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Chapter 1: 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.
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Chapter 2: How did the US, Canada, and Mexico secure the World Cup hosting rights?
And it helped launch the MLS, Major League Soccer League, that is still going on and has expanded and has quite a following here in the United States now. And I remember there was a July 4th knockout round game between the United States and Brazil in that tournament. And on the 4th of July, the United States playing, it was quite a celebration.
And I actually went to a game here in Washington, D.C., because it hosted soccer.
some opening round games and a knockout round game I saw Spain beat Switzerland in the knockout round and so it pulled a lot of Americans in despite that kind of rocky start that it got off to with those opening ceremonies and I re-watched the clip of Diana Ross doing the penalty and in defense of Diana Ross she actually is not that wide of the goal so it's pretty close and also she is singing live in a massive ceremony and then she goes onto a stage to do the rest of the show so she had other
things on her mind and also she didn't present herself as like top female athlete she was like top singer anyway so that's my defense of diana ross it was it was the tournament it was the tournament that started and finished with a missed penalty because roberto baggio missed the penalty that decided it for brazil and it started with diana ross's missed penalty in the opening ceremony
Poetic, John.
Pop and football are two passions combined. Right, talking of celebrities, John, just introduce me to the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, who is actually becoming, I feel, sort of more and more of a global character.
Yeah, and I think part of that is his very close relationship with Donald Trump. You know, he was seen as the man who would bring to FIFA... You know, he'd change everything after the set blatter years and everything that we associated with that. And that he would clean up FIFA, clean up the World Game. And he's very much done it his own way.
And I don't think it would be an understatement to say that he enjoys the power, and there is immense power, of being the FIFA president. So, you know, I'm not sure when... Eventually, his time in that role will come to an end. And I have a feeling that if he's able to extend it as long as he possibly can, he would do that.
And anyone that has been circling, who is seen as a potential successor, just seems to have melted away. He is an extremely powerful man, possibly the most powerful man in world sport.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of Donald Trump's relationship with FIFA's Gianni Infantino?
So it is a way I think it illustrates how how how well Johnny, as Donald Trump calls him, Johnny Infantino, has been able to build this relationship with Trump, complete with Infantino. If you remember in February, put on a red USA hat. at a world, the Board of Peace, a Board of Peace meeting here in Washington, D.C., because Trump has invited him to all of these major diplomatic events.
And I think that another sign that he knows what, he knows how to connect with Donald Trump. He knows what Donald Trump likes and he has been using that very effectively.
Now, as we come to the end of our first episode of our trilogy of episodes of podcasts about the World Cup and the issues around it and the politics and some of the themes, can anyone from my sister podcast help me out about why there's this LGBTQ plus pride match?
Because, of course, June is pride month around the world where the two teams playing it are Iran and Egypt, which sounds like some kind of practical joke because homosexuality is not necessarily promoted in those countries.
Yeah.
Yeah, it definitely is remarkable that the stars have aligned for this to be this way. Now, it was a coincidence. The organizers, local organizers in Seattle, are having Pride events that week. They designated this as the Pride match. before we knew that Egypt and Iran were going to be the two countries playing there. But this has obviously become a bigger issue.
And it kind of shows how politics can inject itself sometimes by accident. And there have been objections from Egypt that this is going on during their match to no avail.
Right, we have kicked off our three-part series about some of the issues around the World Cup. We've looked at how it has ended up being in North America in the first place. We looked at the big personalities of two of the presidents involved, the president of FIFA and Donald Trump, obviously president of the USA.
Lots more to discuss in the next two episodes of our three-part World Cup miniseries, which is a co-production, well, just like the World Cup itself. What was the phrase in the bid document? Certainty, unity and opportunity. I don't know which of us is which.
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