America Signed Up for the World Cup. FIFA Stuck You with the Tab.
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How does FIFA profit from the World Cup in the U.S.?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. You expect me to treat the Chicago taxpayers as the dumb money at the table? You've got to be kidding me. Right after this ad.
Can we talk about... Your green card? Is that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a green card, Adam Crafton.
Congratulations. Thank you very much. Yeah, no, that came through in the mail last week. So that is a huge relief. And it also now means, I don't know if people know this who live in America, but once you're in the process trying to adjust your status from non-immigrant to immigrant, you can't leave the country. during this process so if i would have gone home for a birthday or to see some friends or whatever then you have to start your entire application again so i thought it was going to take we expected to take between 3 and 12 months and thankfully it's come through super fast so um thank you america you're welcome right i wanted to start here because i wanted to congratulate you on apparently being trapped with us
Trapped in the best way. And you moved here because of what's happening right now, which is the World Cup being a New York, New Jersey joint. Exactly.
So I moved March 2024. And the idea was to develop contacts, build relationships, start to get stories in the lead up to the World Cup. It was a good chance to kind of actually get here. get feet on the ground, start to get to know people, get a sense of what the challenges and the storylines were going to be. And I guess that leads us nicely into where we may go.
Yeah, I mean, you are, for those not initiated, you're the guy I've been turning to to help me understand what the f*** is going on in now our country. You are the two-time reigning sports journalist of the year in the UK.
Thank you.
I mean, I'm just stating facts. And you're on loan from The Athletic FC to help, I think more than anything today, bring me a folder of documents. I have a folder.
An entire folder of documents.
Do you want them or am I keeping them? I think I... It's a lot of documents. To convey the tabs and the color-codedness and all of this and just the sound, which I think our microphones can pick up as I... That's the sound of American exceptionalism. I guess in figurative and also perhaps literal ways.
Well, it's also FIFA exceptionalism in terms of much of that are contracts that cities have with FIFA and all of the different reasons why my money, your money is being spent on this tournament.
So from a big thousand foot view, I should say, I got to cover the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. And I got a sense on the ground of what I had heard from afar, which is, There is a lot of money sloshing around here. FIFA, for those not initiated, is the apex predator of notoriously corrupt sporting organizations.
We should say historically corrupt at this point. At this point, I think FIFA would push back strongly on that.
But this story, as much as people may think, okay, yeah, you're talking about FIFA, corruption, Johnny Infantino, the head of FIFA, and President Donald Trump, we see them all the time exchanging golden objects.
We start with our sports lead. President Trump finally has his Peace Prize. No, not the Nobel Peace Prize, which is the world's most prestigious, and one that President Trump has long coveted. This one is the FIFA Peace Prize.
Mr. President, this is your... prize this is your peace prize there is also a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go right now okay let me hold ah fantastic excellent such an honor to be with johnny i've known johnny for so long he's done such an incredible job and
I have to tell you, you've set new records on ticket sales. And that is an amazing thing. The numbers are beyond any numbers that anybody, even beyond what Johnny thought was possible.
If you think of Trump in the most basic terms, he seems to be someone who is impressed by big... by bold, by eye-catching numbers, by numbers that are sometimes inflated. So I think, you know, if you put in front of him things that are gold, things that are glitzy, things that sound large, he tends to be impressed.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How does FIFA profit from the World Cup in the U.S.?
0:00–5:38
2
What hidden costs do host cities face for the World Cup?
5:38–11:45
3
What absurd demands does FIFA make on host cities?
11:45–17:43
4
How do local governments respond to FIFA's demands?
17:43–22:56
5
What financial burdens do cities incur for the World Cup?
22:56–28:30
6
How do ticket sales impact local economies during the World Cup?
28:30–34:31
7
What unique challenges does Kansas City face as a host city?
34:31–39:10
8
How does the construction of a pop-up jail reflect local concerns?
39:10–57:09
Speakers
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