccer. I've got Diego Maradona's autobiography. And I've got various other books and files. So the answer is yes.
Marianna's just got her phone, which has fallen out of her pocket. That was that little fudge was. She's got everything on one device.
No books or bookshelves, unfortunately.
Right. We're recording three episodes. This is the first one. We're doing it on Thursday, the 4th of June. And it is the afternoon, just so you know what the world looks like as we're recording this episode right now. And this first in our three-part series, we're going to look at kind of the genesis of this World Cup. How did it end up being in Canada, the USA and Mexico, which is quite an unusual situation. And also this intriguing relationship. I don't want to call it a bromance because that's a bit of a cliche now, between the two presidents. Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino of FIFA, because that is an interesting story in itself. So, John, when did you realise you would be spending this summer in North America?
Yeah, well, it was when it was announced that it would be the very first World Cup that was to have three hosts in the United States, Canada and Mexico. And the reason for that is it is the biggest World Cup that there's ever been. So it's been expanded by FIFA to include 48 teams. So it'll take place over 39 days. That's as opposed to the 32 days it would take under the previous format. And I think as well, most significantly in terms of the number of matches. Now, 48-team World Cup means 104 matches compared to 64 matches. in the previous recent editions of the World Cup. So teams these days will have to get through eight matches to win it instead of seven. So that's it. It is very simply the biggest that there's ever been.
And Mariana, because it's America and it's so polarised and Trump is so dominant as a political figure, this is like, I don't know, the Oscars, the Met Gala, whatever. There's a Trump element to it, irrespective of what we're actually talking about as the substance of the thing.
Yeah, and I think that's actually why so many people are quite engaged with this, even who aren't that fussed about football. I mean, I say this as I'm very obsessed with football, but quite a lot of people I've been talking to and getting messages from who've been spotting stuff on their social media feeds and saying, oh, this is coming up about the World Cup. So much of that content is about the politics rather than the sport itself. And I think it'll be quite interesting to see when the World Cup actually gets going, how much the politics eclipses politics.
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