Fourth Reich Archaeology - #104 - Having A Ball w/ Brother Isaac

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

This week, we take another hard turn into uncharted territory as we welcome Brother Isaac from the Coexist, Inc. Podcast to talk ball. Well, not exactly, but that is the through line in this episode, in which Dick is joined by Isaac to discuss the 2026 World Cup and the mafia that runs it—FIFA. In what we are sure you will find a delightful, refreshing, and entertaining change of pace, Dick and Isaac chop it up about FIFA’s history of scandal and brazen corruption, its track record of aligning with fascists and despots, and its sports washing of obvious human rights violations. The fellas also spend some time on Video Assisted Review (VAR) and how it is yet another example of how technology is being deployed as a tool for oppression. Don’t fret because there's also quite a bit of talk about the tournament itself and its players as we head into the quarterfinals.We had fun with this one, and we are sure you will too. Listen now and let us know what you think. Find more from Isaac at: patreon.com/cw/u6112951 Join the 4RA Patreon at: patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology

I wanted to ask you, can you just have your phone call with Johnny Infantino about the red card? And Belgium is appealing the decision what you're raising. You're asking me about the whole soccer thing? So, yeah, I did. I spoke to Johnny. Who's produced the most successful World Cup in history by, they say, four times. I actually said, Johnny, we've got all these games. Each one is turning out to be a Super Bowl.

And we have all these games. You know, when you think of it, every game is like a Super Bowl. Yes, I watched last night. What a game that was with Mexico and England. No reason for me to watch and you couldn't take your eyes off the game. Because I said, Johnny, you know, you have all these games because they edit games. In a country where really we don't, it's not our main sport, to put it mildly. And this has been four times more success.

We told me last night, the numbers are four times greater. They think 50 or 60 million people are going to be watching the game tonight. I mean, you know, this is getting to be Super Bowl numbers. So I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves sports. It was a good athlete. and I understand sports really well, really well. And that wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction.

That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. You're two great athletes that got tangled up. And this referee, who is a little bit suspect? If you check his past, I don't want to say that because I don't like to create controversy. But very suspect. If you like, I'll provide you with the past. And it's very interesting.

They say they don't show them in slow motion. And I never realized that. I never heard of that before. Quarter of a second, and you'll see that a hand is touching a neck. That a hand is touching a neck, or you'll see something. It looked like two guys collided, which is really what happened. They got sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong.

And he gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't. play in the next game, at least. In the next game. And they say you can't play. That's very unfair.

That's, you know, it's one thing to penalize somebody for the game. But how do you penalize them for a game that hasn't been played yet? It's very unfair. You can't do that. So, yes, I asked for a review. I actually said, Johnny, you'll see that a hand is touching a neck. It's sort of entangled. He didn't do anything wrong.

And they say, you can't play. That's very unfair. Johnny. We've got all these games. Each one is turning out to be a Super Bowl. And we have all these games. You know, when you think of it, every game is like a Super Bowl. Yes, I watched last night.

We call it soccer. It's called football, I guess, but we can't really call football because it gets a little, there's a little confusion. So yeah, you call it soccer. It's not something that's just confined to England or France or the United States. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. So it's one huge complex or combine.

Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. And this international power structure is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people all over the world and exploit them of their natural resources. We found conspiracy, foreign or domestic, the Warren Commission of science. I'll never apologize for the United States of America ever. I don't care what the facts are. facts are. In 1945, we began to query, which showed that there were two wars, kind of. His job, he said, was to protect the Western way of life. The primitive simplicity of their minds when there's the more easy victims of a big lie than a small one.

For example, the CIA. He has a mile. He knows so long as died. Freedom can never be secure. It usually takes a national crisis. Freedom can never be secure. A lot of killers. A lot of killers.

Why, you think our country's so innocent? This is Fourth Reich Archaeology. I'm Dick, and Don is out this week doing some cultural research at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California, getting prepped for our return to our ongoing series within a series, she Harvey Oswald, that tale of two assassins or would-be assassins who in September of 1975 took their shot at our 38th president, Gerald R. Ford. Now, in the meantime, this week, we are doing something completely different, and we think you're going to love it. With the The 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament heading into the quarterfinals, this week we thought it would be fun to put on our kits, lace up our boots, and head out onto the pitch to see what all the fuss is about.

Now, if you know us here at Fourth Reich Archaeology, you know that we really have zero business talking about sports. So this week we've enlisted the help of our dear friend and brother, Isaac, from the Coexist Inc. podcast as our official guide through this whole thing. Now, before we get into it, I just want to say thank you to all of our Patreon family out there, supporting what we do. We love each and every one of you. Everyone out there listening today, please do me a huge personal favor and give us a five-stop. star review on whatever platform you are listening to us on today and drop a comment say something nice say put something nice in the feed because that is really what means the world to us and is really the only way that this program of ours this humble little podcast it will ever get to

the mainstream because we are committed to steering clear of any sort of ads or sponsorship or anything like that. Also, you can always find us on social media. We are on Twitter and Instagram at forthrightpod, and you can always, always, always feel free to write us at forthrightpod at gmail.com. Okay, with that out of the way, I'm just going to press play on this here wonderful talk I had with Isaac. Please enjoy. Okay, with us today, we have the man, the myth. the legend and the brother, Isaac, from Coexist, Inc. How you doing, Isaac? I am, I'm fantastic. Howdy y'all? Glad to be here. And if I'm not mistaken, you are calling internationally today, aren't you? Yes, I am currently in the Disneyland that is Copenhagen. Hell yeah. It does not

feel real here. It is too peaceful. Everyone gets along. It feels like a bubble about to burst because it just can't last. But it's great. Beautiful, beautiful place, beautiful place. It's fitting that you were in Europe because that's a major, major market for what we're about to talk about, right? And that is FIFA World Cup, right? Because we figured Don and I have no business talking about sports and soccer is no

exception. So it's an honor to have you on here as our guide. And I am not a serious sports fan, but I do get into the World Cup and have my whole life. And I think it's because I get sort of the geopolitical bend to it. And I think it's a, it's a great metaphor for life. Oh, yes. Life in miniature. Every, every game.

Every moral lesson I know I learned through sports. You know, you train, you practice day after day for years, after years. There's all this hard work and discipline involved. And you prepare and you prepare and you show up to the world stage. you know, you seize opportunity, you spill your guts out on the pitch, and you give it your all, and then nothing happens. It's beautiful, man. It's great.

Yeah. And that's life, right? Not even you win some, you lose some, but sometimes you don't win. You don't lose. You just walk away. That's why I love soccer. But let's just spend the next few minutes or so just to give the lay of the land on FIFA. I'm sure that many of our listeners, like me, know a little bit about FIFA and the sport and how it's this Byzantine administrative body, FIFA that is, and how this Byzantine administrative body has taken a handle of this global sport and how it's just brimming with corruption and scandal and all of that.

But I think it would be good to start as we always do with a crash course of sorts, a brief history lesson. the for the listener out there so that you have a little context. And really, we are going to focus. We're going to start our discussion in the late 90s in 1998 as a fellow by the name of SEP Blatter takes over the organization. But to start, let's go way back to the beginning of FIFA when it started in the early 20th century. It was founded in France, in Paris, France as like this body to get soccer organized.

And the World Cup, now that started in 1930 for men's soccer. Of course, there is also the Women's World Cup, which is very popular. And the United States, let me just say, holds the record, I think, for the number of championships that it has brought home. And the Women's World Cup, that started in 1991. And the World Cup, as the name suggests, this is where countries will have their national soccer. team play one another to see which nation reigns supreme. Now, FIFA today is this massive organization, this multi, multi-billion dollar organization. And it consists of these seven associations or sub, you can think of them as like sub-administrative bodies that cover different parts of the world.

For example, the one that covers North America, Central America, that's called Conca Calf, I believe. Concaf, yes, yeah. Afcon, yes, all the continental sports associations. So, yeah, there are these associations that basically cover the seven continents, and the whole thing that's FIFA is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The most perfect place, yeah, totally neutral, you know, so it makes perfect sense. Also, a beautiful country, if you've ever, if you've never been. Beautiful country.

So, yeah. So the whole thing is sort of headquartered out of Zurich. And, you know, you would guess that it is just the perfect environment for all of this scandalous corruption, all this bribery, all of this shit that is associated often with business endeavors that start out in Switzerland or that are based in Switzerland. and I think FIFA is no different. And turning to like more of the modern day situation, I think we ought to start with a guy by the name of SEP bladder. And I've been talking a little bit too much, I think, at this point. You want to maybe give us a little background on SEP? What's his deal?

Well, SEP is a froggy Swiss man who had to, uh, had to, unceremoniously step down in, what was it? Oh, 2016, I believe. Yeah, after like a series of investigations. Actually, DOJ investigations about the United States started to look into the bribery scandals that beset FIFA that were so blatant to everyone. I think when in 2010 they announced that Qatar would get the, would be able to host in 2022.

Everyone was just like, okay, you're getting way too fucking greedy with this whole fucking scam organization that you have going on. And yes, he was subsequently replaced by another Swiss man, which I'm sure we'll get into. But yes, SEP Blatter, which again, these motherfuckers have the funniest names. Yeah. Pichonian. Yeah. It's like they're out of Tom's.

Yeah. They are. And we'll get through all of them. But SEPLatter is, I think, the place to start, right? He is the president of FIFA from the late 90s up until, as you say, this scandal, this 2015 scandal that was headed and run by the DOJ, the United States Department of Justice, as well as the IRS, right? They got them like they usually get them through the tax code. And what the investigation revealed, right, was that there was this massive corruption case happening in FIFA. Focusing on, I think it was ultimately like marketing and media rights in South America.

It was about exchanging effectively bribes for figuring out who would be the next host country. I think the South African Cup was implicated in that. And it, like all of these dastardly deals, right? Like it went down to things like the branding and clothing stuff. I think Nike was implicated in doing some crazy backroom bribes, or I guess they were unnamed at the time, but it was like some clothing brand that was trying to get exclusive rights to like, I think, the Brazil's national team. So basically all of the backroom wheeling and dealing that you would expect in a down and dirty administration, that was going on. And I think SEP Blatter at the time had this reputation of kind of like our. commander-in-chief right now,

SEP bladder had this reputation up until then of sort of, you know, avoiding any sort of serious criticism. And, you know, none of these, none of the allegations would ultimately stick up until this point where he was, of course, ultimately he resigned. I don't think anything of substance happened to him, right? But all of the folks around him. And certainly it was like the folks that had kind of moved on from soccer, they were charged and many of them pled and served some time. The guy that comes to my mind is Chuck Blazer.

You know about Chuck Blazer? Yes, I'm so happy you mentioned Chuck Blazer because that Chuck Blazer is such a fucking character. And unfortunately, he would die. but if you look a picture of him, you'll understand why he died before his sentencing. But yes, Chuck Blazer was an American official who, let me look up the exact position he had within the United States.

In FIFA, yes, he had a number of different positions, right? But he was a FIFA executive committee. He was like an executive for the South America, right? For like, what was it? You said, Conchicab. He was a FIFA executive. of a committee member, but also he was the Conca Calf General Secretary for over 20 years, and he was the vice president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. So he had multiple titles throughout

the soccer world. His personal soccer fandom is curious to me. It's unclear if this guy actually personally liked soccer. And I'm glad that we've decided that we're going to call it soccer and not pretend like we call it football, because that just make my brain work a little bit more than it wants to right now. Right. He was a part of the successful bid for South Africa, so you know that there was money exchange there, but you must look at him. He looks like a more vibrant George R.R. Martin, the, what's the guy's name did the Game

of the Thrones? Yeah, George R. Martin. A very, a very, a very trolly, like, dwarf-looking character. My favorite little tidbits about this man is that. But he would, first, he had two apartments in Trump Tower in New York City, one of which was solely reserved for his cats. He would also walk around New York City with a parrot on his shoulder and feed it chicken. And I got to say, if you're going to be a corrupt, like a cartoonishly corrupt figure in the

world, you should be an eccentric and do these kinds of things. I'm so sick of the fraudsters that we have today that, what, they buy a fucking expensive watch? It's so boring. Like, please, at least be... Have a little color. Do something interesting. Exactly. Yes.

Please. Totally. I'm so glad you mentioned the cat thing because that is something that's like always comes to mind. When you look at this guy and everybody, I invite you to take a look at a picture of him, the first thing that comes to mind when I look at the guy is he seems like the kind of guy that would have a separate apartment for his cats. So it was, I think it was 2014 that it was revealed that he was a confidential informant for the FBI and the IRS. And he was, you know, secretly recording meetings for FIFA, but also for the Summer Olympics, which if you want to talk about, like, what might rival FIFA in terms of corruption, it's the fucking Olympic committee. because both of these organizations are unbelievably filthy in terms of corruption and the people who run them.

And there's like oftentimes you'll see some overlap, right? You mentioned with this Blazer guy, but the next guy we're going to talk about as we get into this is the current president of FIFA, another pincionian name, Gianni Infantino. And I can think of no better name for a big ass. baby corrupt meddling guy than in johnny johnny baby johnny baby yeah and and i think he is also tied to swiss he's also swiss yeah definitely but he's also tied to the olympics in um some way i think he's on the um somehow associated with the the olympic committee i i'm not sure but so i mean so you have johnny Infantino and that brings us to the Qatar World Cup, right? Because Gianni takes over in 2016 before Qatar, I think it was South Africa. So it was South Africa and then Brazil and then Russia and

then Qatar in terms of who was hosting. Yes. Okay, yeah, yeah. So, but I do want to focus on Qatar because I think there's a lot to unpack there. Oh, that's where it, it all gets revealed. And I mean, the investigation that they conducted using Chuck Blazers's confidential informing is what inevitably oust set bladder. And it also took down a few other characters like the Trinidad Tobago politician Jack Warner, who's another funny character. You should see his videos that he posted in defense of himself, or also when he was promising

to spill the beans on the, on the, the end. entirety of FIFA. But like the cast of characters surrounding this are so funny and so like honestly incompetent that you, you know, I mean, living in Trump America, in Trump's America. Buffoonish, yeah. Yeah, you see like, oh, no, this is, everyone's fine with this now. Yeah. And it's it's a great point because Infantino is sort of budding up with all of these despots, right? Like, he is budding up with Trump and budding up with Putin. And doing all of the, I think he got some crazy award from Vladimir Putin. He's like grand viceroy of friendship or something, order of friendship or fairness or something in Russia.

And yeah, it's a great point. And it's another like little flag on the field. We'll use an American football metaphor. But it's like another point where you can show like it's just like life, right? It's just like any other modern organization. It's just brimming with corruption in backroom deals and basically favoritism and making sure the game is played in anything but an unfair way, not only the game, but also the way the league is administered, right? Because the Qataris, I think it should not be news to anyone, were responsible for a number of human rights violations before this point. But even, you know, in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup,

there was news reports coming out about how they were relying on effectively slave labor to build out these World Cup villages and stadiums and all of that stuff to... Dick, before you go any further, I want you to check your American cultural privilege here because in Qatar, it's called Khafala, right? It's their form of cultural, historical, traditional, indentured servitude, and who are you to judge another culture, okay? That's true. That's true. I am just a lowly first-gen-American.

I have my American bias is true. You're absolutely right for pulling that card out on me. Maybe we switch to the card system rather than the flag system. Yeah, that's not even a yellow. That's just a warning. You get a handful of those before you get a yellow. So I'll just, you know, I'm just talking to a little bit, like making a little referee hand gesture, like eye contact, like chill out. All right.

I'm watching you. To your earlier point about like these guys, it's not there's, it's just stereotypical at this point, right? Like the Qatar World Cup was blatantly a cash grab, right? Like what did it cost to Qatar? He's hundreds of billions of dollars. Untold amounts of money, including athletic sponsorships for athletic celebrities. I don't know if you saw, and this would be a fantastic sound clip to put in if you have the time to edit it, but David Beckham, who was going around making these videos talking about, he's like, I love, I love to eat.

Qatar has surprised me with a wide range of great experiences you can have in just 48 hours. The people are so warm and welcoming. Qatar really is an incredible place to spend a few days. on a stopover. Well, I've just woken up in Qatar, which always makes me happy and there's so many exciting things happening. I think everyone knows how much I love food,

and the food culture is very exciting in Qatar. I'm going to meet Chef Noor. We're going to be walking around the spice market, so I'm looking forward to this one. This is what I love. You know, I love to go to spice markets, I love to go to fish markets. When I'm able to travel around,

I'm so lucky. because I go to your hole in the wall place for your real traditional local restaurant. The best. So tell me about your stories. I have to figure out my like my London accent here. I have to like calibrate there. But imagine I'm doing a very funny like London accent here, not a posh one. But he's talking about how much he loves to eat.

Like, talk to people and how much he loves tacos. And it's just like you got paid. He got paid $10 million to go to Qatar and make these promotional videos for the Qatari bid. And by the way, why is it that Beckham is always in these ads, right? Like, when was the last time Beckham was even relevant? And when he was relevant, like... I don't understand. He wasn't even that great of a player.

He wasn't. Exactly. There you go. Like, how did that happen? I think because he's like the best-looking British guy, which is like a very low bar. I mean, if you look at like the current British talisman, Henry Kane, Jesus Christ, dude, that is not a good looking person right there. And so David Beckham, before he got the typical equivalent to British twink death was like a good looking guy. He was like a celebrity.

They even had the name Bend it like Beckham. And so everyone associates, everyone who's not a real soccer fan says Bend it like Beckham. You know, if you like the sport, you would never associate the bending of the ball with Beckham. But yeah, he's managed to really entrench himself in the Western mind of soccer. Yeah, and even today, right, when you're watching the World Cup today, if you're watching it on a platform that has ads, you're seeing these ads of David Beckham, I think, in Home Depot or some shit. Like, what is going on? This guy who, I don't know, must have retired at this point, what, 10 years, 15 years ago?

Yeah, a long time ago. I had this theory that maybe it's because he, at least for a period of time, lived in Hollywood. And so, you know, we know movies aren't made in Hollywood anymore, but ads certainly are. And I think, like, they were just like, okay, who's in town? And it's always Beckham. He's also got his hands in a lot. lot of MLS soccer. He, I can't remember what,

the degree of ownership he had. Yeah. LA Galaxy and he also helped with, um, uh, inter Miami, Messi's team. Right.

Right. So he's, he's, you know, okay, so remember when, uh, the book,

Brooklyn Nets were being formed. Yeah. Uh, and they had to convince this neighborhood in Brooklyn. Like, we're like, we're going to demolish all your homes for the Barclay Center. But don't worry.

You're, your boy, J.Z. He actually, owns the Nets. So it's cool. Yeah, that means you own the net. Yeah, get a 0.01% stake in the Nets. So it was like absolutely nothing. Totally.

But by giving it this kind of authentic facade, I suppose people are willing to buy into it more. And again, it is a total mystery. The marketing magic, I suppose, how David Beckham became the face of, I guess, white soccer. Because they don't really have, I mean, Messi's white, let's be real. But, you know, as like a proper, like white person, I think that there aren't many white soccer celebs. So Beckham just kind of is fortunate in that regard. English speaking, right? English speaking, I think, is a big part because this is really all about a play to get to the U.S. market.

And let's be honest, I mean, I've seen the messy ads. And my boy, he can speak English, but that accent. Gosh. Hey, man. Bad boys? Wrong casa. Yeah, they live down. Bad boys is at the other thing.

Much of gusto. Also, we want to talk about a fucking black hole of charisma? That's messy free right there. That is God. That is, he is a fucking Android. I do want to talk shit about messy later. So we'll do that. But okay.

Yeah, definitely. We'll save some time. And actually, we could just get. into it because really what I wanted to get to at the at the at the with the Qatar World Cup is the way it ends right it's France versus Argentina and everyone to this day is like Argentina they're the goats they're so great let me tell you something about Argentina they suck right and they've sucked for a very long time right the before this 22 Cup I think the last time they won was in the 80s right and I

think they do have the record for like the second highest number of wins but that's just because they won three times or something or four times. I think they're on three or four. I know that they won in 86 with the Hand of God, which was like the proper Argentine team, the one that isn't, well, the Hand of God is,

you know, I love how we celebrate cheating effectively here. We're all cool with that. Yeah, exactly. But because of who did it and who they beat, which was fucking England. And that was in Mexico.

But the 78 World Cup where Argentina won as hosts, which I believe that may have been their first or second time but they they were at the time being led by a fascist by what was his name? Revella the Argentine general who cooed

Eva Peron or Isabel Peron and that game was maybe we can do some comparing contrasting to the current 2026 World Cup in America. Because let's not pretend like it's Mexico and Canada. You guys got a little bit of some scraps here in this 2026 World Cup.

It's the American World Cup. Let's be real. And that's America we're talking about. America. Yes, exactly. Just to close it out on 2022, the reason I wanted to bring it up. And so it's like everyone's talking about how great Argentina is. Right.

Argentina won in 2022 at the penalty shootout, right? And I think we all know when it comes down to panel these shootouts, that's effectively a coin toss. It's a great way to sports wash Qatar. If they could give the World Cup to Messi, the goat, then I think everyone would have forgotten and looked past all of the atrocities, the thousands of people that died leading up to the construction of these stadiums. And effectively they have, I will say, I think it was a very, very successful instance. of sports washing. Definitely. And this is a great point because while Argentina, the team, I will say over and over again, they suck and they've sucked for a while. I think it's undeniable

that Messi is the goat, right? He's an amazing soccer player, watching him on the field sort of dribble through, I don't know how many defenders and get to the goal. It's like watching poetry, right? Like this guy is unstoppable. And, because of that, he's developed this insane fandom. And with that fandom, of course, follows the money. And that's, I think, ultimately what it's about, right? Making sure the player that is going to generate as much revenue as possible, the player that is the most favored, the player that is the most viewed as like the best,

most honorable player, that guy is definitely going to get favored to win. and, you know, we're seeing that. We saw that in 2022, and we're seeing that today. So let's turn to... Can I give a couple more things about the great, the goat right now, Messi? Oh, sure. Sure, sure, sure, sure.

Did you know that Messi is from the same hometown in Argentina as Che Guevara? I did not. They're both born in Rosario, which is incredible to me. And again, I think... I'm so disappointed by Messi on so many levels because when you have that kind of power, like you can do no wrong and you can say whatever you want. And yet this man says nothing. However, there is famously a photo of him with a fucking Kippa on touching the wailing wall.

Damn. And I think that whenever I keep, I've been posting that a lot lately because I, I, I, uh, is he, is he Jewish? Oh, absolutely not. I think he's like, he might be fucking I, I think he's Irish actually, because actually, because that Rosario,

Che Guevara comes from Irish immigrants. And so I, yeah, yeah, and when you look at Messi, he kind of looks a little Irish. He's got that Irish skin tone. You got Alexei McAllister

on the Argentine team, and that's a fucking Irish name if I ever heard one. So, uh, yeah, he's, he's certainly not fucking indigenous. Well,

yeah, Argentines, I think by and large, right? They're white, famously, you know, the Nazis and after World War II went over there. And even before. But Maradona, Maradonna was dark, you know, and he had a fucking Che tattoo on. And, you know, he may, yes, he may have been addicted to cocaine. However, his politics fucking rocked. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was such a beautiful character, not just, it was an incredible athlete who, I think like in a more romantic way, sabotaged his ability to call himself the goat because of his drugs and just being an insane person, but also being, I think, manipulated and abused in a way that Messi has managed to avoid. But you would wish that the ghost of Maradona would come down and tell Messi, like, you can have a personality.

you can be a human being like you they're not going to censor you dude you are you're the greatest and yet he he is just a totally vacant individual I am not charmed by at all to be fair right

there could be something else going on right and now I'm referring to the stuff we're seeing on social media about how he perhaps might be an autist do you Do you buy that? Yeah, I've heard that. So here in, well, it's funny you say that because here in Copenhagen, we watched,

it was actually a day before Argentina, maybe unfairly beat Egypt. And we can talk about fairness in these sports and how I think a lot of leftists don't really understand sports and are kind of, I get a little frustrated when some people who don't watch sports try to talk about them. But that's my general elitism. but I was talking to some Danish guys and they were very happy Ronaldo lost. They were so excited.

And they said that's because Ronaldo is the antithesis of the Scandinavian way, which is a much more sort of reserved character. And they said, well, they love Messi. And I was like, well, Messi's just autistic. And they're like, yeah. And I was saying, so what you're telling me is that like Spain's Scandinavian people,

you guys are just culturally autistic and they're like yeah I think you might be on to something and I was like okay that makes sense because when you try to be friendly to Danish people here they look at you like you're psychotic yeah like they are unless they're drunk they look at human interaction

in alien ways much like parts of northern California I think are also culturally autistic I like that phrase not to take anything away from our actual autistic brothers and sisters, right? Because that's certainly, certainly a thing. You can't take that away from them.

I would never. But so, like, how do you want to get into this? Let's talk about, you want to just start with Messi and go from there? Or do you want to talk about... Let's talk about America now, I guess. America's entrance into this. Well, yes, the... country that hates soccer the most is the current host of quite possibly the most controversial

World Cup in recent memory. They have, I think, far surpassed Qatar in terms of criticism. Albeit it's been a wonderful World Cup to watch so far. Yeah, it really has. I mean, it's got me jazzed. It's a great point, right? It's in the name, right? FIFA. What is it? The Federation International Football Association is being hosted by a country that doesn't even call it football. So that's... We should call it FISA. Yeah. It says it right there.

And I think this is another one of those clear plays of like the move here was trying to bring soccer to the American market. And in a lot of ways, it is already here, right, when you think of women's soccer and you think of places like Seattle, Washington, where soccer is such a huge sport, right? The Seattle Sounders are, I would say, maybe the top, if not the top, definitely the top two sports teams of Seattle. So, you know, the move was to bring soccer to the United States, but in doing so, it's, like, you know, FIFA is still up to its same old, dirty old tricks. And it's very much like, at this point, they're just doing it out in the open, right? they're not even trying to hide it. Right.

The, uh, Trump saying he called Infantino to personally request the overturning of Balogun's red card against Bosnia, um, goes against a lot of rules. Um, of course, it's, it's so, it's so funny because this is your typical Trumpian needing, absolutely needing to take credit for things because if that was in fact true that he did that. Yes, you're not supposed to do that. That goes against, I can't remember which articles like 5 and 19 in the FIFA convention or whatever, not that they really actually give a shit about the rules. But the fact that he could have not said anything, right, and it would have been fine.

I think there are instances, perhaps not in international soccer, to the degree that there are in leagues where they will request a review of a card, typically red cards and they will occasionally examine them further and overturn it and say okay actually this wasn't a red card and they will

so that player isn't punished later on and that so it's not unheard of but the way that Trump went about it which was to you know I got it done yeah insinuate that insinuate that it was like

his thing. And Balagan's card, it was, it's not like it was like completely removed off his record, right? It's like, the sentence was suspended for a year. And if he messes up again, it'll get fully reinstated. Oh, that's very, yes, yes, that that's real justice right there. Yeah, the funny thing was it wasn't even particularly violent. That was one of those tackles that's kind of borderline that I think that var the introduction of the video assisted review has changed because when you slow things down they look a lot worse than they did in real life so yeah it was a it was one of those borderline red cards yeah well the that the valagan situation that reminds me of the uh var review of messy's

very similar challenge in the Algeria game, right? Where it's, I think, effectively the same sort of thing happened. And it was that challenge on, what's his name, Aisa. And the reps were like, that's fine. You know, even after VAR review or something, they were like, that's fine. And so this is just like another point to like the, maybe a little bit of favoritism on Messi and Argentina. Which also, Messi would get not in FIFA, in La Liga, in the French League, in the MLS.

Messi has only ever gotten favorable treatment as a superstar, which is, so, and we can talk about, like, how, like, only interpreting these things through a geopolitical lens and kind of how, like, you're, it's like, oh, wow, you're just now realizing that sports are unfair. totally totally they all they've always been unfair so yeah i think that that's uh interesting yeah because you could say like i could say boxing is rigged and no one would bat and i could point to like situations where major league baseball has been found to be rigged and no one bats an eye most recently in the NBA you have uh literally like refs in the pocket of mobsters and for people to focus solely on FIFA, I think, is a little bit naive for sure. But I think for a lot of folks, this is there really one of the only times in their lives where they're really getting exposure to sports and major sports administration, right? And like the money behind it all and

all of that. But let's, but let's focus on, let's focus on, uh, VAR or VAR or video assisted review because as are long, time listeners will know I am an Iranian American and I am a big fan of the Iranian men's soccer team. The most handsome team. I have such a chip on my shoulder against Var, right? Because anybody who saw that game against Egypt and mad props to Egypt, I think the Egypt fans, they were some of the most honorable and loving fans. They're not these like soccer hooligans that you might see in other fan bases. They're just great, great, great fans. Egypt's got a great fan base. But I got to say that VAR call, we got robbed. We got robbed. And it made me, after that game,

it really made me think, like, what has happened to this game where before VAR, before VAR, Let's talk about the spirit of soccer because I really love this part about it, right? It's not so, I hate to say it this way, but soccer in a lot of ways, officiating soccer, it's vibes based in a lot of ways, right? Like they'll have this thing like stoppage time, right? And they'll say, okay, we'll give them seven minutes. But if a player's making a good run, they're going to let the play go, right? They're not going to just stop at seven minutes. They're going to let it go.

Yes, it's not so quantitative as. American football and basketball where, you know, they'll review it to see if like a fingernail and the shot clock are touching each other, which I find like, yeah, I don't really care for forensically analyzing sports. Right. And the other point of it is like if it wasn't caught by the naked eye on the pitch, what's the point, right? Like if the, for instance, with the Iran Egypt game, if the goal went through and no one really caught it. and said anything was wrong. What's the point of having this machine after the fact,

do this forensic analysis to say, oh, okay, actually this guy's foot was in front of this guy's foot, and so therefore it's off-sized because there's like a one centimeter difference between the striker's foot and the defender's foot. And so because the striker was ahead of the defender by this one centimeter difference, we're going to take that goal away,

which we let pass through like a minute ago when, you know, to the Iranian fans jubilation and they thought that they had made their way through to the round of 32 and all of that. So what has happened to the sport? It is designed explicitly. It's what they've done. It's explicitly to kill the human spirit because it, yes, when you celebrate, I got the jubilation, The unbridled joy of the Iranian players and the Iranian people when it's just like, oh, my God, we're going through, only for that to be rescinded is, that's like worse somehow. Yes.

Oh, totally. Yeah. It's the level of cruelty to take it back. It's like, yeah, it's like telling the love of your life, this person you've loved forever, you go, I love you. and they say, I love you too. And then like, wait, actually I didn't mean that. Psych.

Yeah. Psych. Yeah. That's so devastating. So. Yeah. I love you too, but. But as a friend.

Yeah. Totally. That's what that is. And so, yeah, I don't know. What VAR has not removed that level of scrutiny that we had before such a existed where you would like like I think the hand of God is a great example of this had var existed there would be no hand of God they would have obviously had to overturn that and now I know England fans are still aggrieved by it and it was pretty blatant and it should have been

caught but it wasn't at the time and it still just made for a great story um I guess when they tried to implement var it was like in the pursuit of fairness right which is Also, what they've attempted to do in the Olympics, at least, with their anti-doping policies. Everything is about fairness. It must be fair. And I, but the sports aren't fair. They're inherently unfair. That's the kind of the whole point of it.

That's the human part of it. Listen, if you want to just watch like the large Hadron Collider be hyper-accurate, go ahead, dude. Like, that's, that's not sports. Sports is like human, it's imperfect. And so that they've added this whole new technocratic element to it. It slows things down. It's fucking stupid. And also, it's more corrupt because they're using these black boxes of technology and these

CGI representations that aren't real, right? Like, why can't they just making it up? Right. Yes. Exactly. How do you know? How can you know? And it's not the, even athletes, athletes complain about it all the time.

time. And I think most famously, I want to say this is like 2013 when the tennis started implementing Hawkeye, which was like, I think the first form of computer VAR systems in sports, Roger Federer, another Swiss person, one of the few good Swiss people, I'd say. He was complaining. He was saying personally, he's like, I like, I know what happened. I know how this, the physics of a tennis ball works. And that's, and he was saying he, like he thinks that they're actually quite inaccurate.

Totally. And what is this? The VAR for soccer, it's like three guys watching a video in an, in another room, right? It's like three perverts in front of the lap, on their laptops.

Yeah. Yeah. What are they doing? Some cop on flot, using flock to masturbate. Yeah. And it, it is sickening to see sort of the spirit of the sport be taken out.

Because no matter what happens. at this point me as a iran fan any time in the future that there is a goal scored i have to wait a beat before i celebrate because i have to make sure that the play doesn't get reviewed and overturned and you know i have no faith in the system in this day and age when you have a country like iran that is no doubt a pariah state on the world stage let alone in this like monster of a administration known as FIFA that is like all about the money and they can't make any money off of a team like Iran for obvious reasons right sanctions and all of the loose IP laws that exist in Iran and all of that so it's like why am I even going to watch the sport if I know that the

that the administrators have the the deck stacked against against my team. Do you want to know why? I'll tell you why. Yeah, tell me why. Because you guys could have won. You could have won. It was, and this is where I got in a little bit of trouble with some people when I, some

group chats I'm in where they were posting stuff about like the robbery of the Iranian team. And I'm just like, first of all, they didn't like understand the off sides rules. They were pointing to that one Iranian player in the upper right hand corner thinking that that person didn't qualify as the for the off sides rule. And I was like, yeah, sorry, buddy. That's, you know, I, when I was younger, I mean, let me see, yes, it's, it's the second to last person. It's not the goalie. Right.

Second and last person in that situation, the goalie was up in front, right? Yes. And so I don't know if anyone's done, like, I know that like some Iranian scientist is doing some like, like, nuclear powered forensic analysis of it. to prove that in fact it was stolen. But they were, like you said, like centimeters away from qualifying. And so I... Yeah, it's a difference between like a size 11 and a size 10 shoe or something, right?

Like if you had a smaller foot, you'd be good. And so I guess I see a kind of dumerism about it. I think the beauty of FIFA and why we continue to watch it, in spite of the fact that we know that it's corrupt, is that because like because there's still a chance. Like you can still do it. And that's what happened last night with Argentina and Egypt where I know there's a lot of controversy there with two fouls, one that led to a disallowed Egypt goal, which was beautiful.

Oh my God. That's the other thing is like to say that sorry this doesn't count is just a travesty. It's an act against humanity. And then the other one where Salah was foul. and possibly for a penalty, and they didn't even bother looking at it, and Argentina went down and scored. Yeah. The truth is, is that, like, Egypt should have won that game, and not through any sort of, like, malfeasance on the part of FIFA or the referees.

Like, it was in their hands, and they let it slip. And so... Totally. Totally. That's true. Taking away all of the sort of all the bullshit, they were up to zero. Yes. And they just bungled.

Yeah. And they just bungled it. They bungled it. They choked. Whatever you want to call it. Such a joke. It's so unfortunate. And that, again, this is like life, right?

Like, everything could be working in your favor. And then you just let it slip through your hands for some reason, whether it's some cosmic reason, whether it's your own wrongdoing, whatever. I absolutely, I agree with you. I was hoping that Egypt would win just so that I, as an Iranian men's soccer fan, I could say, you know, who Egypt didn't beat? Iran. because my team remains undefeated. Especially when it comes to being good looking. Truly the most handsome team in the entire World Cup are the Iranian men.

And that's why they couldn't go through because they couldn't have American women and men seeing just how beautiful the Iranian people are. Too sexy, too sexy. Maybe I should do something about this. Oh, no. Too sexy, please don't do it. No, my friend, too sexy! But I must.

Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. And so the video-assisted review that's happening in tennis, it's happening in other sports too, right? Or some sort of technology replacing what would otherwise be human judgment. That is happening. Maybe you want to talk a little on if you have anything? So baseball, because of its like curmudgeonly, love of tradition has still, I think you can, you can call, like this happens in basketball too

where you, if you feel like the referee of their umpire made a mistake, you can call a timeout and you're offered a certain amount of challenges. So in the NBA, I think each, each coach is given three challenges per half. And now they have like new assistant coaches. They've added more administrators to basketball team is great. And their job is solely to say, yes, challenge this play or not and then the refs will look at everything in slow-mo so that you only get three and i don't know how many you get in baseball but i think it's limited as well so you can't challenge every pitch that's called the strike or something like that and um you know they're still imperfect of course but i will say they're a little bit more transparent than not a little bit more significantly more transparent

than the FIFA var thing because of the way that they use cgi and the way that the way that the lines work and all this stuff. So it is creeping into other sports, although I think some are more resistant to it than others. And for whatever reason, people have just kind of resigned to allow VAR to exist in soccer. Well, largely because, like, FIFA will promote this as, like, one of its moves to bring fairness to the game, right? To bring sportsmanship and friendship to the game, right?

And what are some of the other ones? Like, man. Oh, my favorite one. Okay. So when I'm watching soccer, I'm always astounded. When the game starts, you have both teams come out onto the pitch and they have children with them. I think you know the reason for this, but I just want to say it out loud because it's hilarious, right? It's a little weird for the unsuspecting viewer, it's like, okay, well, I guess that's sweet.

They have kids around. That's cool. And this is like them trying to bring up the next generation of soccer players. But then you never see those children again. You just don't see where they take those children afterwards. Yeah, totally. But you peel the onion, you peel the layers back. And it's like actually the kids are there at their body armor, right,

to make sure that the players don't fight each other. Yeah, a little Elon Musk's son. Yeah, literal human shields. Yeah, so I mean, that's where we are with the state of play with the World Cup. I mean, I don't know if you, I do want to get your thoughts of where we are now and where we are going with this tournament. But I don't know if you have anything else you want to say about this idea of relinquishing our decision-making power to the, as you say, like black boxes, right? to these people watching screens in another room and deciding, you know, generating effectively like a cartoon to tell you what really happened, right?

Yeah, I mean, there are coaches, there are players who are opposed to this. And they're saying this like what's, the funny thing is, is that it's so obviously ineffective on top of that. They actually tend to make even more mistakes with VAR than they had previously, especially because now it's under like a different kind of scrutiny. And it, I think it has this kind of blowback to it, these unintended consequences to people thinking about the game differently and technology in such a way where I think everyone's getting more frustrated with it instead of being like,

oh, it's better now actually. You know, and I think that that's actually people's instinctive response to these technological developments. I mean, we all remember the flock ring camera commercial fiasco at the Super Bowl. Do you remember that one? Yeah. Pets are family. But every year, 10 million go missing. And the way we look for them hasn't changed in years.

Until now. One post of a dog's photo in the ring app starts outdoor cameras looking for a match. Search party from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs. Since launch, more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family. Be a hero in your neighborhood with search party. available to everyone for free right now join the neighborhood at ring where they're like oh we'll help we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna hack into your cameras to find someone's fucking dumbass golden retriever and everyone and then i think amazon

canceled that contract because the backlash was so severe so i think that the the good thing about it is like showing people what it is and then they're like this sucks i don't like this at all this is like i try to be optimistic and find the silver lining and all these things and i think that unlike the successful sports washing of the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, what we're experiencing in the United States is the exact opposite of sports washing. This is sports dirtying. I think this is actually making it look way worse. It's having the exact opposite effect.

Hell yeah. As if people didn't hate America. Hell yeah. It's making America and FIFA look really, really, really bad. Right, right. well wait a minute Isaac what about all those Europeans coming over and trying

our delicious food and all those videos I'm seeing of Europeans packing ranch dressing on their way back to their home country you know I was talking to Kiran of Cornishpati about this recently and he was saying this is actually a sign of American decline you know 10 years ago

you Americans didn't care about other people's food or us liking your food all of a sudden I'm seeing all this shit about how great your ranch is. Like this is how desperate Americans are getting. So I think it's another sign that we're truly entering the end of the American century. Or it's gone. We're deep in the century humiliation now.

Yeah, I love that. And it's true, right? And of all the things, like, it sort of seems to me like a little convenient that everybody's coming back with ranch of all things as their thing, as their takeaway, is like the food to take back. they already have that here I don't know what they're even talking about oh some some different kind of mayonnaise they have like a million kinds of mayonnaise in Europe they love that shit here

I don't know what they're talking about they put that shit on everything it's true and but not to take away to your point right it's it's true like this World Cup I think definitely has the flavor or feel of most people watching at least most people that I'm speaking with in my circles,

they're kind of disgusted with what's happening and how things are playing out. Yeah, and so I just hope we don't forget. I don't know. I'm trying to think of the worst case scenario. Maybe the worst case scenario would be messy winning again, in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely.

The US is already out. Oh, England, we don't want England to win. At this point, I think France winning is also okay just because of how much it pisses off the far right in France. And, you know, even Spain, Spain winning with Yamin Lamal. Yeah, yeah. At Lamin Amal.

With his unabashed support of Palestine. Totally. It can be its own little minor victory in it. So, you know, yeah, I guess what I get upset about when people watch this stuff and they say, oh, it's all corrupt. It's all pre-written. It is not. That is what makes it fun to watch. It is, like, to quote Lawrence of Arabia, it nothing is written.

And I think nothing is more hopeful than sports because anybody can win. And that's also what makes soccer one of the best sports to watch, in my opinion, is just because of how these, these, it's, it's, you're trying to control this chaos, right? And these, the ball deflects in, like, inexplicable ways. It's like, it's like, and it's such a grind, you know? With American football, you got, what, a play that lasts, I don't know, a matter of seconds. With basketball, it's such a small space, right? And the people are grind.

I would say basketball is probably the closest thing to soccer in terms of just the grind. Right. But with soccer, you are, it's as if you have a basketball court that's like 10 times the size, right? Or 15 times the size. It's huge. It's huge. And these guys are just running. for 90 minutes.

Just nonstop at it, sometimes longer. And it's all about finding that one breaking point, that one moment where you can shoot your shot effectively. Yeah. And it's, it's, soccer is like good sex. Like when they finally score, it's an orgasm. It's like a toe curling orgasm when someone finally scores. And so like, there's very few sports where I will literally like jump out of my seat. and that's in soccer and nobody scripted that shit that's real that's real life right there

and so i think we should i think that's why fiffa will still can get can do it can be the most incompetent fucking scummy fraudsters and we'll still be like all right well it's still pretty good yeah well at the end of the day right it's like what we got right it's not going anywhere it's been so normalized at this point what we've been talking about for the last hour this the corruption and all that stuff. And I agree with you that it's not staged in any way. It's not like it's predetermined who will be the champion this year. But I think along the way, as we've talked about in this last hour, it's like there are certain things that are done to help certain teams or players. Absolutely. And not to say that those are going to be like the deciding factor,

but it helps, you know, it goes into the mix and it doesn't hurt that they get those sort of No, and that's not new. I mean, Mussolini made sure Italy won in 1934 when they, when they hosted the World Cup. Same thing happened in 1978 with Argentina. But in spite of Trump putting his fat fucking fingers on the scale, in the United States still sucked. They couldn't beat Belgium, which, by the way, not a good team. You're kidding.

Getting fucking whooped by Belgium is pretty embarrassing. So no amount of cheating. You know who didn't get, you know, you know who didn't get whipped by Belgium? Iran. The Iranian men's team. I see. So actually you guys won. Yeah.

I mean, look, but this is the Iranian way of playing soccer, right? It's like, it's actually a very Iranian mentality, right? It's like, if we can't win, ain't nobody winning. We're going to go the 90 minutes and no one's going to score. Call that the straight of Hormuz tactic. Right, exactly. That's exactly right. We're heading into the hour. I do want to get some last final thoughts from you. So we're now in the round of eight.

And I want to, so up until yesterday, and I should say we're recording this on Wednesday, July 8th, up until yesterday, my dream was that we would get an Egypt-Morocco matchup. And I knew that it was highly unlikely, but for just... just a brief few minutes there yesterday. I thought it was maybe possible still. It's obviously not possible today. But you still have two Muslim teams playing against each other, Morocco and France. That's true.

Although the French would obviously disagree with that. I'm not fool, okay? Jeanne foo. I throw it to you, Isaac. I pass the ball. Who would you like to see in the final? I think it's pretty obvious. I think I would say the best team right now

if you're looking at just the fundamentals and just from a technical and clinical perspective and maybe you will or won't agree, but I think that's France. Yeah, absolutely. But so, but I want to just hear from you. Who would you like to see in the finals and who do you think is going to take it?

I mean, obviously all my preferred teams are gone now. I'm a perennial underdogger. You know, I always want the, the underdog. win and I guess like now that's what is that fucking Switzerland is it Norway are they are those the two underdog teams Belgium yeah no thank you I guess like if I had to pick one right now I guess France but even though they're not the underdogs that's kind of tough for me but it would be fun to see France go in Norway go against each other you know the two the two consider the two best players in the world right now with Mbapapé and Holland watching them face off in a final

would make for a good story and then you know I would probably want France to win but again listen if I will say I will say Spain should win so long as Yamal holds up the the Palestinian flag afterwards that would make it all yeah and I think he's the only one who has the ball to do it so And the off chance that he might do that, I'm rooting for Spain. That's a great point. That would be a beautiful site to see. Oh, amazing. And one final question for you, when you watch the game, the great game, do you do so on Telebundo?

Or do you watch it in an English language? Well, because I've been in Europe, I've been watching it in Irish. and currently in Danish. And they don't have commercials during the quote unquote hydration breaks. So that's been very nice. But I will say

I can't bear to watch soccer being announced by someone with an American accent. It has to be English. The English, as much as I hate them, great, great soccer announcers. Yeah, I love listening to it in with the British or Irish or even the Aussies, I think, hearing them do the commentary.

That's amazing. I do love a nice Spanish language soccer game as well. I have watched the Mexico team play in Azteca. I haven't. I didn't go to the game in this cup, but I mean, that's a whole other level, man, a whole another level. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Cor lasso.

Right. And whereas whereas like the most dramatic like the most dramatic thing will happen and then the English the English commentator will just be like oh so dramatic and that's it or like it'll be like a really high key emotional moment and they'll be like

the emotion and that's it like there's no there's no real soul but I do love a great a great British commentator well brother Isaac I don't want to to take up too much more of your time on behalf of Don, who could not make it. I will say,

thank you so much for joining us for this chat. Do you have any final thoughts you want to throw in there? No, just that sports are great. Don't be a nerd. Enjoy it. And thank you for thinking I'm some kind of sports expert. Appreciate it. Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, you are welcome to be our sports correspondent here. I'll run that by Don and maybe we'll just have you do this on the regular. Many of our listeners might know that actually your program was the first to have Don and I on as guests. So I just wanted to say thank you very much for having that faith in us. Yeah, now you guys are way more successful than I am and I'm not seething about it at all. Well, that's actually a great point. Where can people, where can people find you, Isaac?

Well, Dick, thanks for mentioning. Yeah, I'm Coexist Inc. Over at Patreon, Instagram, Twitter, Subsdack, all that good stuff. Yeah, I'm hemorrhaging subscribers at the moment because I've been traveling and not really keeping up with things. And I also say things that make people mad at me. But, yeah, I got a lot of fun stuff coming up, like my interviews with Dan Bilzerian and Randy Fine, which will be coming up soon. Oh my God.

My favorites were the stuff you did with Dershowitz, right? Yeah. You got some interviews with him. Yeah, he'll pick up in two rings for me. I'll pick up two rings for anybody. Oh, that's the thing. If you subscribe to my podcast, I will give you Alan Dershowitz's number and a T-shirt. Nice.

Amazing. Amazing. You heard it here first, folks. Well, Isaac, thank you. Thank you. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts about the great game and in the meantime I will just say thank you very much to everyone tuning in and we'll catch you next week.

Ciao.