The MeidasTouch Podcast
FIFA Chief Under Pressure as Trump Creates New Challenges for the World Cup
11 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: How is Donald Trump impacting the FIFA World Cup?
Donald Trump is destroying the FIFA World Cup before it really even begins in earnest. And FIFA's head, Gianni Infantino, is getting the karma he deserves. Gianni Infantino, a Trump bootlicker who literally had FIFA buy offices in Trump Tower to divert money to Donald Trump while the office sat dormant. Gianni Infantino, who awarded Donald Trump
a fake fifa peace prize so donald trump can feel all tough after losing the nobel peace prize gianni infantino who would show up at all of these white house events and sit next to world leaders and cosplay like he was a president prime minister or prince he's now saying chill chill chill We're just a soccer league.
Chapter 2: What role does Gianni Infantino play in the FIFA controversy?
There's nothing we really can do when the United States is out there in a very racist way under the Trump regime, banning the world-renowned Somali referee Omar Artin. What can we do as the United States bans fans, media, team officials for many of the teams around the world? If Donald Trump just
doesn't like your country based on his racist views or if Donald Trump wants to just politicize the FIFA World Cup or if Donald Trump wants to call the Iranian football team and their officials and their managers terrorists What can I do? I'm just a soccer league. It's just the governments are doing it.
Or how about the treatment already, the horrific treatment of teams and their managers by Border Patrol and other American officials who have done like cavity searches and strip searches or who have, you know, sent people back to their country or have held people detained for hours and hours. Gianni Infantino, you want to take any accountability? No.
Hey, Gianni Infantino, what about the 180,000 resale tickets that are currently still available after your scammy kind of price system where you priced out a lot of football and soccer fans? What about all of that, Gianni Infantino? And then, by the way, you have Rudy Giuliani's kid, Andrew Giuliani, who's ahead of the World Cup in the United States. He leads the U.S.
World Cup organization that works with FIFA. He's already out there blaming the World Health Organization for disease outbreaks that are more likely now, whether it's the form of influenza.
ebola or measles or hanta he's saying it's europe's fault even though the us pulled out of the world health organization the who should have done better ebola detection even though the us has pulled out andrew giuliani is like we think it's a smart decision to stop all of these individuals who donald trump thinks aren't the right people to show up because they may be terrorists or very dangerous
to our country. We've never had in the history of FIFA, and I'm talking about recent FIFAs in Russia and Qatar and other places that are viewed as traditionally repressive authoritarian type regime. they didn't do these things right here.
And the contrast, by the way, between how Mexico is treating everybody who shows up, how Canada is treating everybody, and how the fascist authoritarian United States is treating everybody, it's like night and day when you see, you know, the U.S. basically, you know, putting the Uzbekistan team in, like, a mini prison before they were able to actually get into the United States.
And we're talking about like world-class athletes too. If that's how they're treating them, imagine how the Trump regime is treating other people. And you contrast that to Spain. They've got the mariachi and the dancers who are showing, who are right out there when the teams are arriving there. And by the way, the Iranian team is like We love Mexico.
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Chapter 3: How are travel bans affecting World Cup participants?
Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution. Believe me when I tell you, or don't believe me if you don't want, but we try always to find solutions. Always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces and I don't know what. We are a sports organization.
We try to do our best with the means that we have to make as much as possible. And in this, and I conclude, we want to... unite the world. And if I can ask you one thing, Again, if you want to criticize me, criticize me, it's fine. It's okay.
But promote the unity of the World Cup. Promote. Then hat tip to this BBC journalist who says, are you embarrassed by what you and FIFA have become? Are you embarrassed that you've lost all control of the World Cup already? And it's already turned into this Trumpian dystopian nightmare that everybody's been warning about. And by the way,
We've been making a lot of World Cup videos about this now for, what, almost a year where we've been warning about that. And I was told, don't bend. You're being hyperbolic. You're saying these things. When it really comes to the World Cup, they realize all eyes are going to be on the United States, so they're not going to do it. I'm like, no. He's a psycho.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the U.S. banning certain referees?
He's a demented fascist Trump. And Gianni Infantino's a bootlicking demented fascist bootlicker. I go, they're going to do it. Trust me. Watch what Gianni Infantino says when this BBC reporter questions him. Let's play it.
Told he can't enter the United States. sent back home, accused of having links with suspected terror organizations. We have Mexico having to change their training, sorry, Iran having to change their training base here to Mexico. We have fans and journalists from a number of countries who aren't able to attend this World Cup because of travel bans or visa restrictions.
You yourself have said in the past how important it is to have freedom of movement at a global event like this. You've said how inclusive it is, how welcoming it is as well. Are you embarrassed therefore by what actually has come to pass? And have you, do you have to accept that you've lost some control of your own tournament here?
Thanks for, you're from BBC, BBC. You know, in 2035, I think, we hope, The Women's World Cup will be in the UK, right? Still needs to be a decision, but looks like. Would you find it normal that FIFA would dictate to the British government who to let in the country and who not to let in the country? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe you find it normal.
I would like, personally, on the other side, the reality of the matter is that in every country there are governments. Try to get into the UK, into Germany, into Switzerland without a visa. Try to get a visa if you are from a certain country. It's not easy. That's what I want to say.
It's not easy when you have 300,000 accredited people, majority of which from outside of the US to process them, to vet them. You don't know, unfortunately, our world is a very aggressive world and security goes above everything and you need to respect the decisions which are taken. And when I say to chill, I don't mean to chill and do nothing.
I mean, to trust us that we are working behind the scenes, we are trying to understand, and there are things we can know, things we cannot know, things we are told, things we are not told. And we always try to make the situation as positive as possible and to find solutions. Sometimes we manage, other times not. You know, I think it has already been successful to bring Iran to play in America.
I don't know who would have managed to do that. And, of course, everyone here believes it's the right thing to do. But, you know, again, we don't live on the moon. We live on planet Earth, and you have to deal with different situations. We try to do our best. We try to do our best. And I hope we'll have some good news.
gentlemen in the front row. More from FIFA president Gianni Infantino right here, who goes, we need to respect. We are not king. We are not governments. We are just a measly sports organization. We're just a soccer. No, first of all, you're making tens of billions of dollars off of this. And you were right there pretending that you were a multinational organization on par with like the UN.
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Chapter 5: How does the treatment of teams differ between countries?
Exactly. They've never sold tickets at that level. They've never sold that many tickets so quickly. It's amazing because you don't think of soccer. We use the word football soccer, right? But you don't think of soccer in this country. It's the most successful. I spoke to Johnny this morning. He's fantastic. And he's the boss. He said there's never been anything close to what's happened.
And then you had Andrew Giuliani talking about why did you ban Omar Artan? Play this clip.
There's a lot of talk abroad about how the United States blocking the entry of referees from Africa, Iranian coaching staff, national team fans. What are the actual reasons for these measures? And is it a bureaucratic error? Sure.
We'll take these one by one. So there's been one referee who has not been admitted. And I can't go into the details. What I can tell you high level is it was for very good reason. I support that decision. I was speaking directly with the secretary of Homeland Security and the commissioner of CBP on Sunday. The days are blending together a couple of days ago on this.
And it was for very good reason that ultimately this referee did not get in the country. So only one referee, not multiple.
Andrew Giuliani asked, why are you giving the IRGC no tickets and that they can't have, like, why are you treating them that way? I get that the U.S. is involved in a war, is invaded Iran with Netanyahu. We get it. But why are you taking out on the football team? That's unprecedented. Why are you doing that? Here's what this idiot says. Let's play this clip.
Iranian coaching staff, all the Iranian coaching staff is coming in. There are some Iranian officials that are not coming in, again, for very good reason. Can't get into the particulars on that. But as you can imagine, there are some people that claim that they are coaches. that may not be coaches.
And for the national team, all 31 players have had their visas issued, 26 plus the five additional players as well. They're going to be able to come into the country the day before their match. They're basing in Tijuana, which is about a 25-minute flight to Los Angeles. So it'll be a real quick flight for them to be able to get up there. If they were to drive up LA, it might take eight hours.
So I definitely recommend that they end up end up flying. But but they'll be able to get in. Look, the president has been clear on this one.
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