Pod Save the World - World Corrupt Episode 6: A Dystopian World Cup

Episode Date: November 25, 2022

Tommy and Rog discuss what has been a surreal tournament thus far, from FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s astoundingly tone-deaf first-person speech, to a crackdown on armbands, to which countries have had the courage to stand up against injustice. 

World Corrupt is brought to you by Tommy John. Raj, these are the waning days of November, just enough time for me to give one more, fall as chaos in your pants, lecture to you. You're overheating one second, you're freezing your boys the next. To be ready for anything, you need underwear that can handle everything. It's time for Tommy John underwear. I can now attest to this personally, from personal experience, because, well, I've been wearing him during every U.S. men's national team game, this tournament. I've soiled at least repairs again.

When you're wearing Tommy John underwear, you are that much more comfortable so you can do everything better, including soiling yourself. Name a problem with that underwear, and Tommy John has solved it. Well, my problem was that before Tommy John, I wasn't wearing any. Am I sharing too much? No, no, no. There you go. Problem solved. Tommy John's a breathable lightweight fabric has four times a stretch of competing brands. They come with a no-wedgy guarantee, thanks to a non-rolling waistband and legs that never ride up. Plus, they feature a horizontal quick draw-fly with over 18 million pairs sold. People love Tommy John underwear.

That's why Tommy John doesn't have customers. They have fanatics. Plus, everything's backed with Tommy John's best pair you'll ever wear or its free guarantee. Go to Tommyjohn.com slash world. Go right now for 20% off your first order. 20% off at Tommyjohn.com.com slash world. Tommyjohn.com slash world. See site for details.

Today I feel gay. today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker. One person has the courage to step forward, throw a punch back, someone else follows, like, it could get real ugly for Gianni and Petino real fast. I feel like we're in a Cold War stage of everything that's about to go down, and I've got a feeling it's about to escalate. Welcome back to World Corrupt.

This is episode six. Raj, this thing's happening, buddy. I don't know what this thing is, but is it ever happening, Thomas? It's all bloody happening. I've said this on Men and Blazers as we podcasted daily. But as we take this, we are currently on day four of the World Cup. And yet I feel like Tom Hanks about an hour and a half into Castaway. But if only I look that good still.

Fear not, my friend. I am here to be your Wilson on this very special episode of our Crooked Media and Men and Blazers mashups. A mash up that goes together like, well, FIFA and corruption, Johnny Infantino, and they'll advise uses of the first person. An American victory over England. It's coming. It's coming, I hope.

Rud, you've never sounded more like Kenny Powers. But before we dive in, this is your first time listening to World Corrupt. Welcome. We are thrilled to have you. But we would love to advise you to go back to the beginning of our audio, El Camino de Santiago. go and make sure you listen to the first five episodes. Can I say not just welcome,

but we are bloody thrilled at the response to this thing. When you make a podcast that is as curious and as bloody hard and as complicated and, I mean, emotionally complicated for Tommy because he has to work with me, which is intrinsically emotionally complicated. But it's been amazing. Your responses, your ideas, your thoughts, your suggestions, your challenges.

And if you do go back to the first five episodes, we do try and unpack exactly what a FIFA is and how that thing, the FIFA, goes so utterly bloody corrupt. Oh, so corrupt. We also spoke with some amazing, brave, brilliant human rights activists and experts about the situation faced by migrant workers in guitar. It reported 6,500 of whom have died since this tournament was awarded back in 2010. We talked with footballers about the courage it takes to speak out against injustice to use their platforms for a force of good when the system in which you're playing, as we'll discuss. All that can tell you is you just shut up and dribble.

Yeah, that's right. And ultimately, we want to figure out what we could do, what us as fans, as listeners, as sports fanatics can do to ensure that a global sporting event like this never winds up in a place like. like guitar again. But Raj, you mentioned it up top and I just wanted to go back to it briefly. What have you been up to, man? This is like your presidential election for me, your Super Bowl every day, four times a day. Like, have you slept yet? Yeah, I didn't realize how much of a human wreck I am. The World Cup is like, it's four games a day, which is unusual for this World Cup. And it doesn't tell getting up at 4 a.m. every morning. Just going on. I didn't realize how much of a wreck I was until your face popped up for the first time in a couple of weeks since I've seen you on this,

kind of Zoom thing and I almost started crying. It was just so overly emotional to see your face. And I woke up here. What you said, I do. Imagine it's probably like a month away from an election. You know, when the schedule's so compressed. And this, the thing that's weird about this is there's the football, which is just relentless, but there's also the geopolitics of it all.

You have to watch both through a split screen, which means covering it is like a spigot. an out of control autocratically tinged spigot. And we are, we're playing show. We're going to cross America, doing live shows from C to Shining C. We're recording us, you know, so many bloody podcasts. I mean, too many podcasts, probably. We're doing live game twitches this Friday, England, USA with Matthew McConaughey. And I'm not a lie, it feels physically and mentally.

Like, I feel like, gosh, surely we've reached the semifinals. But my wife left this morning. She went away with the kids for Thanksgiving. The worst part for me was when the dog sitter came to pick up my dog. That really broke me. And I now, Tommy, I now feel like I'm just married to the World Cup. I'm sorry, buddy. Well, listen, I think, like, as a fan, as a listener, we're all grateful to you and the men

and Blazers team for bringing this whole thing home for us. I feel like you're midwifing the World Cup to the nation right now. And we love you for it. And sleep at a second. I keep telling us how sleep is for January, Tommy. And I'm so happy to see you both because it's you, Tommy, a force of joy in my life. But so much has happened since we did speak,

some of which we hope would happen, a lot of which we could never have predicted. There's been moments, I should say, of true poetic wonder. And there's been thumping bass notes of human darkness, relentless bass notes. And it's happening, Tommy. This World Cup in Qatar, that this surreal soulless World Cup, it is happening.

And there are, I should say, before we get into this, there have been fleeting moments of global connectivity that do make your heart sing and make me, even someone who does believe he's dead inside, does make me briefly, fleetingly feel alive. But we need to break down so much of the complex crap that has occurred. And I've honestly ate to be with you and take me. this, so let's do it. All right, buddy. Well, so one thing like you said earlier, I'm really proud of, is that people are really paying attention, and they care about the human rights considerations

that we're talking about. And this podcast that we've been doing has traveled very far. I literally did an Australian radio interview an hour ago. I did not think that was going to happen in this context. But also, Roger, apparently we got under the Qatari government skin and on their radar screen, which I'll consider a small measure of success, but I don't love it. It's a touch on nerving. I've really got such a joyous text for me, Tommy. Qatar, clap back at us. You're kind of in your element. Yeah, I am.

I'm kind of a shit-talker, though. These guys play for keeps. So the backstory, just real quick, is Raj and I wrote this op-ed for CNN about all the reasons why the 2022 World Cup is a mess. I won't summarize that here. You guys listen to the series. Qatar's ambassador to the United States penned a response to us. In it, he said things like the World Cup is a chance to, quote,

alleviate misconceptions and prejudice not only against Qatar but about Arab and Muslim culture as a whole, end quote, said there have been numerous misleading public campaigns attempting to disparage this World Cup. The op-ed generally bristled at critics, said that guitar was facing criticism that was unfair, that singled them out in ways that other host countries have not been singled out. Basically, Roger was defensive. It was what-aboutism. And it suggested that criticism of guitar critics of Qatar like us are a essentially biased or racist towards Arab people or Muslims. And so, listen, my response to that is I'm sick of these snowflake liberal autocrats, buddy, you know? Unbelievable. Talk about like ducking the whole issue. Yeah, it was a, it was an op-ed that kind of just, it just fizzled. There's a national anthem, which I love in the World Cup, the Japanese national anthem.

It's just so harmonious and soothing. But it also just seems to stop. up in the middle out of nowhere. And that op-ed, it just kind of began and then ended without actually making the point. And I got a text from Tommy telling me, buddy, maybe you should start two-factor authenticating all your accounts, which is exactly what I needed to have in my life, Tom. Yeah. The timing is not my strong suit. There was a British investigation, however, that found that hackers targeted critics of the World Cup and had been doing so since 2019, there were over 100 targets, Michelle Plotini included.

I can imagine someone somewhere is flicking through my photographs of my recent holiday at the Jersey Shore as we speak and God bless them, you're welcome to them. Yeah, you're going to find a lot of dog photos on my phone. One of the more surprising stories, news stories from the past few weeks, though, Raj, is that disgraced former FIFA president's set bladder has found religion and now says that giving Qatar the World Cup was a mistake. I guess the roads that Damascus goes through Doha, Raj. Too little too late, my man.

However, I did not notice that Cep included, he didn't mention human rights as part of the problem. Here's the quote I saw about Qatar, quote, it's too small of a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for it. Blatter goes on to say that it should have gone Russia, 2018, the United States, 2022, to bring together, you know, historic rivals. from the Cold War. Boy, Sepp, if only there had been a way to know how big or small Qatar was before the ceremony. Very impressive stuff here.

What did you make of this confessional? Yeah, I'm just finding my mind when you said, Seth Blatter has found religion. I was like trying to work out what religion must that actually be and is it Satanism? I mean, the set blatter moment, what did I feel about that? I probably fail about that, the same as you do when you watch like Bill Barr or George. John Kelly have a belated moment that feels like a sudden burst of lucidity about the past couple of years, but you can't help but scream out loud. And Setblatter gave this interview to a Swiss newspaper. Why did this come so many years too late? And you kind of feel it must just be about legacy burnishing or an attempt to inject quotes into the public record for reasons of. of historical legacy.

But you also kind of like, why now? And as you say, not 12 years ago, set bladder when you had agency, more than agency, when you had leadership, when you had responsibility. And look, I did find this detail fascinating when he also took pains to say that he wanted to validate the story about that meeting at the French presidential palace a week before the December 2010 vote where the Qatari Crown Prince, now the Amir sat with Michelle Plotini,

the French representative to FIFA and the French president, Sarkozy, and they discussed changing the French vote and in a completely separate, unconnected conversation, talks about Qatar buying fighter jets from the French worth $14.6 billion. And you got a sense of exactly how this was done, not just with bribery and manila envelopes.

It's filled with cash, but bribery at an epic geopolitical scale. But it was painful. I mean, why do men, and it is always men, why do they years later give these suddenly candid, complete U-turn interviews in your realm? It did seem like Sep deep down is mostly angry that the new FIFA president Gianni and Ventino

doesn't call him or isn't nice to him. It did seem like there was just a lot of bitterness there, and he was excited to rain on his parade right before the big event. Yeah, I mean, And that was exactly what the hack job was time to do. And it was hard for me to hear that interview with the same lips that said shortly after Qatar was very... The set letter was a man who very quickly gave a press conference where he said, Qatar will be the host and nothing about this award can be revoked.

He was that man. And you can't, you don't get a do-over on this kind of thing. The Qatar World Cup was happening. And as you said, this went down right before the opening ceremony. And Tommy, that opening ceremony, it was like a fever dream. Took place, I should note, only after celebrity, after celebrity announced that they'd refuse to take part from Shakira to Dewe Lepa to Rod Stewart. And when I read that list, I was like, oh, my God, that opening ceremony production team, they cast a wide net there tastewise, Tommy. He really did.

He really did. Well, Shakira won't do it. Who's next on all this? Stuart. Is Rod Stewart? Can we exhume Rod Stewart? But all of them were like, nope, not doing this. And by the way, this ceremony, which remember, 100 days before kickoff, guitar actually moved the opening ceremony by 24 hours so the Amir could actually have some fireworks.

And so crazy. This thing was going to happen. And so we wondered, we tuned in aghast and were like, who would perform? Who would be the main attraction? And Thomas, who did perform? It was Freeman! It was Morgan bloody Freeman!

They got the guy who played Nelson Mandela! When we had a seven-minute running joke about Morgan Freeman, but I thought to myself, this might be overkill. And then all of a sudden, nope, delivered for us here. Yeah, we're this to the current affairs show, Tommy. We know what we're doing here. We've got our finger on the pulse of geopolitical culture. Morgan Freeman walked out in Qatar

before the eyes of the world told the crowd, we gather here as one big tribe, and earth is the tent we all live in. I mean, chaos is a ladder. I don't know, but he delivered it in the way only Morgan Freeman can.

And as you know, dear listeners from episode two of World Corrupt, Morgan Freeman was the face of the failed United States bid to host this very 2020 World Cup. You remember, he was the man who dropped his script in the middle of his presentation for the United States, completely lost his place.

And here's my question for you, Thomas. Was hiring him unleashing the Freeman, unleashed the gimp? Was hiring him? Was it just next-level geopolitical trolling by Qatar? Not only did we win the bid you wanted, but we took Freeman from your cold dead hands too. Red from the Shawshank Redemption works for us now.

That is brilliant and conniving and evil, and I almost have to respect it. I had not thought of that, that's really good. Good for them. Good for the Emir. Yeah, I mean, I did think about that as a possibility. And I realized that if there was a possibility, Bill Clinton probably would have walked out for the opening ceremony.

I mean, he was too busy getting crypto and the Bahamas were doing whatever he's been doing. Yeah, God bless. But hear me out here. What I realized if I was a betting man, I think they may have played the long, long game on this one, Thomas. Maybe Freeman was always on their payroll. And that's why he dropped the script in the first. like double agent yeah damn it

freeman you crafty pass I mean he's an actor of course he could pull it off wheels have been wheels and I gotta say and we should discuss this for one moment the opening ceremony

was even more eerie because Fox the broadcaster the rights holder have made the the slightly controversial decision which they announced before the tournament

to focus purely on the issues on the field of play they announced that they wouldn't address anything other than football because, well, Fox.

And really, it turns out they are sponsored by Qatar Airways, who actually paid for the Fox set to be in Doha instead of Los Angeles. So like compared to NBC when they covered the Beijing Olympics, their outside analyst was a Yale professor of East Asian Studies. And Fox's expert was Mr. Q, a social influencer who happens to be the founder of the website, I love guitar. And it's, yes.

Tommy. Tommy, this is, this is funny. But it's, it's really, it's really complicated. As dark.

We're watching, like, we're watching Lallis, Alexi Lallis, go do a lot of June bugging in the desert telling everyone they should come to guitar. We have a lot of guitar tourist board

infomercials. I mean, this, when the, when this, this, opening ceremony finished, the Fox House shouted, oh, if that wasn't an opening ceremony that will be remembered for generations, that was amazing. This is complicated, Tommy. That veers towards

how North Korea covers events, isn't it? Yeah, that's troubling. I mean, listen, I remember the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, which was extraordinary and I think was something that was seen all around the world and rewatched and watched again because of the intricacy and how impressive it was to pull it off. But that was because they practiced really hard, not because they paid off an influencer to come do the commentary. I mean, that's a little, that's a black eye for our friends over at Fox. I hate to say it. Maybe we'll get Mr. Q on episode seven of World Corrupt. Always Welcome. But you compare that, by the way, to the BBC who broadcast the opening days proceedings in Britain.

And they did it like this. They decided not to show the actual opening ceremony. Instead, they had their broadcaster, Gary Linneker, who think of him as kind of like English, Tony Romo, former footballing legend turned quasi-national institution. And he greeted the nation. Ever since FIFA chose Qatar back in 2010, the smallest nation to have hosted football's greatest competition

has faced some big questions. from accusations of corruption in the bidding process to the treatment of migrant workers who built the stadiums where many lost their lives. Homosexuality is illegal here. Women's rights and freedom of expression are in the spotlight. Also, the decision six years ago to switch the World Cup from summer to winter.

Against that backdrop, there's a tournament to be played, one that will be watched and enjoyed around the world. stick to football, say, FIFA. Well, we will for a couple of minutes at least. And then led a panel discussion of them. I actually posted the introduction on Twitter. They've now got a couple of million views. And told me that, that, when I heard it, when I saw it,

when I watched it, I was like, my God, that, that's how this World Cup should be contextualized. I mean, it was a sober, concise, to the point, summary of all the challenges with this World Cup. They didn't hide. They didn't gloss over it with happy talk and silly, you know, banal chit-chat. They got right into it. And, you know, credit to the BBC.

This is an opening ceremony that will be remembered for generations. Another aspect of the opening day, Jolie Infantino is everywhere, Tommy. Man, that guy is everywhere. And he's always acting awful. Before we get into his many antics, and there's too many chapters of the Infantino story here. Can you give listeners just a quick 101? about who Gianni and Fentino is. Are you talking about the current president of FIFA,

the gentleman who succeeded? Set Blatter back in 2016, another Swiss Gen, one of the odds, who looks like he came to FIFA. Essentially, if you've not seen who he is, just shut your eyes and imagine the character that has run Spector in seven Bond films over the past two decades.

He's bald. He emanates a sort of just greasy banality of evil. he's toothy, he just needs a cat on the lap and the head back cackle opportunity and he criming. And he's actually moved his family over to Qatar. This is so except Blatter blurted out in the interview.

Why has he moved this family to guitar? We don't know. His kids are enrolled in Qatari schools and even Blatter. When even Blatter says, this is bloody weird and not normal. That's kind of like, that is in the nurse.

That's like Ivan the terrible being like, yep, Vlad the Impaler. He was bad. And in the run up to the table, tournament. Your man Johnny Infantino, he had the chutzpah, I think that's a Swiss word, to send a letter to all of the players, all of the athletes coming to the World Cup in which he said, we know football doesn't live in a vacuum.

We're equally aware there are many challenges and difficulties about political nature all around the world, but please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists. stick to football, which was really a stunning moment. I'd say not well received from the players I've spoken to. But this is an organisation, listeners, FIFA, which has spent much of the last 20 years boasting how football can change the world. If you just pause a podcast, Google, FIFA, football, change world,

and you will just get hilarious. Just like, I mean, essentially, you'd think it was Nelson Mandela at FIFA, because FIFA has thought it's Nelson Mandela. And then he followed this up, almost immediately, by going to sit down. I can't even understand this. I was so excited to speak to you, someone who will understand this.

He then sat down with the G20 and demanded a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Yeah, so I agree with your take on the letter. It seemed to lay out his cowardice in black and white and then piss off everyone who received it and piss off all the human rights groups. So I'm not sure that was a big win for Gianni. That may have been Johnny's aim.

Let's be careful. All the things you've named. You've just suddenly made sense to me of this thing for the first time. But why would the G20 have that bloke addressed him in the first place? Yeah, so Gianni and Vatito goes to the G20, which is a meeting of the world's largest economies. They gather together. They work on major issues. You know, this year I think the focus was Ukraine.

And while there, Gianni and Vintino, he addressed these world leaders and he made this impassioned plea for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine during the World Cup. And here's a quote, to your point earlier, Raj. He said, quote, football is a force for good. We are not naive to believe that football can solve the world's problems. We know that our main focus as a sports organization is and should be sports. But because football unites the world, this particular FIFA World Cup, with five billion people watching it, can be a trigger for a positive gesture for a sign or a message of hope.

End quote, Raj, he's so close to getting it. He's so close to getting it. Why does Johnny get to go to the G20 and talk about politics and the players can't wear an armband? Well, I think maybe to defend Johnny, I'm not sure if this is the right there. I think he went on the Tuesday, and Tuesday is the day of the week when football can be about change.

He wrote the letter on a Thursday in defense of him. But like, why would the G20 have him? This is a national geopolitical operation and why they'd let the football guy in who has no interest in change or any of this stuff was befuddling, also befuddling, if we're going to be candid, Infantino became very close with Vladimir Putin during the 2018 World Cup,

which was hosted across Russia. Yes, he did. He received the Medal of Freedom from Vladimir Putin after boasting that football had showed a face of Russia to the world that was really rather wonderful. And even with everything that has occurred, over the past year of the most sordid and grotesque nature, he has refused under repeat demands from the media

to return that Medal of Freedom. So the whole thing was contorted and dark to the World Cup, Jump Cup, from G20, opening ceremony, Jean-I Infantino, Tommy, sitting between the Emir of Qatar, and do you know who sat on his left-hand side? Muhammad bin Salman, the Crown.

Prince of Saudi Arabia. What a good time. What are the odds? Yeah, the odds are very low. I'm not so good at lip reading, but I'm pretty sure Infantino had MBS turned to him at one point and say, oh my God, this is Morgan Freeman's worst performance since Evan Almighty. But when you see that image, what do you see? I mean, I see two brutal, corrupt autocrat. making an infantino sandwich. And it's worth pointing out that, you know, we can dig into this more later. But the Qataris and the Saudis have not gotten along historically. We talked about this in an earlier episode, but the Qatari, the Saudi government actually

led essentially a diplomatic boycott of Qatar for several years that only ended in 2021. It's a blockade. They literally, remember Qatar is a tiny little peninsula the size of Connecticut that hangs off of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis closed the only land border into the place, right? So it was that level of, it was that level of aggression. And then all of a sudden, they're thick as thieves surrounding making an Infantino sandwich. It was a very, very strange thing. I think a lot of people's eyebrows perked up in sort of the foreign policy nerd world. And let me tell you, they got some eyebrows. You just said this word, and we have to go back to the Infantino sandwich. But then,

Johnny, on the opening day of the World Cup, I mean, we thought that was the worse seeing him there between those two. Proceeded to give a 57-minute speech. I'm so excited to speak to you as someone that used to work in political comms. I can only describe this as a layman who knows nothing about how the world works

as a violent explosion of verbal diarrhea. Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.

Tommy, you understand speech writing for global leaders. His speech, today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker. I mean, all said, by the way, in front of a stunned audience of journalists,

a masterclass of what aboutism, a black belt in what. about his unhinged to me, the average layman. But Tommy, you understand what was really going on. Tell us, what was this? Roger, it reminded me of the scene in the film, Billy Madison, where he says, at no point in this incoherent, rambling speech, was Gianni close to anything resembling a rational thought,

and we are all dumber for having listened to it. I mean, as you said, today I feel Qatari, I feel Arab, I feel African, I feel gay. You're none of those things. buddy. You have no idea how those people feel. My takeaway from this whole thing, Raj, and this is the only way I can make sense of this 57-minute rant, which credit to everyone in the media, by the way, for calling it what it was. The reaction was universal and brutal. My takeaway from that speech was Gianni Infantino's goal is to show to his trillionaire Gulf Arab sponsors, he'll go to the mattresses and he will stay there and he will battle for them. That's the

only rational explanation I can think of. Yeah, and there's one detail. I mean, the Billy Madison thing I love, because it's taking me to a happy place, but to get back to the darkest of human places, let's get back to, let's get back to staring into the abyss together, Thomas. There was a rationale here. This was not, this was not an insane rambly. It's been written about as if it was, that weird moment when a global leader who sat with G20 global leaders tried to reveal an empathetic side from his formative victimhood as a pre-balled ginger with freckles and could try to parallel that to the suffering of workers who told to the point of death in 120 degree heat to build his tournament for World Cup readiness.

And the reality is there is a rationale here and that rationale is a number and it's $7.5 billion. That's the number. That's a number that FIFA are projecting to. glean to harvest off this event. So when you saw that, was any part of you, like this is a gentleman who is, I love your thing, we're going to go to the mattresses,

we're going to go to mattresses, we're going to stand up, we're going to draw fire from our host, Qatar, who's freaking out a little bit with the scrutiny, with the criticism, with the income. I mean, people were comparing this to the fire festival, to J'Rul would organize a better World Cup. I mean, that probably JAR rule stuff hurts. I mean, the other stuff, sticks and stones will bring my bones, but J'Rul will really hurt me.

And you're making $7.5 billion. Was he just speaking to an audience of one there, essentially, the Emir of Qatar? I think he was. And also, I think, to Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and we can dig into that more later. But I also, I saw a man, Raj who thinks he is unstoppable. The Amnesty International immediately criticized. sized Infantino of dismissing human rights criticisms, treat demands for equality as part of a culture war,

which was really his effort. And I watched it and I was like, it's funny to watch him. It's deeply sad to watch him. Ultimately, right now this speech reminded as FIFA's there to serve the needs of Qatar, to make money for itself, lots of money for its leaders.

What are you going to do? Johnny and Petino's, he's rolling with impunity here. He's going to hire Jared Folk. to sell the Johnny sandwich next. So, okay, arm bands, Raj. He's the subway guy. He's nice. That's so funny you mentioned that. Because in my head when we were doing that segment,

I kept thinking of Jared Fogel, but even I managed to suck the Jared Fogel comment back in. You went there? Listen, I live there. Raj, I know you're on the road, on the pod, on the stage. Pretty much everywhere at this point covering the World Cup. Can I give you a little diet hack? Keep the air conditioning on, even in winter,

to help combat the meat sweats. That's a good one. But I want to tell you about a product I use literally every day. It's called AG1. I've been taking it for years. I love it. It doesn't taste super healthy. It's got kind of a mild, tropical taste

that I actually look forward to each morning. Sounds perfect for chasing down some princes. Hot chicken, Extra, extra, extra hot. Well, I'm in Nashville. Perfect for chasing down any hot prince. You hear that, Harry? It's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system

with a convenient daily nutrition, one scoop and a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. To make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D

and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash corrupt. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash corrupt to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Do you think AG1 is Merrick Garland's personalized license plate.

Tommy, is it time for us to pivot into armband? Yeah, I do think, look, there's no world corrupt episode that's complete without a armband discussion, a sartorial section. By the way, it was a name that when we were trying to work out what to call it, I originally wanted to call the podcast Pod Save Football, which is actually true. Ultimately, this is what we're discussing. Please save the soul of the game. Tommy wanted to call it today in armbands.

Today and arm bands today is actually what I want to go. No. So I think as we discussed in a previous episode of Raj, eight European national teams had planned on having their captains wear these one love arm bands during the matches. They had rainbows on them. They were symbolizing diversity and inclusion. It was kind of like a catch-all feel-good protest message. At least that was the plan until FIFA got involved.

And they threatened the teams with an immediate yellow card. if these players wore these arm bands. So the response, again, was they were condemned for this act. The Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, his friend of mine, who was visiting Qatar, he was there for the USA match. He had a bunch of meetings with Qatar officials. He was asked about this move, and he actually condemned FIFA. He said no one on a football pitch should be forced to choose between supporting these values

and rooting for their team. But it worked, Raj. FIFA bullied these European teams out of wearing these armbands, these kind of, you let's be honest, rather innocuous armbands. My question for you is, one, do you think FIFA really would have gone through with yellow carding these guys? And two, can you explain to the newbies out there why getting a yellow card at like the first second of a game would be such a big deal? Yeah, by the way, hearing you explain it, Tommy, out of your mind. You realize how insane this is.

How did World War III start, Daddy? Oh, it started with like a tiny strip of polyester and the battle of us. It makes you realize how weak FIFA is. Like, you can't handle that much, like a strip of bicep criticism. You can't deal with that. Come on. Bicep criticism. God, that's an amazing concept.

I'm not sure if I, as I'm looking at my own, do I even have biceps at this fight in the World Cup or that wasted away? Look, it's not about me. It is about this. It's about arm bands. It's about the important things in life. And again, cast your mind back. Where we talked about how England, my nation of birth, I wrote.

ride with Team America now, but England had talked at great length for months about how deeply they were researching the issues around this World Cup. They told the journalist Miguel Delaney, the English FA, that they wanted to do more than just a T-shirt in terms of protest. And they ended up doing something quite less than a T-shirt, this strip of, the captains all wear this tiny arm band to say captain on their arm. They were going to have an eight European teams ultimately signed on to this, that they would have their captain's arm band be colored in pride colors and contain the pretty unoffensive slogan, One Love,

which when I read about it, I thought, well, that's a gesture. That's a gesture. Yeah, more than anything, it's like, as if they had a creative meeting, how do we tick the box of doing something, not enough to be really offensive or effective? I mean, who could be against One Love, Tommy in life? It's a Bob Marley lyric, it's fine. Come on.

I mean, one love. No, sorry. We've got to respect the people who think there's two loves or maybe three loves. Let's think about Hugh Hefner's feelings. It's a tennis match now. Yeah, I don't know. I like the way you're going with them when I was going. But the reality is this was a kind of nothing.

There's become a massive, massive something because they petition FIFA. Any outfit you wear, any strip, any has to be sent to FIFA. they have to sign off on it. They sent this in September. FIFA didn't respond for months until the night before England were due to first take the field when they announced that if the captain wears the armband on the field, he will get an immediate yellow card, a caution.

Now, I don't want to get too into the football mumbo-jumbo, two into the weans. But if you get two yellow cards in the game, which is quite easy, you'll be sent off the field. you'll be dismissed and your team will have 10 players which eventually can affect their whole World Cup campaign. But as an individual, if you get a second one even in the next game, this is World Cup mumbo-jumbo, and I apologize listeners.

I love it. Then you will be suspended. You will have to sit on the bench. You will not be able to take the field for the third game. In fact, any time in the first four games, two yellow cards, you'll be suspended. And the captains, you have to remember, are often the best players.

They don't want to miss a game. So initially, Tommy, initially they backed down. England crumbled. Netherlands crumbled. FIFA charged in. This is an amazing detail, which I don't want history to forget. They announced all the captains on all the teams will now wear official armbands, which are all about insane slogans gesturing at change.

And they want their captains to wear slogans that involve. And I crap you not, Tommy. Share the meal. is one that they came up with. What? Share the meal. It's another sandwich joke? Are you serious?

Maybe it is. Maybe it's about, maybe it's about an early adopter stage in marketing the infantino sandwich. Oh my God. One of them is football unites the world. Who can be against that? And then a third one is, this one is particularly Orwellian.

Bring the moves. That's what they came about. They had clearly had a good. creative meeting. I don't know if they's had the interns do these or this was, maybe this is what MBS, Infantino and the Amir were talking about during the first game. Bring the moves. Who can be against bringing the moves in life, Tommy? Bring the moves. What on earth does that mean? Or is the dance competition? What are we talking about? I don't know. But whatever they did, they were trying to turn loads of bread into a million Infantino sandwiches. And so England

wilted, the Netherlands wilted. But today, Tommy, the Germans, the Germans, they took. They took the field. And I've got to say the Germans, their football culture in the modern period, they've long had a reputation for being outspoken, stiff-necked in the most wonderful way. A couple of players they have. I actually predicted this ahead of the tournament. Leon Guretska, a remarkable human being who has taken time, an elite footballer, a place for German champions by Munich, taken plenty of time to speak out against the rise of fascism in Germany. racism in football, anti-Nazis, and it's an amazing human being. They decided that they would take the field today.

They did not wear the armband. Why would they take the armband? They couldn't take the armband. By the way, any autocrat listening about protest in the nation, clearly all you need to do is wave a yellow card in its general direction and you can stifle dissent. But Germany took the field and for their pre-game photo, which is a ritual, just a boring old ritual of football,

they all lent in, they did their formation, two banks of human beings facing a camera, filled with fear at the game that which is to come. And instead, each of the German players put their hands on me across their mouths to show they were being silenced by FIFA. And at the very second they did, the German national team issued a statement over Twitter saying, denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice

we stand by our position. And that is where we are. That has taken, that was a statement which has been perceived as saying, these European teams are, you know, they've had them, they first recoiled, but they're going to actually up the stakes. And I was disgusted. I'm not English, I'm American, but the English team, to back down was so bloody craven, Tommy.

They do have leverage. I mean, they could have all walked on with the arm band, right, and said, okay, Qatar, kick us out the tournament. I do think, though, what we're seeing, time after time after time is examples of the organizations involved trying to silence players, silence teams, and in so doing, silence fans, and in so doing, raising more awareness about the underlying problems than they would have if they just let these guys wear the armbands. Same as the Qatari ambassador to the U.S. writing his little op-ed in response to us,

idiots, Raj. I got 10 times more requests to go on TV and talk about our arms. op-ed after they responded to it than I did before. It's like when you're an autocrat, when you say everyone doing what you say, when you control the media, you're not always good at kind of the more deft touch elements of winning a PR campaign. I mean, that is so true. I mean, you do create internal fear. You create a moment where a Roger's scrambling to do the two-factor authentication. And I will just say, if anyone's listening from an autocratic government, I think I've done about 30% of my accounts at this point. You just don't know. which they are.

That's all I've got for you. This password is Blazers, man. No, my password's not that. It's FU FIFA, but the, one, two, three. But the, this is going on against a backdrop of insanity. And it is a battle of symbols in this moment, Tommy. You know, Qatar security.

Every day banning fans from taking any rainbow anything. There's a war over the rainbow. You know, the Welsh fans have the whole. World Cup journey, this wonderful nation that have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1958. We have Matthew Reese from the Americans come on one of our live shows. And he talked about how he doesn't care whether they win or lose. They just want to show the world that Wales exists and is not England. I call it America's Portland. It's like America's Oregon, right? Wales for the Britain. That's amazing. I love that. He's like, we just want to show the world.

The Wales is separate to England and the 800 years of oppression that we've had from the England. They can, you know, we want to put up a finger at that. They're joyous, they're wonderful. It's an amazing story that they've had to get into the World Cup. And they're savoring every second. Their fans have for years worn this bucket hat in the colors of the Welsh flag with a tiny bit of rainbow involved. All those hats from the women in particular were taken by an overzealous security.

Someone walking into the stadium with a tiny rainbow on their shirt was, by the way, We had a great tweet from a fan trying to get in with a men in blazer scarf that I'd even forgotten we'd release five years ago that had a slogan on it. America, we took out set blatter. Now we're coming for you. And security, he's like security got me in a corner of the stadium. They're banning it.

FIFA, by the way, have not issued a statement. They won't answer journalist questions about what they think about security taking away. This is hilarious, but it's not hilarious about rainbow items. This is the battle. German minister, Nancy Facer, was at the game today, watching Germany play. She sat by Infantino. Infantino, probably not going to make a Nancy Facer sandwich.

I'd imagine she took off her jacket. She's a government minister. She cannot be yellow carded. Took off a jacket and she was wearing the one-love arm band, Tommy. Good for her. Yeah, amazing. And Johnny Infantino just spent the next hour staring at his phone as if he was too busy typing away.

to create another bonkers speech to notice it. And all I can say is sports is always political. We all agree that. You must be agreeing if you're listening to this. This World Cup is the single most political thing I have ever witnessed. And England play again on Friday against the United States. It'll be fascinating to see what they do. They've taken a lot of crap.

And I hope they take a lot more for the English public, who've made it clear that by just wilting, by pretending to gesture, about freedom, about LGBTQ rights, and they're just wilting because of a yellow card, that it makes it seem like LGBTQ rights are not worth fighting for. And that, that is a bummer. By the way, tiny detail again, sorry to go so deep, dear listeners,

but a weird and wonderful thing that happened this morning, the Danish FAA president, we love scandos on this show. The Scandinavians are a real pathfinder. We do, don't we? Why are they so great pathfinders? They're just great. Scandinavia, God bless you all listeners.

And by the way, we have a ton of listeners in Scandinavia. The Danish FA president said this morning in a press conference that Denmark was, quote, considering leaving FIFA. They were trying to put a block together with Nordic or other European football associations. They didn't want to leave alone. Very quickly, the Danish Federation put out an official statement walking this back.

But it seemed like a very political move, a threat, a little, you know, this is where we can, do you want to go here? Where there's smoke? or in this case, smorg broad, there is fire. And I watched that, I was like, Tommy, you know politics. That was either like a hint at leverage, real leverage, or there's something cooking that. Yeah, I liked it. I mean, the hardest thing in politics is getting someone to jump first.

You know what I mean? Like, there's strength in numbers. Listen, I'll go to my kind of well of knowledge because that's all I got. Like the 2016 Republican primary. Remember when Trump would just kick the crime? out of all his opponents and none of them have the guts to stand up to him, look what happens. But, you know, if one person has the courage to step forward, throw a punch back, someone else follows, like, it could get real ugly for Gianni Infantino real fast. And if I were

him, I might lie in bed at night and think to myself, why do I look unbelievably constipated and uncomfortable next to the German interior minister? But I am like thickest thieves with Muhammad bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, who ordered the execution of a journalist as recently as 2018. This is a man who is completely out of control. He's been compared to Saddam Hussein by people who know him. Like, hey, Johnny, do some soul-surging, bro. Yeah, you know, I listen to you say that, and I need to defend Johnny here because, Tommy, I look at you. You're a young, you know, good-looking, successful bloat. You were never a ginger with freckles who was bullied by lots of Swiss kids.

You don't know his pain. You do not know his pay. The true fixture, the true remarkable moment of the tournament was when Saudi Arabia. Yep, Saudi Arabia came back from a goal down against Powerhouse. Actually, tournament favorites, Argentina, who were on a 36-game unbeaten streak and beat them to 1. This is like listeners, if you don't know anything about football, like me, I don't know anything about football. leave that. It's like a 16 seed in March madness knocking off a number one. Think of a UMBC retrievers clipping Virginia or watching the game. I was like, God, I've got to speak to Tommy,

because it was incredible to see the Emir of Qatar looking at the game and wrapping a Saudi flag around his neck as if it was a scarf. Tommy, Tommy, can you explain this to me? Because that was conscious, that was not a football moment. That was not a man getting lost in 90 minutes of transcendent poetry. This was a man saying, I know what I'm doing. I know that the world's eyes are on me. I know that the region's eyes are on me. I was just in an infantino sandwich. And now I'm going to communicate this. What was being said? You know, Raj, I mean, I do think that Saudi Arabia is looming large over this entire World Cup. And, you know, part of it is their bid for the 2030 World Cup. We can get into that in a second. Part of it is this, that

bizarre moment when the Emir of Qatar wrapped the Saudi flag around his neck. It's seemingly a signal that, you know, all the bad feelings are now over and we're friends again. But I do think that, you know, the role of the Saudis in this tournament going forward will probably say more and render a more definitive verdict on the future of sports washing than anything that really has to do with Qatar. Sometimes when I start talking about the Saudis, people will say to me, like Tommy, you weren't for Barack Obama. He met with the Saudis. The United States is has had a relationship with the Saudis for years. The U.S. sold them tons of weapons during the Obama administration.

That is all true. And there is some rank hypocrisy in what I'm saying. But what I want people to understand is that the current crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, the bread and the Infantino sandwich, he's scary and he is different than past leaders. Like, again, I've mentioned Mohammed bin Salman ordering the execution of Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018 a couple times. I'll spare you all the gruesome details, but it's as bad as you think and worse.

But, you know, MBS is what he's called for short, came to power in a brutal family power struggle. He locked up and tortured his own relatives. The economists reported, Raj, that he once sprayed the ceiling with bullets during an argument with his own mother. Imagine you're fighting with your mom and you pull your AK and you start ripping bullets into the ceiling. That seems to touch off. He launched this war in Yemen that has created humanitarian catastrophe. He sided with Russia by reducing oil production to keep pricing. is high in the midst of the Ukraine war war.

So that list just goes on and on. And as listeners to this podcast know, like FIFA is an organization with a bit of a corruption problem. And in my opinion, MBS is an corruption dealer. He is willing and eager to try and buy off powerful people. He just cut a $2 billion check to Jared Kushner recently. He's steering money into Trump's hands by hosting these live golf tournaments at his clubs.

They signed a licensing deal with Trump. to buy some, you know, do some resort in Oman. And now we're seeing Gianni and Fentino there sitting with MBS, sitting with the Emir, paling around with MBS at the G20. And I just feel like the Saudis have some momentum, which brings us to this very weird story, Raj, in the athletic, about Lionel Messi, the one true goat, as I've learned, and his role with the Saudi government.

Can you help us, what the hell happened there, man? So Linom Messi is the same. single greatest player in my estimation. Say out for another podcast, a footballing podcast, say men in Blazers. He and Ronaldo, it's like the LeBron and Michael Jordan of the modern game. I am definitely Team Messi. He's a

remarkable little man. He looks like he's wandered out of super cuts, but when he plays football, he runs for the ball as if it's stuffed inside his boot and no one can get it off him. It's his fifth World Cup. He's playing for Argentina. Desperate to win a World Cup. Never done it. You really, in the eyes of the

world, not for me, but in the eyes of the world, you need who have won a World Cup to be considered truly great. He's meant to go for it here. His team crap the bed against Saudi Arabia. And the English journalist, Barney Renee, tweeted during the game, consolation for Messi, a great day for his second job as Saudi tourism ambassador. And yes, this is the thing. Lino Messi, a footballer, but he has signed on to become an ambassador.

for the Saudi tourist board. He's been used thus far mostly to brand build. He's visited. He's sat on boats in scenic locations. He's said how much he loves it there, how he can't wait to come back. And the Saudis are now reported to be about to make a bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

It's a joint bid with Greece and Egypt. But it gets deliciously complicated here because Linomese, Argentinian goat, Argentina was said to be poised to bid what for the 2030 World Cup along with Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and so the notion of Argentina making a bid to host the World Cup and Lionel Messi, their greatest modern player of the 21st century being the face of Saudi legitimacy, Tommy, it's just disturbing.

Yeah, it really is. I mean, and like, you know, his people, will argue, oh, he's not actually advocating for the Saudi 2030 bid. He's just talking about this. He's a tourism sponsor. He's advocating on behalf of the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 initiative, which basically is the brainchild of Muhammad bin Salman. It's his effort to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil and gas to something more sustainable and diversified as the world reduces its dependence on fossil fuels. But there's really no disassociating the two. And it is just bizarre.

I think I read that Lionel Messi made $120 million last year. I just don't know why you need the extra 25 million pounds for this Saudi deal. Apparently, Ronaldo turned down a much less generous offer. $5 million. It's remarkable. Maybe Lionel Messi really just ultimately is a one-issue voter and his issue is armbands. It's just really entertaining about the future of our bands. Yeah, Hornbant.

I just got to draw the line, armbands. And he's not alone. David Beckham, Messiah, this is really quite something. A 10-year deal, $15 million a year it's been reported over 10 years to be Qatar's brand ambassador, a role which right now, again, you say it's just, it's just. And David Beckham's role seems to be largely just involving wandering around the spice market and declaring, it's one of the best spice markets I've ever been. been to. But you know, English fans, for whom he's an icon, a legend, he is England, incarnate,

a ceiling. The English media, they are shocked and they keep saying, David, do you regret being made to be the face of guitar and he doesn't answer? And it's hard to watch because David Beckham has long stood for a carefully cultivated brand of good. He really has. David Beckham has long being a gay icon. There's an English gay comedian, amazing guy, Joe Lissette. So funny. Google him. Yeah, I mean, how would you describe it? You see it's a video which has gone viral over that. He, I think he threatened to throw 10,000 pounds into a woodchipper unless David Beckham renounced his Qatari brand ambassadorship. And if Beckham did the right thing, he pledged to donate that money to LGBT charities. Yeah, he did put $10,000 into the woodchipper.

He's very clear to say 10,000 pounds. He was very, he's very clear to say, he's very, very clear to say that the money went in, but don't worry, I didn't, you know, would chip 10,000 pounds. I gave it to LGBTQ charities. You had the incredible line. I can say, this is heartfelt. I consider you to be a gay icon. You're the first Premier League footballer to do shoots with gay magazines like attitude,

to speak openly about your gay fans. This is the great line. And you married a spice girl, which is the gayest thing a human can do. So these are the complexities. The icon appropriation and the motivations of humanity, which we don't always understand. So listen, Roger, I do think we've probably exhausted the arm pan topic. We've done some negative stories. Heavy old band talk.

We had the armband talk. There have been some pretty inspiring good stories. Should we maybe go to a couple of those before we end? They have been. There have been. There have been. There's been moments. real moments of wonder.

There's been real moments of real courage to be candid. I mean, we should say Iran qualified for this World Cup. It's been incredibly complicated, both for the protesters and for the players. But that's something that's inspired you, right? Yeah, I mean, listen, there was this incredibly emotional and courageous moments. where the Iranian national team refused to sing their national anthem, the Iranian national anthem, in solidarity with protesters back home and to the folks who don't know what's going on in Iran, basically since September when a young Iranian woman named Masa Amini was brutally murdered by Iran's

so-called morality police, there have been massive protests in the streets. And the morality police, they are nothing more than thugs who arrest and abuse Iranian citizens. usually women for like not wearing a head scarf, but they will ruthlessly beat them in some instances have killed a number of people for not wearing like a head scarf or something. But the regime has cracked down brutally. They've responded with violence and brutality.

Hundreds have been killed. Thousands have been arrested. But these Iranian players, they wanted to show solidarity so they didn't sing along with the anthem. They also didn't celebrate goals as a show of solidarity. And like, again, Raj, this is where it gets so

complicated because I was reading a bunch of the coverage of this and there were some Iranians back home who were inspired by what they did. There were some who were angry at them at the players for protesting at all. There were some who didn't think they went far enough. So again, it's just like, how much pressure can we put on these players to do the right thing when Gianni and Fentino and these global leaders are showing no leadership? The Iran thing is just so unbelievably complicated and I can't imagine how emotional it must be for every single one of the football fans, many of whom are saying these footballers should not play,

they should not represent the nation, they should not give a win to the governing power. And they're almost willing their team to lose an exit and have no ability for the government to have any kind of national moment of glory. And there's those who say this is a moment where they should be protesting. And when they do make their statements,

in the way that you've talked about, the National Anthem is a moment of incredible pride to watch the Welsh team sing Land of our Tharders. I'm not Welsh. Watching their joy. I sobbed. Watching the Mexican team. The players sobbed. A number of the Mexican players started weeping

while the national... It's an incredibly emotional moment. The Iranian National Anthem played in the stadium for their first game, and every single human being on that field who was representing the nation just stood there silently, utterly stony-faced. It was a remarkable.

human moment. But again, many activists are saying it's not enough. They need to speak out. They need to speak out aggressively. There's a counterpoint. Their families are still in Iran. They will be punished. This is a moment of deep complexity.

And despite, I should say, you know, maybe the Qatari security forces were too obsessed with their rainbow crackdown. They did try and crack down on the Persian flags at many of the progressive Iranian fans who were there tried to smuggle into the stadium. It was incredible. to witness the, again, incredibly brave individuals to be on camera globally,

holding up Persian flags, to be holding up flags with the statement, women, life, freedom. Every Iranian game is at this point, nothing, nothing, nothing at all to do with the football. But there's been another moment, Denmark, the Danish national team. God bless your scandos. again we talked about this I think in episode four that the Danish team had decided with their kit manufacturer

Hummel that they would take the field wearing specially created jerseys with muted crests muted sponsor logos they also have a third kit which is totally black which they wanted to be a symbol of mourning for those who died and their sponsor Hummel

released a statement saying we don't wish to be visible during a tournament that's cost thousands of people their lives. That has been remarkable to witness. It was a deeply effective moment, a deeply communicative moment, a messaging moment around the globe.

And I'd say FIFA has stepped in in microways on jerseys. FIFA are on it on the jerseys. Belgium, Tommy, had the word love as a tiny detail, tiny detail on the inside of their collar on their second jersey. And FIFA stepped in at the last moment to ban that. FIFA, don't you think it's fitting, Tommy, FIFA of a recourse anti-love? That is actually, that is perfect. And especially like the absolute minutia they will get into to ensure that no one expresses

themselves in any way possible is, it's remarkable. It's embarrassing. This is where we are as we're on day four. And I do believe, I do believe, Tommy, we will be podding again. Please God soon. I've got a, there's a, I mean, this stupid way to talk about football, but my God, you're the man who came up with the notion of an infantino sandwich. Right, I think right now we're in a, again, you understand this stuff more than I do.

I'm just a humble sports reporter, but I feel like we're in a Cold War stage of everything that's about to go down. And I've got a feeling, I've got a feeling it's about to escalate. Yeah, I think you might be right. Raj, we got to close by saying some nice words about our boys, the U.S. team. I went to a pub in Santa Monica with a buddy mine, English pub. I ate fish and chips. I got to tell you, with all the terrible stuff we've talked about in the series and with guitar, it was such a beautiful thing to watch our team play well, to go nuts with a bunch of people.

When Kristen Polisick passed that beautiful ball to the other guy whose name I don't know, and then he scored. Tim Weyer. Is dad, by the way, Ponce, Vega? Tim Weyer's dad, one of the greatest African footballers of all time is currently the president of Liberia. So again, geopolitical fans of this

podcast. Yes, way. What a story. That's so cool. There's a, there's a lovely moment. George Ware, one of the greatest

footballers of all time. Now the president of Liberia never played in a World Cup. Liberia never qualified. It made him ache to watch his son pull on a United States jersey,

he's a delicious goal. And he just really tweeted out last night. It's actually really beautiful. And anyone who, anyone who is a parent, Tommy, God bless you, Tommy Vito and your beautiful partner,

but anyone who was a parent, he just tweeted out this incredible footballer of his son and it's hard to be the son of a true great. It's hard, hard to be the son of a too great. He just treated, last night, he treated proud papa, a photo of the two of them.

It's a magnificent moment, but I am digressing. You're saying, you watch the game, you're in the pub, I loved it. To be in a pub with a bunch of people going nuts for your country is the best feeling in the world. You know, and we won't talk about what happened in, I think, the 82nd minute when the Welch team scored. But we look good for a while.

Kristen Polisic looked good for about 70 minutes. We've got to keep him healthy on the field going. But I don't know. I'm excited for the game Friday. Are we ending on a football league? Is that what you're asking me? Let's end this thing on the floor. Let's bring it back to happiness.

And I'll say just for listeners who may be confused at this moment, because of my English accent. Do not let my accent fool you. I ride with Team America now in every way, like Kenny Powers, like Bruce Springsteen, like Dolly Parton, 100% behind this United States team.

I mean, I love them. I adore them. I love the growth of the game here on the men's and women's side. It's the story of my lifetime. And I love these young guys. I know a lot of them very, very well. They are very talented, very young.

Possibly, they are. not possibly. They are the most talented as a group of individuals on the men's side because our women are world beaters. But on the men's side, they're the most talented group of young individuals our nations ever created. And I can tell you, they're so young they don't know how to be afraid.

They truly are fearless. And we play England on Friday. It's a massive game for the team, for the optics of progress in terms of the growth of the game on the men's side. And I'm filled of excited. I mean, I adore this team. I am cheering for them. I'll be watching on Twitch with McConaughey

cheering on for the United States boys just as loudly as he will. And ultimately, this is a one piece of life truth that I will give you. People won't know why. It's a complicated answer. Actually wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal about why.

But it boils down to this. Tommy, one simple rule in life. If Pierce Morgan is on one side of an argument, Yes. Always choose the other, right? Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. God, I love that. What a rule. What a way to live. World Corrupt is an original podcast collaboration from Men and Blazers and Crooked Media's Pod Save the World. Alongside Roger Bennett, I'm your host, Tommy Vitor. The executive producers and writers of World Corrupt are me, Roger Bennett, my great friend.

Tommy Vitor and Men in Blazers, Jonathan Williamson, who incredibly edited and sound design the episodes, a bit like Phil Collins drumming and singing at the very same time. A talented man. From the crooked media side, our executive producers are Michael Martinez, Sandy Gerard, and Giancarlo Bizarro. Our producers are Ryan Wallerston and Haley Muse, and our associate producer is Saul Rubin.

For Men in Blazers, our producers, Miranda Davis, and more. This episode was fact-checked by Nikki Schainer Bradford, music by Veselius Photopoulos. With editing assistants from Nick Furshaw. Additional production support from Crooked Media's Zuri Irvin, Kyle Segglin and Ari Schwartz. And Men in Blazers mix discerood. Special thanks to Crooked Media's Julia Beach, Amelia Montuth and Matt DeGroot. As well as Men in Blazers, Scott Debson, Michael Milberger, and Alex Sale for their promotional, social support and love. Thank you.