Soccer as the People's Game

Welcome to Pablo Torere Finds out. I am Pablo Torere. and today we're going to find out What this sound is I'll give Fox credit. Fox knows how to make money rightight after this. This episode is sponsored by HeyGen. Heygen turns a script, photo, or presentation into a polished video view. In minutes, no camera or crew required. It's how real estate agents, financial advisors, attorneys, and creators show up consistently on every feed and build a brand that brings in clients without spending their whole week making content. Rated the number one AI video platform for small businesses on G two of the most realistic AI avatars in the industry, trusted by a community of over thirty million people and eighty five percent of the Fortune one hundred, and built to work in over one hundred seventy five languages, so you can reach your audience in theirs. Here's the wild part. 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Crowning it the best WiFi video monitor in twenty twenty six And then it helps today's new dads show up in ways never before possible. So if you are expecting, building your registry or shopping for gifts for new parents Check out the NANit Smart Baby monitor system. And if you need it right now or want to give it to dad as a Father's Day gift, Do not wait. Nan it has two big sales happening this month Go to Nanet. com It's Nanet. com Some point I will say during this that not even FIFA can mess up the World Cup in the games Well, I want to start there. Can we just start? Are we rolling Let's start with that sentence that not even FFA can can mess this up The World Cup And it's competition and the attention of the world upon it. can withstand every to Rit competent Philly ous move that FIFA makes and it still is The most extraordinary sports competition. in the world And it's working And by the way, I't like the forty eighteen move, it's great It's working. We got we gott to talk workment expansion. We got to talk about hydration breraaks. I want to talk about the business of this. and I want to establish for people who are not familiar with you, John Skipper, that we are doing this episode without David Sampson here very sad that we're doing it without David. Absolutely. And David would already be making fun of you. but instead, David is mourning And we want to direct the entire sporting class audience. Everybody's ever watched either of us any of us to donate to the fund Dave has established in honor of his daughter, Kira Sampson, who died at age twenty eight you had not heard of brain cancer, glioblastoma, and we will put the link for the KEA Fund, which is already doing remarkable fundraising work already in the show notes here Please go there and donate and in honor of David. I would like to make fun of you now Well, certainly, somebody must do it. and he does it Qite well quite quite And I love him for it and it is sad. And it does put in perspective that while we are passionate about what we're talking about here, there are some things that make us understand that this is all not that important The perspective that we need to remind ourselves about is we talk about the most popular product on the planet. which is soccer and the World Cup is is reallyally essential for us to establish here, as I also establish, John I think at one point, you were the most important soccer fan in the United States U was passionate fan in the United States who had a job that enabled him to act upon that passion in a way that nobody else had the opportunity to do So it was the right personers at the right time in the right place The notion of you running ESPN at a time when, hey, suddenly, you have the opportunity. There's actually a very small window, it turned out When he took the job, right? it was October of two thousand five a window that was in front of you to Bid on this tournament And this was, of course many moons ago, but You were ahead of the curve with the financial resources to actually substantiate the bet So when I asked George Bodenheimer for the job managing the content of VSPN And I told him what I wanted to do was buy as many rights for as long as possible. and that was important. And I wanted to start by buying the World Cup. And he said, Wh? And I said, because soccer is someday going to be the most popular sport in the United States. Not positive if that's true or not. that may be hyperbolic But it is now the greatest single event that occurs in the United States, notot the largest audience, that's a Super Bowl The country is a flutter, a gghast this thing George said to me, you know, Skip There's always been somebody who said soccer's coming in the United States.. And I said Someday, someone will be right. And it won't be because they're smarter. Other people saw it earlier Other people cared more, maybe. But I did understand because I'd been to Europe and had seen the game. that it is the greatest spectator sport in the world. And the rest of the world loves it. And people here are going to love it as soon as they quit worrying about the fact that there're not that many scores Watching the twenty six World Cup M It must be kind of strange for you. becausecause now the thing is taking off and people are in love with the games, as you put it, because the games are so Good the competition is so great. And so you're watching this stuff where the knockout routes and Your bet is coming true, but it's not your network. You're not in that job and the entity that has the rights as we need to explain here, has itself been embroiled in literal federal corruption trials in which you were a witness which has to be a bit of an out of body experience for the celebration as well as the regret. Well, it's okay. What I have learned in this yeah, it has a sting to it Right? Does it bother me cut on television and I have to watch Fox in order see the World Cup. Yeahah, hell yeah, it bothers me Somebody asked me how they were doing in production, and I finally thought of the right answer. It's the second greatest production of the World Cup ever So they're doing okay U, But it's not the greatest production of the World Cup ever and, uh I take pride in the fact that we at ESPN were right about this that George supported me. We went out and did it. We built the World Cup in zero six ten and fourteen We celebrate the event We spent a boatload of money doing stories I went to Brazil in twenty fourteen for five weeks to cover a illion games. And Rright Thompson went into the favela to do reports. And in South Africa, Sl, Masaela took us inside Sueto. We had you Masala do the music. We did stories, we did documentaries, we did childer programming. We had studio shows that lasted overnight I watched the Netherlands Morocco. the other night What aim Yeah And it's over. And they go to like nine hours of commercials And then I think James Corden is coming home for some reason. I'm like, whyy is James Cordon coming on? Oh, they're going to promote his show. during the World Cup I wanted to watch five hours of commentary. So we listen to people break the game down you're a fan because I'm an actual soccer fan. It happens And all the people who do sports at every network are fans of something. There are guys who just can't control themselves when Jim Nance talks about U something like no other. I forget what it is. What is a tournament? Hello friends. Yes, a tournament unlike any other It is lightlike any other. It's the masters, yeah. More exclusionary massage and like than any other. And that gets some people going. The Azaleas and the collared shirts, this is all someone's Fantasy But yours was the World Cup in America, in America and in a time when we could begin to compete. And that also, everything that we thought or wanted or hoped would happen in ' ninety four And the people who ran it Al Roothenberg Stein Garber, Sunneel Glaudi, did an unbelievable job. It was a great tournament But we were not prepared to compete on the world stage countries embraced it. Everywhere you go. Everybody's watching the World Cup. I'm going to my place. I go get my protein shake after our workout. And these guys are like putting up a television in this little tiny store. I'm like, what are you doing? They're like, World Cup. We gott to watch the World Cup. I go to Gabriel's, which is a fancy New York restaurant where Gabriel who owns it would have was disdainful of a television at the bar. televion at the bar right now because all of the help is from Serbia or a lot of the help is from Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia. they won the Whites the World Cup So it's all been embraced. It happened like six thirty two years after people hoped it would. Yeah. but it's happening. and soccer is just going to boom. continue to boom in this country. It's hard to get over how palpable it is when the entire world feels like it's focused on something. Yes. And look, you've long had the thesis on like what the economic proposition of sports is. and frankly from the NBA Championship into the World Cup, which is like this. almost exponential step change up. As much as I felt like, man, the world is celebrating the Ks We now see what it actually looks like when the United States can feel like it's in concert with the planet that you looked at and said, maybe we should pay attention to what's happening over there. Yeah, kindind of a phenomenon. By the way, the country embraced the Nicks But the world embraces this term. It's one of the very few things that the whole world cares about one point they cared about the Beatles, but What they care about now other than the World Cup and TikTok. I want to establish as well, like Before we get to the modern day presentation and the production of this twenty six World Cup, I want to get to what it was like when you took over as the guy in charge of USPN's content. This was back in again, October of two thousand five Because the characters that you had to encounter to navigate the world of winning the World Cups' broadcast rights Unbelievably Corful. and relatedly corrupt doesnn't have to be related. In this case, it's directly correlated. Because the tower, the literal tower you have to walk into, John. is is what? Well, it's changed a little bit, right? And when I walked in in two thousand five, you were still they were still in zoog not proper. But where you walk in now is a temple. built for the power football. it's got a little a short small pitch next to it They have a big boardroom in the basement that you go down to that is windowless and feels like she'd be in a James Maran movie What was that organization Specter That was the evil organization that James Bond had to You feel like your inspector And that guy with the eye patch and the cigarette holder and the gray hair is in there. And it's full of evil looking people. Emilio Largo. Emilio Largo. Who does sound like a member of the FIFA governance? I'm pretty sure he was on the executive committee the uh The year they awarded it to somebody of the ESPN Um, no, it's look there They think they're a national entity. Tld the story before of the security detail for Set Bladder arguing with the security detail for U'm present Clinton about who had precedence in leaving the opening night event at the South African World Cup They really do believe they're an extra national organization. they have this rhetoric about and we're here to celebrate the great game around the world, spread the game around the world. And they actually accidentally do a lot of that. Yeah. while they're busy enriching themselves and buying boats and alpine houses in the Alps at a nonprofit organization. Um, feels. greasy when you go in. I mean, you just realize that everybody in there Um Just about everybody in there. There are people who care and and who want to do it the right way, but the leadership team at the top fromrom Mr. Bladder to Mr. Infantini, they have not missed I love Infantino, how dare you? Infantino. Infantini The infant teeny This is where I missed David. I'm just like your nicknames, but proed. But you're referring, of course to the toer, which was the Trump toer, by the way that Chuck Blazer who at the time was the president. I'm not sure that's the right title, maybe executive director dont was deputy Secretary of KonkuCaf at the time and also yes, one of the people that you needed to win over He we would not have acquired the World Cups in ten and fourteen were it not for the umbridge of Chuck Blazer That umbidge was created by Set Bladder having a handshake deal with Dick Eversaall at NBC Sports to broadcast the World Cups in ten and fourteen that the sort of sort of like state U S. senators get the right to approve judges within their state sort of. U Chuck Blazer was supposed to be able to sort of approve any media rights deals. or at least you know, bless them before the executive commommittee actually did them Yes. He was one of the twenty five members of the FIFA exxecutive Cittee. Yes the most powerful man in American soccer as a result He was at the time. and what he was really furious about is NBC would have a handshake deal with Set Bladder, but they also had always chuck and D Garber and Sunil Galoti and the folks at FIFA always had this sort of that whoever gets the World Cup rights and rem we're getting them for free the time. also agree to do a deal with the MLS because we need to build our domestic Lague if we're ever going to be a soccer count So you need to do that. So not only did they do a sneaky deal But they did it around MLS, which had held the rights before in soccer United marketing to sell the World Cup. When you said you were getting the rights for free What explain that I don't Well, in zero six, we had the rights to the World Cup in Germany as a result of a time buy or an ad buy, right? So we supplied the slots, we did the surround programming, we carried it, we marketed it in the United States, but we did not pay a rights fee. as recently as zo six The World Cup received no media rights money in the United States becausecause that's how little this country cared about it There were no bidders Well, and so all of this the setup, this visit the Trump Twer The visit with Chuck Blazer. this is an attempt to win the rights in twenty ten and then twenty fourteen. And just the visuals by the way on Chuck Blazer because I fear that you're not doing justice to him. So this is like, you know, fortyyide stories above fififth Avenue in Trump Tower. and Chuck Blazer, John. and need you to be a writer for a little bit. What does he look like? It looks like Zeus. He is easily north of three hundred pounds Probably six three, six four. an extraordinary robust head. D looks like a cauliflower with a beard U huge head of hair Big beard Voice Always dressed always dressed in a suit Um So a powerful voice. He's a commanding presence. He's scared. You look little like Burlives too. Remember Burl Iivves? looking up Burrl Lives But more like Zeus. Somewhere between Burlives and Zeus and according, by the way to Vladimir Putin, Per Sports illustrated, Carl Marx Yes. that looked a little like. B Carl Marks with a big beard. Except if Carl Marks loved Carrots Cats. Chuck kept parrots in his apartment, he kept cats in his apartment. He claimed I think inaccurately that he had invented the smiley face? Yes. That was his cover for why he had so much money in what was basically close to a non paying job as the head of Konkcaf. He had a separate apartment at six thousand dollars a month in Trump Tower For his cats. Yes. And the justification for how he could afford this was he invented the yellow smiley face icon. What you think about? you take that yellow, smiley face and draw a big head of gray hair and a big beard sort of looked like Chuck Blazer. because he did have a great old big smile. And he was charismatic and funny. U and you did understand, you know how you have buttons on your trousers in the back, you did understand to button those buttons keepeep your wallet close there when you went into to see Joke Blazer. Well, to give the sort of spoiler alert here. It turned out that Chuck Blazer in his role at Conca Calf was pocketing bribes and kickbacks for years, had failed to pay personal income tax on his fortunes eventually notably became a federal informant in the corruption scandal that would engulf EFA in twenty fifteen when the aforementioned S Ladder would have to resign Wait, you mean there was guy who didn't pay his taxes was kind of a big o Big o old lumbering dude. with a weird haircut and an apartment full of handcaths and lived in an apartment In New York City on fifth Avenue between what fifty third and fifty fourth?. There still happens to be somebody who fits that description who still resides there. Yeaher Has his name on the building. Fewer animals. M gold, I think But look, the point being that you had this vision that you were trying to work your way through FIFA to sell, which was We're going televise these things live. We're going to do it right. We're going to actually respect soccer fans as if they matter and you offered what was then astonishing amount of money hundred million dollars We offered a hundred million dollars. By the way, we were guided to that So forty million for twenty ten, sixty million for twenty fourteen. Yes And we did agree to do everything lve. Remember, this was still an NBC sports and I admire much of what they do then and with much of what they do now. I've always been and vocal critic of the We're going to take events and tape them and present them as a primetime special later. sports events need to be live And they were not intending to do every u group game live. They didn't have the ability to do that But they didn't have six, eight, nine networks like we did So we said, we'll do it all, We'll do all the women's matches. We'll do all the under twenty three All of the under twenty one. will'll do all the qualifiers Ill never forget that there was a woman from the program department with me, a wonderful person. I won't call her name ' because I won't embarrass her. Wh is like, John, you're like giving everything away. I'm like, I'm not giving anything away We have like eight channels. We're going to put these matches on at three thirty in the morning Great programming. We'll take off all those people who are exercising on the beach And we'll have more room in the fishing shows and the hunting shows U So yeah, we I wanted I just like that a guy who has your accent was like Why are we airing fishing? Fishing. What a betrayal. Yeah What a betrayal betay I betrayed my people. They have my picture up at the Bass Pro shop. If ever I walk in, they're going to put a big hook in my behind and drag me across the parking lot. But that was that was the sales pitch was we're going to treat this like the sport deserves to be and among among Soccer fans. Wked Great We we put we had people who produced it who love football. We went to Europe and Asia and to North Africa and South America and got commentators who had lived it For thirty, forty years, we didn't try to peoplee who, you know, had done college basketball or baseball own the game. You didn't have a Lexi Lalas, which U, we had Alexi Lawes, I think. Oh, did you? Yeah, we had Alexi Lawes. Oh man. And Aexi did a good job for us. Um Amazing. And I do I do I have read the controversy I was in Europe for the first two weeks. It's really hard to watch these games in Europe. Most of them are on at one hundred thirty and four Um But so I don't have any comment on that. Aexi also helped us with a documentary we did. I've had a fine working relationship with Lexi. who is a challenging gentleman. The fact that you're protecting Alexi Laos just I laugh. Yeah. It makes me laugh Um, you're the guy.re you're responsible You're responsible for Alexy Lws. okay I digress. The point being that this thing, this whole broadcast emboldens you to feel like We're the natural home for this We were the right home forort We were clearly were rightide home for it. We And we made it a big event. we made it a big event by showing it for the big event it was. We embraced it, we put money behind it, we sent people to the events we sent, we were all over different countries. we had stories on every country that was in the World Cup We did something called I score to go which in which we interviewed everybody who'd ever sc a goal scored a goal in the in the final match of a World Cup One person turned us down Billy Well PA at a reasonable point and didn't see the bigger picture, which is you want' to be included in this. His point was, people have been interviewing me my whole life. I'm not getting paid for it. I didn't make that much money, which he didn't playing football in Brazil and U for the Cosmos, we made pretty good money and he didn't want to do it. still addmire the guy and respect him, but He didn't want to do it. And he didn't. so he didn't score a goal in that W Cup I love that u You had though, the insane ambition of like, yeah, we're going to just blow this out in the way that you would do a Super Bowl. And the thing that it leads to, obviously, is I mean, I just want to spotlight the fact that It's june twenty third, twenty ten It's the U.S. and Algeria And this feels like a turning point I think it was a turning point. That's the game that Land and Donovan scored. ninety first minutes And the place erupted justust sort of U.S. soccer nation as it existed at the time. You were there in Joe Where was it? I was South Africa. It was It was in South Africa And I do remember being in the tunnels going into that event. It's an old fashioned stadium, had not really been renovated And I was with My younger son, Clay, At the time, it was about fifteen years old, I think And we got stuck in the tunnel And I have that scary moment as a parent where you're like, I'm not sure my feet are touching the ground as we go in through this tunnel and I've got My fifteen year old who probably was capable more capable than I was. Yeah, I was gonna say. knowing Cay a little bit, that feels like the reverse dynamic. Yeah. but I remember going to that state to watch that game and when he scored that game That did feel like a I don't know if it's a word vindictatory That when you got vindicated, vindicatory Vindicating, but you know vindicatory. It vindicatory. Thank you very much. There' an adjective here. So that was a vindicatory moment where it's like, okay We were kind of right. The end of June and July can be a really rough period for sports fans with football still a few months away and basketball and hockey This year, we're pretty lucky Because not only is there a worldorld Cup, there's a World Cup in our backyard And so make sure to check out the Athletic Podcast Network to stay up to date on all things related to the World Cup. You can wake up with the Ttally football show from LA, then dive deep into the biggest talking point of the day with the athletic FC podcast. And you can watch the TFO podcast fool around on their daily live streams in the afternoon All shows are free to watch or listen onn your favorite podcast platform This episode is brought to you by Gradient FC, the go to soccer app for player discovery and analysis. 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That's H I P E B L AI Terms and conditions apply The Wor Cup final twenty ten. It's The most Washed men's soccer game that point in U.S. history. It's over fifty million people in ABC, another eight point eight on Univision And the thesis is proven Even outside of like what the Americans are doing, like people want to see this. And so All of it brings us to the idea that It's time to renew It's time to renew this relationship with FIFA And for those who don't know, John, What happened? How do you explain this at a party? What happened? Oh, it's it's a downer at a party. You really don't want me to come to your party and get on a U The next to Jesus about How we lost the Wor Cup. We lost the World Cup because members of the ExCO were bribbed Um And there was they were going to award it to Fox. I don't know how that happened. I by the way, I' not accusing Fox of anything other than being in collusion. I was in collusion with feVver and didn't work out because they bl they u Backtrack on me are But we weren't paying money. Somebody paid money. I don't know who. I'm not accusing anybody someomebody paid money to exX co members so they would vote U for the World Cup in Qatar Everybody was fooling themselves and lied to themselves about. I read. I was a member of the U. S World Cup bid committee. Right to bring the World Cup to the U.S. in twenty eighteen or twenty two. Right. And so we got to read the Qatari bid book where they said We are going to build newew stadiums that are completely air conditioned and that we will break down when the World Cup is over and send into Africa. to help build the sport. Uh, they weren't air conditioned They had to move the World Cup to December? Yep. that. breached their contract with Fox who appropriately was unhappy with that. They have NFL football in that part of the year. they don't need the World Cup. They have a nice big opening appropriately in the summer. That's what they'd bought So they A and puffed and threatened to blow FIA's doors down It is now documented that Jerome Val Um wentent to the ExO in I forget April of something Uh, this is in, um, Tereique P Pong' story in The New York Times that Jrone Vok went in and said They're unhappy. I am going to recommend or said we've already made a deal that we're going to give them the twenty twenty six World Cup Um for a modest increase so that they will not they will not continue own So the people that they colluded with to get the World Cup are now suing them They're scaredless that they will not be able to land in the United States U, and without being subpoenaed and Litia James ag dragging them in Yeah, attttorney General of New York They're scared of that. So they decide to give it to Fox, it's ironic, of course, because they came in ' ninety four to open up the game because they won't at the US money So then when they finally get to the US and should be getting US big money for media rights, they decide Well, we'll protect our own buttoks as opposed to having what will clearly be a huge auction. Now they had not announced US. yet. So I am sort of aliding a few things. S. they probably knew it U Well, but the point here is didn't take the money. Right. The one time they didn't take the money ever. Yeah. So so just to recap. so What Fox is paying for the twenty six World Cup right now is less than five hundred million dollars air this tournament. This is per the New York Times story in May And what experts are saying is that The rights are worth as much as three times that And so the question becomes, how is it that FIFA didn't extract maximum money, and it drives back to this arrangement that FIFA seecretary General at the time, Yes, Jerome Valk or Vela, however you w want to pronounce that, depending on part of the European Union you're in The New York Times reported, according to people with direct knowledge of this meeting is that The FIFA Secretary General told board members that, quote, it had been agreed to extend Fox's contract to twenty twenty six to this World Cup in exchange for Fox not acting against FIFA should the World Cup dates be moved because this thing was going to be in Qatar in twenty two. And a month after that, FIFA announces, Hey, it's going to be in Qatar. It's going to need to be in December and November. And two months after that. And this is just the Order of operations. The entire FIFA leadership winds up being removed following a sweeping Department of Justice indictment alleging nearly two decades of corruption, mostly tied to the sale of TV rights to competitions in North and South America. You happen to be a guy who's familiar with the inside of that courtroom as all of this was happening I was indeed. I did testify against to J by the way I did not test you don't testify against them testify on behalf of the state which has brought a case I was not asked about their actions at all because I had no knowledge of it. I was asked, what do you know about what happened? What happened when you were there getting it? What agreement did you have with them? What happened during the bidding process because they were trying to prove malfeasance My testimony did not prove that. I did not testify about malfeasance testified about our experience in which we lost the World Cup bewilderingly and didn't get to do the thing that you've established on the sporting class one million times, which is come in with whatever the highest bid is plus one dollar. Yeah. You were not given that opportunity to outbid Fox, which was pererhaps using the powers of logic and inference, a red flag there would there would be no reason not to take the top bidder who had just done spectacular job in the World Cup in zero six shown the path to how you break it through in this country and get to a billion dollars in rights fees for a single World Cup which would certainly have happen this time, will happen next time I think they do a billion and half two billion. nextext time which is You know, I'll give Fox credit. Fox knows how to make money. Well, let's talk about it. They made good money on the World Cup in Qatar because Qatar subsidized the production. And they will make good money on this World Cup because they got it for a sweetheart price And they concentrate They're very good at running their business The things that we're watching now, you know, we're seeing a couple of innovations, right? You're a guy who said earlier that You weren't a big fan of the expansion of the field W eight teams? I was not. I was wrong And you've otherwise been, which is funny to me because you've long lobbied for the NCAA tournament to be expanded for the colle football playoff to be expanded. So your your soccer Purity led you to betray your own capitalistic vision that you have for every other sport. David would be perfect on this point. I am feeling him inhabit my body right now And he's right as a fan. Yes. I did what every fan did, which was, I don't want them to do this. I don't want them to pay the players. I don't want them to allow players to transfer. I don't want this or that. I didn't want because I love my worldorld Cup the way it was. Yes. And I was wrong because when they started playing, Games were great. I thought, o, this is awful. You can play all these games and only twelve teams are made. these cinderellas. Why do you need the Cinderellas? And it turns out it's great. Turns out it's great. U and I was wrong about that Um I don't know. Are we gonna talk about hydration breaks? Yes. Are you going call that an innovation? I'm gonna call that a way to profit in ways that are only thinly veiled as innovation. Which that is clearly what it is These guys are not going to keel over. can they can grab the bottles as they go past, they can pour it on their heads. They could take a thirty second break. This is a way to get an ad breakak in the first half and ad break in the second half We might see the innovation where they have two hydration b breraaks they might just decide it's okay. We'll stop after twenty minutes. The coaches can talk to the players, but it's both that this is about hydration. This is about commercials. Fox was sure ready to go with their commercials On the very first hydration break. Bang there's a commercial and bang they don't get back in time for the action. Well, this is the thing, right? So soccer, part of the purity that you clearly loved was uninterrupted You're getting. You don't have these commercial breaks. And so here what the Hollywood Reporter is saying is that according to a media buyer source, the average cost of a thirty second spot during this new innovated format is between two hundred thousand and seven hundred fifty thousand dollars, depending on you know, is the US playing? what are the big draws and also the stage of the tournament. The knockout stage is underway now, of course, they raise the price. But with six minutes of hydration breaks That adds up reportedly to anywhere between two and a hal to nine million dollars a game. And so you multiply that out one hundred and four games played. factor in that you know, would have to be up my buck, carry the one Half a billion dollars out of thin air and u I assume that the sales force is in the market now telling people what the hydration breaks in the final wolf cost And that will be a seven figure sum of the money It cost a million dollars apiece. And are you begrudgingly impressed No, I don't think that's an innovation that makes the game better It all it does is create more revenue for a corrupt organization that is a nonprofit, as I always remind people with a nonprofit with billions of dollars in the bank And executives, all of whom have a very good size boat Johny Fentino for the record says, quote, this is not a financial issue for us. for us. It is sureurely a sporting matter. He is so foolish I mean, the pompous way in which he ounces these He's saying all commercial agreements were signed in advance. There's no additional revenue here. This is a total misunderstanding of how it is that we are profiting. And he just decided he's concerned about the help of these players. Not concerned when he wants to create another new tournament, which means they'll play one hundred twenty games a year. Ccern when they were putting the World Cup in Qatar Yeah. How about you being a proble? How about we go up to Norway and play next time where it's a little cooler and you won't need a hydration break and take a little cut in the money you get from the host nation. Yeah. and for those not keeping score at home, twenty thirty four. We're looking at Saudi Arabia. Gee a notably tper They've probably figured out that air conditioning thing by now Yeah. They're going they're going they're going they yes USAID might be gone, but don't worry FIFA is going to export air conditioning after they use it. throughroughout the Middle East all the developing countries in the world. You do know there is a rotation countries They get theor Cup. Explain Meaning they've always sort of said, okay, next time is Africa's time. Next time is Oceana's time Next time is South America Well In order to get the twenty thirty four World Cup in Saudi Arabia which was another inside deal byy the way And I doubt any money changed hands there Um, they had to Cross off Um, South America So we have opening games in Urguay, Argentina and Chile Th then oddly enough There's going have be a couple of games in so that takes care of South America. M be a couple of games in Europe play in Portugal and Spain. And they're going to play a couple of a few games in Morocco in Africa. twenty We're through Africa, we're through South America, we're through Europe. We can go back to the Middle East I guess Infantini is going to tell everybody We're celebrating the World Cup. It's innovative. Around the world, we got South America And we've got Northern Africa and we've got Europe involved. This is a great new way to do the World Cup. The best way to do the World Cup is to go to a great Soccer nation and let people be able to drive around in a car to go from place to place. Think how expensive it's going to be to follow your team when they're not just in Dallas or they in You're in Scotland, you're Scottish, and you're comeing to Boston Th then you gott to go to Miami. for a game. Now you're going to get to go to Montevideo for the first game and then maybe the second game, you can go to Lisbon and then you can go to Merkesh for a game. It's just take the boote. It's just to take your vote. It's just going to become, you know, a a World Cup for Putocrats Who can afford to get around all these places this is this is and this is where we get to the paradox, which is A world co for plutocrats is course, what we're on some level already watching. and yet because the games are so fucking good, it's also the rise of The African diaspora. Yes, in which you're watching a country like Morocco. We just one example alongside Gan. I mean, you can go down the list. And you can say to yourself, this is actually something like the global village of our planet, paying attention to countries that we otherwise don't care about, but we are celebrating in a way that feels Almost refreshing and meaningful. And And this is astonishing right now in New York. This has been such a h just being now this player we pay attention to. The New York has aape Verdian community I don't know if it's Verdity they have a Cape Verity community. A friend of mine went out with a friend of his to watch Morocco Netherland his play in Little Morocco. Yeah, which I think is Jackson Heights I forget where it is, but there's a little Morocco, there's a little Cape Vertde, there's a little Uruguay. In my neighborhood in the West Village, I went to a restaurant. you see one of that I frequent and they're having a Colombian watching party because somebody has bought the restaurant out to watch the Columbia game? Yes. Astoria, by the way, in Queens is seems it seems the designated place to go watch and celebrate and eat But this is this is this is something that I think is quite encouraging In spite of the oligarchy. It is. Look, it is ultimately the people's game And they it's a hell of a product for that reason. And they vote every four years that we love this tournament They It has been again, it's why I was wrong about the forty eight teams It's been lovely to see the fans from Cape Verde and the fans from other countries who'd never been before It's great to see Scotland back in the World Cup. And it's just there's no begrudging. It's great to see King Abdullah II of Jordan visit a Jordanian restaurant in Richardson, Texas And by the way, while they got beat, the Jordadians and the last game they played acquitted themselves very well they have good players. The other thing this terment has shown is that there are good players everywhere And while the U S is going to have enough good players to be a national power. You kind of don't take any team for granted in this World Cup.