Football Daily - World Cup: NYC Mayor Mamdani on Trump, USMNT & Andy Burnham

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Mark Chapman is joined by the Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani. They discuss the USA team's start to the World Cup, the experience for fans and the potential challenges of President Trump attending the World Cup final. They also speak about the impact New York Knicks' Championship win has had on the City.He shares his thoughts on the newly elected Makerfield MP Andy Burnham and whether the skills of being a city mayor are transferrable into leading the country. And who knew the Mayor of New York City would have such a love for English cricket... and chess?0’30 - His thoughts on how the USA national side have started the World Cup 1’50 - How the Knicks Championship win has changed New York City & how he priorities sport as a politician 6’48 - The honesty in the Knicks speech he gave 8’54 - Is he happy with how the World Cup is going from a fans perspective? 10’06 - His thoughts on transport prices 11’10 - Will New York benefit from having a World Cup? 12’54 - The potential challenges of President Trump attending the World Cup final 13’30 - Well wishes for Andy Burnham & whether the skills of being a city mayor can be transferred nationally 14’43 - His love for chess & English cricket

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. He's widely recognised as one of the greatest footballers in history. He's won the prestigious Ballandour Award five times. He's the all-time leading goal scorer in professional football. And according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he's the first active footballer in history to achieve billionaire status. Guess who we're talking about yet? That's right. Good Bad Billionaire is exploring the life and fortune of football icon Cristiano Ronaldo.

That's good bad billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Football Daily at the People World Cup 2026. With my catman, listen on BBC sounds. Hello, welcome to a slightly different episode of the Football Daily. I've been speaking to the mayor of New York City, Zoram Mamdami, and we covered a wide range of subjects from sport, the New York Knicks, Trump, playing chess, and his love of English cricket.

But first, we began with the positive effect of the USA start to this World Cup. It's been incredible. First of all, it's great to be here. Thank you for joining you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being in our beautiful city. And the start that the US men's national team has had, it's given everyone just a sense of real excitement.

We always hope and pray for the host nation bump, but what we've seen from these first two games, that tonight is not a decider, but rather an option to see more players, that's more than we could ever ask for. Do you notice a different difference? notice a difference in this city because of how they have started or is it not irrelevant how they have started but very much below still what the Knicks did? It's hard to compare anything to

the Knicks. You know, we waited 53 years to win that championship. I will say that it does feel like New Yorkers have an extra spring in our step and, you know, tonight we're very excited because we're going to be broadcasting the USA-Turkey game on a number of kiosks that we have around New York City, Link, NYC kiosks. So what are they? Sorry, when you say kiosks, so what are they? When you're walking around New York City, you'll see these kind of larger kiosks on a number of sidewalks, and you'll see it'll give you the weather, there'll be different updates,

sometimes there are advertisements, and what we started doing with the NICS is broadcasting the game on those kiosks. So you could just be walking around the city and you can catch the game, and we're going to be doing that tonight as well for USA. Look, to the UK audience, they may not know a great deal about basketball. and we've talked about it a fair bit since we've been here. Okay, because it is such a massive story, and it doesn't matter if you know basketball or not.

Anybody who supports a team, for a team to end a 53-year drought for something, everybody knows what that means. What have you noticed has changed about this city because of a sports team winning as the mayor? It feels like the Knicks transformed the biggest city in the country into the smallest town in the world.

It feels like they created a fabric that connects all of us. And it didn't matter whether you've been watching this team for decades or you just started watching it in the final games. But everybody was living and breathing this team.

And it felt as if time stopped when the games began. And the beautiful thing was some of it was organized, some of it was beautifully unorganized. You know, we would watch, you'd go out and you'd watch the game at a bar,

or you'd be in a backyard or at a friend's place. There'd be people who'd just be broadcasting the game on the wall across the street. And I think it just spoke to this energy that this team gave this entire city. And the fact that the city could look at the team and see themselves, not just in the players. You know, one of, you know, Jose Alvarado grew up in New York City in public housing and is a son of Brooklyn and Queens, but also in the way that the team played.

They really embodied the spirit of the city. You are a genuine New York Knicks fan. You're a genuine Arsenal fan as well, which I will come on to. I will come on to in a moment. It's been a good year. It depends on your perspectives. I'll be honest with you.

But anyhow, I'll bring these two with their Arsenal connections in in a moment. Has what the Knicks did, and maybe even what you saw with Arsenal and how it affected London, has that changed your perspective of where you put sport in your list of priorities as a politician? I think it's shown us the intangible value of this game, one that sometimes is derided as if it's a distraction. It is a cornerstone of how people understand themselves in the world around them. And you're asking me questions about New York City. Eight and a half million people live in New York City.

And in the largest city in the United States of America, it can also feel quite lonely sometimes for people. It can feel as if they're alienated from those around them. And these are moments that bring people together. And I'll tell you that for me, just individually, before I was the mayor, sports have just always been such a way that I've understood who I am, what I believe in, how I build my day. And I think that part of fighting back against the commodification of sport, the insistence that it becomes yet another luxury product, is also a recognition of what it provides so many people, not just in those 90 minutes or, you know, additional time. but frankly even what it represents to so many more. So as a man born outside of America, when you came here, did sport give you a belonging immediately?

Absolutely. I mean, initially, my sport initially was chess. Was it? Was it? And I learned something that most people don't understand, which is that anyone can be nationally ranked because no one ever asks you, where are you ranked? You just have to be nationally.

So, you know, I was probably one of the lowest ranked nationally ranked. best players in America. But initially I fell in love with chess and then very quickly it became soccer, football. What did you what did you like about chess because it's interesting that that's where you started out which is a very solitary sport but you've fallen in love with two big teams sports? I think honestly it was just the people around me. It was as if there was a group of maybe eight or ten of us who just joined this club together. And so as much as it's a solitaire game, I remember it more as a collective, where we would travel together, play together, we would be, there would be a grandmaster who would be walking around the room, he'd play a

move against all of us, we'd be trying to scheme against him, and the excitement of testing your mind and, you know, growing your friendships at the same time, obviously it didn't stand a chance once I discovered the beautiful game. And, you know, starting to play, maybe I was about seven or eight. Do you still play? Every now and then. But you really you don't understand how out of shape you are until you try really just me mark in the stands I mean I was just breathing if we're speaking about soccer

I thought yeah I wasn't sure if you meant chess no I met chest mentally still out of shape but you feel less embarrassed But with I mean the other day we were playing pickup and I felt I felt something in my lungs I didn't even know You didn't even know you had something there to feel now. Can I go back, I just want to go back to the Nix and your speech that you gave in the

parade, which I was talking to a Nix fan today who said it was the greatest speech he had ever heard. And I have heard similar things from a lot of people, both connected to the Nix and not connected to the Nix. And for people listening now, it is there on YouTube. I urge you to go and watch it.

How important do you think you being genuine was to that speech and would you have given a speech to that fan base if you hadn't been a Knicks fan because politicians and sport

is a very, very fine line to tread. I think you just, you have to be honest and I think that that honesty sometimes it can even be an acknowledgement within it. And it's the beautiful thing about this moment is It is a moment for every New Yorker.

There isn't a threshold of how much you have to know to be a part of this, to celebrate this. I think the important thing for me was how do we take what these moments typically are when it's a politician standing in front of people at the celebration of a team that has accomplished this a momentous thing and bring the focus back to the team as opposed to the self. And if talking about the self, then understanding yourself as a New Yorker more than as the mayor And I think it, for anyone who wants to purely understand this in sporting senses, they also misunderstand what it meant to the city. And we're talking about 53 years worth of memories, worth of hope, worth of heartbreak. And we all know as fans and here also as players, every year you tell yourself it's the year.

You both believe it and you also protect yourself from fully letting yourself into it. and to finally let that guard down and believe and know that it's real. It was just a beautiful thing to be able to be one part of it. On the honesty side of things, you always have to be honest. Are you happy with this World Cup and how it's going from a fan perspective? I am. I'm happy here in New York City. I think that we've made it clear from the beginning.

We wanted this to be a World Cup for everyone. And especially when you first saw those ticket prices, there was a fear as to how would everyone be able to be a part of this. And so I'm proud of the fact that we secured a thousand tickets at $50. This was part of what I had been running on saying that we should continue the FIFA precedent of having discounted tickets for local residents. And that we've also been able to secure making the fan fests, one in each borough, free. When I came into office, they were going to charge for them.

We did the work to make sure we took away that cost. And then also to make this an experience of the city. You know, I love that we're here and we're talking about this, not at the stadium, but at a restaurant. And it speaks to the fact that we also want this to be a moment for tourists as well as New Yorkers alike to be able to rediscover their own city. We have 900 bars and restaurants who have enrolled into a program where it's a $26 meal deal. And we want that to also be synonymous with this tournament is affordability and everyone being able to enjoy it. How difficult then on the affordability for you, was it, to square your beliefs and your policies with the, with the transport prices.

You know, I think that what you also, I've said this earlier, what we are also coming up against is this tournament means different things to different people. And in sport at large, there is this ever-increasing pressure for profit, for revenue.

And that creates attention with those of us who want this to be more of a memory and an experience that is in reach for everyone. And I think, you know, New Jersey, transit, for example, has tickets to get to the stadium that are about $100. Yeah. And it's a decision that they've made. I also empathize with the fact they had to make

that decision because they did that so that they wouldn't be running a loss. And part of that is a reflection of the host city agreement with FIFA. And I think that there's more than enough money that's generated in this World Cup as well as any World Cup for those kinds of costs to be covered so that fans are not the ones trying to have to bridge that deficit. Do you, will you benefit in the long run from having the World Cup? And I say that as someone who's been to every World Cup since 2002. Wow. And we often got, but we every World Cup.

Yeah, I know. And I'm the same age as you. That's incredible. It's astonishing. Two 34 year old guys. Catching up. Just catching up over a coffee and a water. Same job.

Wow. But we often go there and stadiums may be built and infrastructure is put in place. But then how much did they actually benefit in the long run when the circus leaves town? Did you ever read that book Socceronomics? Yeah. Yeah. Really stayed with me. And even if you are a massive Western city with so much success, you still have a lot of problems. Would you benefit as a city from FIFA being here?

I think we will benefit from this summer. I think that to your point, one thing I'm thankful for is a lot of the stadium infrastructure that is being used for this tournament is not being built specifically for this tournament. It's being repurposed. And that means that there's less of the albatross of the white elephant that hangs over you. One thing we've also tried to do

is make sure that any investments we make this summer are lasting investments because we want this to be a moment where when you're at the next World Cup and the next World Cup and the next World Cup that you can look back at the U.S. Men's National Team and see a new player from New York City who got their start at a 24-7 soccer field

that we opened this World Cup or got their start because we put the investment in an additional lighting for night games. Can I ask you two quick questions? Hit me. Your team up wants you to go and I feel like I'm sat in an episode of the West Wing at the moment. So two quick questions. Which walk and talk. Which are a bit more political. How difficult will having the president here be for the final, bear in mind when he was at game four in Madison Square Gardens and it didn't go smoothly?

Yeah, I think that there's a difference in having the president at Madison Square Gardens. garden which is immediately surrounded by an area where pedestrians public transit versus the New York New Jersey Stadium which is one that has a lot more of a buffer zone to put it put in one way with the larger public so I think that they're very much prepared for that and I think that we're very excited that we'll be having that final here very soon and finally when you won the the mayor here the mayor of Greater Manchester congratulated you in the tweet he now could become the next prime minister of the UK I'm interested as a

mayor of a city and I know you can't be president as as long as the the rule says they are here do you think it's not even introduced that I know yeah cannot be the president no but what I'm interested in is do you think the skills required to be a city mayor can easily be transferred nationally I don't think anything comes with ease at at that kind of a level I do think they are very important skills because Many people have lost faith in government. The place that they earn that faith back or they decide to trust, again, is at the most local level.

That's where they see what it can look like to have a government that delivers for them. And if you're able to respond to people, whether it's in Greater Manchester or New York City, it is at the heart of what people are looking for for any kind of politics. So I wish him well. I don't think he's an Arsenal supporter, though. No, he is. He's in Everton. He's an Everton. I mean, at least you can respect that someone has suffered.

For a long time. No, but like I like it when I meet someone who's a fan of a team that hasn't just won and one and one and one. Well, I'm about to go to the England cricket team. Your Wikipedia says you like cricket, is that right? I do. Okay. But I feel so old now because when I think about the players that I would watch on the England cricket team. Who?

Who is your favorite England cricket team? I don't know about favor, but I just remember the days of like Freddie Flintoff, James Anderson, you know, Kevin Peterson. Yeah, apparently, like, you know, I go to his Twitter and I'm just like, what is going on here? But, you know, those are the, I mean, I even remember the commentators who obviously were former players, but like I just grew up with listening to Nasra Saint. And it was amazing. I mean, these are the like the seminal. We all grow up when you're watching test match cricket. These are the men players you remember. Do you really have anything else to do today? I mean, you could. Stay with us. Mayor of you.

You can stay, we could talk cricket, we could talk Stuart Broad, we could just, come on, we could just... Yeah, whatever you would like, whatever you'd like to talk about, but, but... I wish. I have to go into a budget meeting. Oh, can you believe? Rather you than me. Rather than me.

Listen, Zara, thank you so much for joining. It's been a real... It's been a real pleasure. And thank you for all your enthusiasm, about all the different sports. It's fascinating. These two are going to kill me because they haven't got a single question in. So maybe... It was great to see you. You know, I'm against monopolies wherever they are,

I know, exactly. I wanted to talk about Arsenal with you as well. You believe that he did that to you. Next time. Next time. Next time. That was the mayor of New York City, Zoran Mandarney, joining us in the New York diner for the Football Daily Conference.

How impressive was he, though? He said he was listening to Nassaristan. How? Like, why? Like, it was just... Why? So much sport today for all the goals as they go in, up and down the leagues. This is five-life sports.

It's all ice for the lights. And for ten a block. It's not to stop out. Everyone standing around the 18th Green. Overhead, Kays, Shum! The show us to the centre! Oh, we're going to do it! The home of the world's greatest sporting events.

Listen on BBC Sounds. He's widely recognised as one of the greatest footballers in history. He's won the prestigious Ballandeur Award five times. He's the all-time leading goal scorer in professional football. And according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he's the first active footballer in history to achieve billionaire status. Guess who we're talking about yet? That's right.

Good Bad Billionaire is exploring the life and fortune of football icon Cristiano Ronaldo. That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.