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Chapter 1: What makes the 2026 FIFA World Cup the most controversial ever?
Today's episode was made possible by our friends at the Department of Education Victoria. Ready? And good morning.
This is the Daily Aus.
This is the Daily Aus. This is the Daily Aus. Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to The Daily Oz. It's Friday the 12th of June. I'm Elliot Lurie.
I'm Billie Fitzsimons.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup has officially kicked off. It marks the biggest football tournament in history with 48 teams playing across three countries. But before a single ball has even been kicked, it might already be the most controversial World Cup ever.
One of the teams competing is at war with the host country, a referee was turned away at the border, and fans are being blocked from watching their own teams play. On today's podcast, we're going to break down everything you need to know about this year's edition of the FIFA World Cup. But first, here's a message from Scott in the TDA team.
Hey, my name is Scott and I am the commercial video lead here at The Davey Oz. So when I'm not working on my Aussie dialect, forgetting to update my family back home in the UK or struggling to figure out where it's safe to swim here, I'm helping our commercial team create content that connects with you.
We're an independent media company, which is incredible, but it also means we rely on audience growth and commercial partnerships to expand our business. That means more journalists, higher quality production, and news delivered the way you love it. We need you to hit follow or subscribe wherever you're listening or watching this podcast. And thank you for being part of the TDA community.
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Chapter 2: How is the conflict between Iran and the US affecting the World Cup?
It absolutely was my debut.
It was my debut because you made me sing.
And I think it's going to kickstart our singing career. But no, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the people that did love it.
There was a lot of positive feedback. There was some negative feedback from some people in the TDA team, but largely love.
From the audience, very positive. From people that actually know me, very negative. Like, could it have been more negative feedback from people I know, from people in the TDA team, everyone telling me to please shut up and, yeah.
I also feel like it kind of sounded like we were fighting a little bit, but I wanted to clarify that we have a very good working relationship and I had a lot of fun. I love the tippet, really.
Because I said, no, Elliot, you don't know the facts, and you said, excuse me, woman, you don't know the facts.
I didn't say woman. Let's talk about the World Cup.
Okay. But now we're moving on from that. And today we're talking about the World Cup.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did the Iranian football team face regarding US entry?
Yeah, technically. Oh, maybe. Okay.
He flies to Turkey to watch Iran play and he decided they will be playing in the World Cup.
He decided in the sense that he has a very close relationship to US President Donald Trump. So he advocated for Iran to be allowed into the US to play at the World Cup.
And Donald Trump said yes.
Yeah, he actually said Gianni is fantastic. He's a friend of mine. I said, you do whatever you want. So that was from Trump.
Right. And that's where we get to the position we're in today, which is where Iran is in the US and they will be competing at the World Cup.
Not quite. There's another addendum to this. So Iran actually refused to base themselves out of the US for the World Cup. They have moved their training camp that was meant to be in Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico, which, again, is one of the host countries.
The players did get US visas, but they have kind of come with these conditions that mean that these first three games that they're set to play, they're going to have to fly out of Mexico in the morning to their game in the US, play it and then fly back out. So they're not staying overnight.
You'd think, because they're obviously elite athletes.
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Chapter 4: Why were Iranian fans blocked from attending their team's matches?
Yes. Yes. Okay, we're going to get to because there have been other issues with other countries. It's not just Iran. We are going to explain that after we hear a quick message from today's sponsor. All right, quick pause. Are you looking for a career that's meaningful and secure? Early childhood education gives you the chance to shape young lives while building a future for yourself too.
With university, free TAFE and traineeship pathways available, plus financial support while you study, there's more than one way to become a kinder teacher or educator. Head to vic.gov.au forward slash kinder. Elliot, I want to talk about the referee because this is something that we've spoken about in the office when it came up, that there was a referee who had been denied entry into the US.
Before we get to that, just very quickly, the reason why referees are needed from other countries is for bias reasons, right?
Yes, make it fair.
I love that. It's quite cool. But there was one referee who was not allowed entry.
Yeah, that's right. So it was a Somali referee. He's actually widely recognised as one of the best in the world. And he basically was turned away at the border when he was travelling from Istanbul to Miami for a pre-tournament FIFA seminar. Now, like I said, this is important because he is so widely regarded and we have to have referees from all over the world.
But he also would have been the first Somali referee to ever officiate at a World Cup. Hmm. Now, I think what people might not be as closely aware of is this context around what's happened with border policy in the US since President Trump came back into power. There's been a sweeping host of changes, including a lot of countries kind of being blacklisted with their visa capabilities.
And this is kind of the issue that we're coming up against is we have these players from all over the world coming to the host country in the US, but it's harder than ever to get in to the United States.
And that isn't specific to countries necessarily. It's also they're looking at individuals and looking at social media.
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Chapter 5: How have ticket prices changed for this World Cup compared to previous ones?
One was around ticket prices. So a lot of analysis has been done comparing this World Cup to previous World Cups and specifically the last one, and they're saying that ticket prices are up to seven times higher for the North American World Cup than when it was held in Qatar in 2022.
Right. I actually remember that Qatar one was also very controversial because of human rights issues, but we won't go to that. But it seems that it's always just controversial.
Yeah. And I think it kind of brought up a bigger conversation about access to sport and the fact that, you know, soccer in particular, it's played so widely around the world because you kind of only need a ball to play. But now to watch the biggest tournament for this sport in the world, it's more expensive than ever before. That also came up as a criticism with the train line in America.
So to go from New York to see some of the games, these train lines that were usually around like $12, they boosted the price of their tickets during the World Cup to be over $100. So it's this big conversation about sort of the privatization and these sort of big, almost capitalistic issues that are tied to the world sport.
Yeah.
And then there was the second big issue, which is the environment. And that kind of was to do with the fact that it's being played across such a wide region. So you can imagine we've got three countries across this massive area of North America. That means that fans, players and all the supporting staff that go into making the World Cup happen will be flying a lot.
And this organisation called Scientists for Global Responsibility calculated that it will be one of the most polluting events ever staged, producing almost double the average emissions of the last four World Cups.
And that's because of the flying?
Mainly to do with the flying, yes. Right. Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What environmental concerns are associated with the North American World Cup?
I did, yes. I was so surprised how much you knew. I know. When we were talking off mic and I was like, oh, I know about this. And Nolan was like, how do you know that? I was like, because we have a sports vertical that I read. I'll sign up after this. All right, tip it.
Yes, tip it time.
Okay, we're breaking the fourth wall because I have been dragged back in here. Just so everyone is aware.
It's Billy and Elliot from the future.
We recorded another tip bit. I thought it was great. I brought it to the podcast and I went off to my little meeting and I came back and Elliot said, we have to re-record the tip bit. Ola insists. And I went to Ola and I said, anyway, this story is going on. Anyway, basically all you have to know is it's the second time we're recording and I'm not happy.
And maybe one day they will get to hear what you said for the tidbit.
No, no one will ever hear it. Apparently it was awful.
It wasn't that yours was bad. Mine was World Cup themed, which we decided was maybe too much soccer. But then after I told Ola the tidbit... She said, that's incredible. We've got to get back on the mic.
Okay, raise your expectations to the roof. Okay.
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Chapter 7: How did a referee's entry denial impact the World Cup officiating?
And then. The World Cup was stolen again in the 80s. So at a later World Cup, somehow it managed to get stolen twice. That one was never recovered. So the World Cup that we see today is not the original World Cup. That is a completely new one that was issued after the original World Cup stolen in the 80s.
great story did you like it i don't know if it was worth coming back in here you're welcome everyone you didn't have to hear that no this is a great story i have a question yeah when you say that the world cup is an actual cup yeah i'm looking at photos of it now it's a ball what do you mean it's an actual cup the trophy It's a ball. Like a soccer ball. It's a soccer ball.
Is it?
Yes. I wouldn't call it a cup. Anyway, sorry.
That is a trophy.
Yeah, it's a trophy. It's not a cup. Cup's like something I drink out of.
Yeah, okay. So I shouldn't have called it a cup.
Semantics. Anyway, back to the actual story. Great story. And thank God for pickles.
Thank God.
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Chapter 8: What positive aspects can be highlighted about the World Cup experience?
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