Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:11World, I'm lequesa Burek
00:00:12a remind of our top stories today. Iran says it's reached
00:00:16an understanding with Oman a route for ships transiting the straight
00:00:20of Homos, but Terran has also warned that an
00:00:24agreement does
00:00:25of not guarantee safe passage through the straight due to the
00:00:28US naval. Meanwile officials in Washington had
00:00:32hoped an agreement to open the straight would happen this week. President
00:00:36Trump saying talks with Iran asteral ongoing despite Teran
00:00:40denying holding direct negotiations with the
00:00:44US.
00:00:46a I can say that the latest
00:00:48of situation is that almost all
00:00:52me of the topics are under discussion, the map, the transit roots, the entering and exiting of maritime
00:00:56traffic and those biliteral site agreements with Oman.
00:01:00because it's not just map, these fundamental agreements with oman have
00:01:03been mostly
00:01:07a completed, we were all set for the biggest attack since World War II, and
00:01:11they called
00:01:12of me and they said, please don't do it, let's talk, and then they don't, they said, we never
00:01:15said that, what, the fake news knows they
00:01:19did say that, but we are talking, let's see
00:01:21what happens, Israel's continued
00:01:25challing in southern Lebanon has wounded at least four people in overnight
00:01:29strike. These attacks come after
00:01:31of two
00:01:31of Israeli soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in
00:01:37in of majidal. The strikes also hit targets inside designated pilot zone. All of this
00:01:41taking place whilst delegates from both countries are in Rome
00:01:44discussing the next phase of a gradual Israeli
00:01:48withdrawal from southern Lebanon under a US broken
00:01:51mechanism. The Ukrainian
00:01:55President Voladimir Zelenski has once again appealed to
00:01:58European allies for. more support, urgent support
00:02:02following Russian
00:02:03of strikes. Zelensky says Moscow wants to further escalate the conflict
00:02:07with ballistic
00:02:09of missiles. At least 20 people have been killed and dozens injured in
00:02:13Russian strikes across Ukraine since
00:02:15Wednesday. And Myanmar's leader is in
00:02:19Thailand on an official visit as Bangkok pushes for re-engagement with its
00:02:22wartorn neighbor and regional block Asian. Its leaders have
00:02:26beered from summits
00:02:28of ASEAN summit since 2021 with. staged a coup against
00:02:32the elected
00:02:32in government of angsang su chi leading to civil war that killed an
00:02:36estimated 100 thousand people. the news
00:02:39continues right here on TRT World after be on the
00:02:43in game.
00:02:49of of of
00:02:56of
00:03:05a
00:03:10Hey there, I'm talhud Duman and welcome to a special edition of Beyond
00:03:14the
00:03:14me Game where we're going to look at how FIFA President Gianni Infantino did his
00:03:18best icchorus impression. Now it hasn't even been a month since
00:03:22the most lucrative world cup in history and the boss of world
00:03:25football already had more Benjamins on his
00:03:29a mind. Mantino pushing his money-making plans a bridge too far, a
00:03:33bit too soon, maybe, which in turn looks like it could make his
00:03:37house of football cards
00:03:38in come
00:03:40of crumbling down. Join
00:03:41of us as we unpack how we got there, what FIFA's future holds
00:03:44and if there's a way for
00:03:46of the
00:03:47in beautiful game to print
00:03:48in more cash in perhaps more ethical ways, but first to
00:03:51understand the fallout, let's trace the sets, get
00:03:54a recap of events, a timeline of very busy
00:03:58week in the world of
00:03:59of football. my colleague,
00:04:03in July 2026, FIFA held the final
00:04:06of their biggest ever World Cup. While Spain would claim the top prize in
00:04:10a football, something bigger was being plotted in the background. Two weeks
00:04:13later, FIFA president, Gianni Infantino proposed to sell off
00:04:1720%
00:04:18of their tournaments, including the World Cup, to a group of
00:04:21investors which had ties to the US president Donald
00:04:24Trump. Well, FIFA 4R Enterprise
00:04:28or FFE.
00:04:31of is uh actually a proposal, an offer, it's part
00:04:35of
00:04:36of democratic
00:04:37of process,
00:04:38in a consultation process and above
00:04:41all, it is an opportunity, but
00:04:45not an obligation. immediate
00:04:49backlash, uefa almost instantly announced that they would not
00:04:53participate
00:04:54in any fifa event until the proposed fifa
00:04:56of forward enterprise plan was scrapped. con
00:05:00and the AFC for lodd suit, falling short of joining a
00:05:03boycott, and the
00:05:05of confederations of want the only ones voicing
00:05:10of of concerns. I didn't like lot of decision of... in the last
00:05:14couple of years, football for sure is for for
00:05:17the people, for the fans, no doubt, the way
00:05:20we we love it is is this way, and we have seen a great world cup and
00:05:24and something that they stay the same way, it's it's good, so to
00:05:27defend the interest from all the people, in short, with
00:05:31infantino lacking the votes, fifa scrapped the whole
00:05:34thing, but the domino effect, which saw many the top football
00:05:38associations withdraw support until he resigns, had already star
00:05:43did: if you look at what the other, the two presidents
00:05:47before, infantino, avalanche and
00:05:50blatter started in different in different ways,
00:05:54trying to be managing
00:05:58fifa like dictatorship, it's just gone to
00:06:02another level now, i think, no backing from the world's
00:06:06biggest footballing bodies and potential legal
00:06:08ramifications means the clock is ticking for football's head.
00:06:13show which could paint very different picture of Infantino's
00:06:16rain, one where in the span of 10 years he went from
00:06:20stating that he wanted to leave a positive everlasting message to
00:06:24being accused of selling football soul. Erking Kabul,
00:06:28TRT wild. Okay, so with FIFA President Jenny
00:06:31Infantino officially in the hot seat, even though he scrapped the
00:06:35whole commercial enterprise idea. The next question is, if he gets
00:06:39austed or doesn't get support, who could replace? and there are
00:06:43few names being floated, let's look at him for starters, there
00:06:46is UFA President Alexander Chefferen, the boss the sports European governing
00:06:49body, who has been the most vocal against
00:06:53Infantino's plan. Remember, he convinced all 55 of his
00:06:57member states to say that they boycott FIFA, UEFA also
00:07:01sent a legal letter to the world football body, then we have Concercaff chief
00:07:04Victor Montaliani who didn't use the b word b for boycott, but
00:07:08was also against bringing outside money. AFC president,
00:07:12Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa, this man right here, the senior vice president the
00:07:16FIFA Council, could replace infantino as well, and then the
00:07:19most interesting name, if you ask me, is somewhat outsider in all
00:07:23this, Paris Saint-Germain boss Nasar Al Khaleifi, the Qatari
00:07:27executive reportedly gaining support to become a candidate at the next
00:07:31FIFA Congress in March, but whoever steps up next, according
00:07:35to former FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce, well it's it's going to be lot of tough
00:07:38work, there's ondably. lot of
00:07:42repair work to be done, I think the ordinary average football fan has
00:07:46just been seckened by what has happened here, they
00:07:50are waiting to see what repair work is going to be done, and
00:07:54as I say to you, the president of FIFA is
00:07:58very, very high ranking position, and now if he wants
00:08:02to retain his position, he's got to start the repair work that has been
00:08:06done by the damage to what I can only describe as ludicrous
00:08:09suggestion. All right, might be one of those dudes might. happy, but
00:08:13my next guest was very quick on the draw to say
00:08:16infantino must go when the news broke on FIFA's investment plans and
00:08:20that's political strategist ashish prashad ashish thank you so much for joining
00:08:24beyond the game once again now infantino leaving let ask you
00:08:28bluntly will it solve the ambitious uh
00:08:31ambitious nature of FIFA want wanting to make football bigger and better
00:08:35constantly? I mean infantino
00:08:39himself is just I think replicating the environment with live in today
00:08:43where I guess corruption's happening out in the open, he's tried to budy up to President Trump
00:08:47and he's probably seen you know how uh the white house has been used to make
00:08:51money a way that's never happened before and thought he would get his fingers in that pie,
00:08:55so maybe maybe getting rid
00:08:59a of him would make it happen at less of a public uh a public light, but honestly at this point I
00:09:03think we need to question the entire FIFA leadership, there's got to be questions asked about
00:09:07even people who've criticized him and and frankly didn't know about this plan like Kevin Le
00:09:11More who went out there and said, 'I didn't know about this, I wasn't told, and I we
00:09:15actually people believe that, because Infantino definitely did this by himself,
00:09:18with the cushioners, with Trump allies to try and sell
00:09:22off football, like you your introduction uh, so eloquently put,
00:09:26but what's really interesting to me with the recent accusations from
00:09:30people at Prince Ali, uh, the the brother to the king of
00:09:34Jordan, who basically said infantino has blackmailed him and won't give
00:09:38him his uh the money that was oh jordan and resolve any'.
00:09:42with the US, unless he voted for Infantino, the question you got to ask is
00:09:46how many other FAs have been in this situation who've also either
00:09:50folded or who haven't made that decision yet, been blackmailed by the president, and this
00:09:54isn't stuff that is selling off football, this is
00:09:57day-to-day fifa operations, so the question about why Kevin Le More
00:10:01would still stay there, why would the GC still stay there, why will the general,
00:10:05why will other leaders still stay there, well maybe they're all complicit in his other
00:10:09crimes at FIFA, and honestly this is... an opportunity for world
00:10:13football to possibly abolish FIFA as it exists today, like
00:10:17UEFA, I'll give you an example, UEFA haven't used their big tool
00:10:20yet, when Infantino was the president of UEFA,
00:10:25a plan for UEFA to exit FIFA and hold it for
00:10:29ransom, well guess what, he became the FIFA president, shelf that
00:10:33plan, and now Alexander Seffron is potentially going
00:10:37to use that against him, and in that plan there's a way to work with other
00:10:40confederations to design a world cup that does not involve the
00:10:44organization that is FIFA, and if he doesn't resign and if
00:10:47leadership doesn't take the appropriate steps to make permanent
00:10:50reforms, that plan should be used, we should abolish FIFA as it
00:10:54exists. today, that's that's very interesting, I don't how to unpack
00:10:58that, I mean, if
00:10:59we do abolish FIFA, then the the discussion of who comes
00:11:03next is immediately thrown off the door, and so the next question is,
00:11:07what, how does that transform football, what, what does football turn into? do you think
00:11:10the interest will decrease,
00:11:13perhaps? not at all, it's the global game.
00:11:17find it really, i think all of us, the
00:11:20fans, players, frankly, players, luis figo today wrote
00:11:24about, how disgusted he is withinfantino and frankly the
00:11:27leadership of FIFA for the actions and direction they're taking football, the
00:11:31game is not going to get less popular, this is body that benefits from
00:11:35the ultimate popularity the biggest global sport in the world right
00:11:39now, the game is evolved to get the game in front of everyone's eyeballs, it didn't need
00:11:43FIFA to do that, when Infantino said I made, I made you 15
00:11:47billion, what he forgets is the football has made you 15 billion for
00:11:51what they put on the field and the fans made you 15 billion for their commitment.
00:11:55a game that they love, that is part their identity and their life. there was
00:11:59shit arrogance in that statement that you made everyone
00:12:0215 billion. um, it's easy, i believe,
00:12:06sticking 48 teams in a world cup, of course the numbers were going to be higher
00:12:10than the last world cup, of course, revenue is going to be higher
00:12:14than the last world cup, he just added more teams, but he didn't really make the
00:12:18money, the product on the field did that, you're going to still go to go, you're still going
00:12:22to watch football, i'm still going to watch football, i'm sure your viewers are still. engage in football,
00:12:25FIFA didn't exist, look, but we only have to get there first, if FIFA show
00:12:29significant reforms, I believe infantino, Kevin La Moore and
00:12:32all the current leadership should be leaving, and the leader could come
00:12:36in and interim to propose some significant reforms where they do not
00:12:40sell the soul of football off anymore, where they commit to
00:12:44actually giving fan ownership to decision making, where fans actually have a
00:12:48say, there's a board set up where the fans actually are involved in the process, even compare
00:12:52what we've seen recently with FIFA compared to UA. are
00:12:56coming up
00:12:57the next a euros year and a half, ticket prices are in the tens of
00:13:00pounds uh for the kids, it was
00:13:03$11,000 for the cheapest ticket for the final and that is for
00:13:07kids too, is this an entity, an organization that cares about the future
00:13:11the game and how we engage with it, or is it just taking advantage of everyone? and
00:13:15the question here is like UEFA, while not perfect, it's still committing to
00:13:19give you access to the game at the game
00:13:22itself, so it's possible to still grow the... make it affordable,
00:13:26make sure we can all enjoy it while actually, still making money,
00:13:30and you wait for showing a model there and other organizations are, it's just the fifa is trying to rake us all
00:13:34in. mean, when you look at, their track record is pretty positive
00:13:38too, considering how they dealt with the European super league thing from few years
00:13:41ago, so we had that list, we talked about chefering, we talked about
00:13:45montaliani, salman bin ibrahim al khalifa, chefering to
00:13:49one side, you said fifa should be reformed, the
00:13:52name to come out should be reform. name out of
00:13:56this crew, who is that one
00:13:59person? I don't think Alexander Sefron wants the
00:14:03job personally uh, I think he enjoys his
00:14:06kingdom, that is UEFA, I, I think he'll probably run for fourth
00:14:10term, as we speak, I the the, I think we need real fresh
00:14:14blood here, I also think it might be time for woman to be in charge of FIFA, right, we've
00:14:18talked to people set bladder himself, can't believe I'm going to put that name in my mouth,
00:14:22has already proposed someone like lease clavaness, um, there are others you know
00:14:26out there that could take this role um, i actually like the idea
00:14:30of NASA potentially being in there, the way he the direction he's taking club football in
00:14:34Europe, he could potentially be a big reformer of it, also still made PSG
00:14:37accessible to real fans, you know their ultras don't complain about ticket
00:14:41prices like the Premier League fans do, so there are opportunities
00:14:45here for a leader with vision potentially to step in,
00:14:48and I believe it's also matter of time at this point, I don't
00:14:52believe Jeanny and Fentino can hold on, whether they can perge the
00:14:56rest the leadership with him, which I actually think is required at this
00:14:59point, but I the other thing is he's not been getting
00:15:03support from his best friend Donald Trump, yeah, and I'll tell you why that's really
00:15:07important for your viewers, because you know,
00:15:11he would use that public support to quiet down
00:15:15the conversation of he should go, there are a lot of nations who don't want
00:15:18trouble with the state department, who don't want trouble with the president the united states, who
00:15:22would say to their FA, look, this is only football. Okay, can you just back
00:15:26this guy and move on? I, I believe the biggest thing happening today
00:15:30is all the footballers. Figo is, you know, a legend the
00:15:33game. I believe more and more legends will start to come out and allow...
00:15:37the current proper players to speak out about this, and if he still
00:15:41stubbornly wants to stay there, then that only leaves the path of
00:15:45ab abolishing FIFA, because he's saying he doesn't recognize the talent, he doesn't
00:15:49recognize the fans and he doesn't recognize the FAs that want him gone. frankly,
00:15:52his only public backer in the United States right now is one man called
00:15:56Paula Zampoli who's in the Trump administration. this man is the New York
00:16:00Times reported, has abused his position in the white house to deport
00:16:04women to other countries. that's not someone our... president of
00:16:08football should be associated with, that shouldn't be the future of football,
00:16:12the future of football should be for the kids, for us,
00:16:16it's to be accessible, it needs leaders like Figo,
00:16:20like uh, Sephrin, like NASA, all people who want us to actually
00:16:23enjoy the game and not, not be, the game not to be abused and
00:16:27stripped from us and sold off. Yeah, ashish, let ask you about
00:16:31that, um, you talked about figo, uh, Luis Figo,
00:16:35now, our football executives, I look, I... looked at the past FIFA
00:16:39presidents, you can rarely find someone who is actually in
00:16:43football itself as either as referee or a player.
00:16:46now our football executives too far removed from the game,
00:16:48you know, that that making big decisions like this will ultimately feel disconnected
00:16:52from what the beautiful game is actually about. do think it's
00:16:56time for footballer to be in charge of this. no, not all footballers are good
00:17:00politicians or or um presidents of clubs
00:17:04or anything else, but there are that there are some that can do that. 'I do
00:17:08believe the game also has enough, it's about also the people you put around you, the
00:17:11game needs a footballer I believe right now also to be a senior
00:17:15role, maybe even not president,
00:17:17but up there as an ambassador role to really put the game front
00:17:21and center in front of all of us again that what it's all about right, we have too
00:17:25many technocrats there who don't like you said never kick the ball, I think
00:17:28even in Vantino there's means of him trying to kick ball all over the
00:17:32internet right now by actually people in the game in reporters who
00:17:36go, well how's this guy run football when you think about it, look, there are people who've done
00:17:40a good job, we've already mentioned Sefferen and how he is centered
00:17:44fans and actually kept ticket prices down and made that a priority, he's
00:17:48also made women's football in Europe a big deal for the first time, obviously it was
00:17:52huge in the US, but he's made it a big deal and invested heavily in it, so that's
00:17:55definitely good footballing decisions, but it would be nice if we are going to have another
00:17:59person in there, at least Cavine has played football, also what we've not
00:18:03talked about here is the players, there's already been discontent.
00:18:07about the amount of games they're playing, everyone says, oh they earn so much, they
00:18:11should play, but if you want people not to play because they're injured all the time, because there
00:18:15are too many games, you're not getting the product that you want also, some people complain about
00:18:19that, what they do, they're not getting the best these players because they're getting hurt
00:18:23playing hundred and plus games a year, you know, i think from
00:18:27my perspective, they need to be at the center of this also, because they know need to know what how they
00:18:31can be their best selves on the field for us to be
00:18:34entertained, this president not only is like to sell off the
00:18:38game, there's been a lot of controversy about his behavior at the last world
00:18:41cup, not caring about visas for people from the global south, from
00:18:45countries that are on let's say the not on the US's friendly side,
00:18:49the treatment of football team in Iran, football team, whatever your politics are, it's
00:18:53a football team, to the point where right-wing media in Europe were up in arms about
00:18:57the treatment of Iran and its players, right, this guy could have done
00:19:01something about it, this guy also bet the rules, broke the rules by
00:19:05allowing a US red card to be... overall
00:19:08you know, and I would say, lot of people out there, if this man is finally red
00:19:12carded, will not miss him and will be saying overt that mate. Ashish,
00:19:16always love your analysis, that was political strategist ashish prashar, thank you
00:19:19for coming on beyond the game. uh, all right, not to play devil's advocate,
00:19:23but infantino's desire to build football help to grow it to
00:19:27bigger and better things, isn't anything new, and if we take a look at his previous
00:19:31big changes, they they've kind of succeeded, yeah, it's kind of forgotten that
00:19:35football has changed lot under infantino the... subs thing, the most
00:19:38recent time wasting protocols and of course the introduction of
00:19:42a hydration break slash commercial break, like it or hate it, video
00:19:46assistant referee happened under the swiss executive as did the
00:19:49semi-automated offside technology, and not to bury the lead, but
00:19:53infantino saw over the expansion of competitions right, like the most recent men's world
00:19:57cup, the club world cup becoming a 32 team affair, and
00:20:01he made the women's world cup go from 24 sides to 32 as
00:20:04well, they've all been successful so far. and uh get
00:20:08this, the trend of making competitions bigger and better might continue for the 100th
00:20:12anniversary the men's world cup cuz back a March 2025
00:20:16FIFA Council meeting com the ball, the confederation in South America
00:20:20proposed a 64 team addition for the 2030
00:20:23tournament, since then traction has been gaining for that to be the case.
00:20:27Look at this announcement from common ball president Alejandro Dominguez on
00:20:31July 20th, which hasn't been confirmed by FIFA
00:20:35by the way, cuz they've been... busy with other
00:20:39stuff. now i'm going to feel like a judge right now cuz let's call an
00:20:42eyewitness, someone who saw Infantino's most latest product, the
00:20:462026 world cup of close and personal two world sports cars.
00:20:50respond
00:20:50to lance santos, lance fancy seeing you there man, nice suit. um,
00:20:54let
00:20:55ask you this, we spent a bunch of money trying to go from one location to another
00:20:59revenue for 2026 tournament, i think we had lot of effect in that
00:21:0315 billion mark, the record 15 billion mark,
00:21:06but my question is, how much did it feel like it came from
00:21:10actual fans, actual interest rather than from the outside, from like
00:21:14sponsorships and stuff, well to make no mistake about it, before
00:21:18a ball was even kicked at this full football World Cup
00:21:21FIFA
00:21:22led by Gianny Infantino made it abundantly clear to
00:21:26anyone wanting to go to this world cup that the fans interests were
00:21:29not at heart. Now when I say this I'm talking immediately about
00:21:33the scourge and ticket prices. Yes Infantino made his
00:21:37millions perhaps billions uh
00:21:40but fans were pushed to new level and this was a game for
00:21:43this the was rich a really competition because
00:21:44that it was was just record
00:21:47breaking uh revenues. that would have transpired into
00:21:51costing the fans, the fans were simply seen as a cash count, i make no
00:21:55mistake about it teller uh, FIFA sold football soul
00:21:59long ago, but this American World Cup was not
00:22:03just about making money, it was about with Jani and Fantino and FIFA
00:22:07swimming in dollar bills, the greed reached
00:22:10new heights, now when you look at what happened to the fans of course they
00:22:14were charged extortionate amounts of money to attend games,
00:22:18those fans that were given visas, I remember it was very
00:22:22difficult from fans from certain countries and certain locations to
00:22:26get visas if at all, referees were sent
00:22:30home because Donald Trump didn't like them, Janny and Fantino didn't do
00:22:33anything about that, and when you look at the cost
00:22:37around going to this World Cup, you asked me were the fans interest
00:22:41in at heart, absolutely not, with the tickets as well, FIFA
00:22:45decided that they would become a black market, FIFA became the middleman, so
00:22:49if I bought a... it for $,
00:22:51and decided that I didn't
00:22:52want it anymore, and then I went and sold it for $10,00.
00:22:56FIFA took a cut from me and if I sold it to you, FIFA took a cut from that
00:23:00too, they were the black market, it didn't end there, of
00:23:03course, all sorts of transportation issues were hiked
00:23:06up 10 times, uh, trains to the New York stadium were over
00:23:10$100, they're usually $10, and never mind the prices at
00:23:14the stadium, so of course the fans interests weren't at heart here and for
00:23:18lot the atmospheres as well, you had a... atmosphere outside, let me give
00:23:21you an example uh, when Argentina played, they have thousands and thousands of loyal
00:23:25fans from uh from from back home coming out to watch them,
00:23:29I would say that on the game, the night before their game, they gathered a
00:23:33park, they had an assado, a barbecue and they sang all night, of
00:23:37those fans around 60% them didn't have tickets, they couldn't afford
00:23:41it, they they made their way to the US and they were just
00:23:45there to be part the experience, they could not afford the thousands
00:23:49of dollars - that it takes to attend the game, so
00:23:52those are the fans we're talking about, those are the real fans, you football
00:23:56stadiums used to be in so often in leagues around the world from Germany to
00:24:00the Premier League all across europe in South America, that's the
00:24:04mecca, that's where you find the real fans and that atmosphere was a bit
00:24:08more linked in uh than it was uh one of those
00:24:11incredible European or South American or Turkish football
00:24:15stadiums, the fans interests weren't at heart, no a similar vein, I mean I
00:24:19went to few games,
00:24:20you know, a France game, a uh, what was it, a Germany game,
00:24:24and we were trying to get Voxpops from these fans wearing the Jersies of those
00:24:28countries, and most them, 95% them were like Americans, just
00:24:32interested, had the money, went to the games, but but you know,
00:24:36speaking the games, despite all that big money-making
00:24:40schemes, do you think the football
00:24:43actually, you know, did did it deliver cuz when we think about the
00:24:462022 Qatar World Cup, what we remember is that final 3-3 between France
00:24:50and Argentina, with this one, you know, four years later, will we remember all
00:24:54this extra finances involved? well, it's funny, you
00:24:58mentioned the Qatar World Cup, because we were talking about strictly football, the football was
00:25:01definitely better at the Qatar World Cup, and that's simply because there was more
00:25:05jeopady, there was more jeopady on the line, there were less teams involved, so you had
00:25:09bigger matchups early on, you had bigger teams going out,
00:25:13but you look at this American World Cup, and while I can't sit here and I
00:25:17can't sit here and say, oh, well, FIFA gauge... prices, people
00:25:21paid them, you look at the stadiums, Vancouver, Mexico, from Canada,
00:25:24Mexico to the US, the majority the stadiums were near
00:25:28enough at capacity uh
00:25:31on those days,
00:25:31so there was a demand there, but I think this demand uh
00:25:35was because it was in America, it was because we had three host
00:25:39nations in there, let's say you put the same world cup in
00:25:42Morocco, are you going to get a full house for
00:25:46knockout game between Canada and South Africa? I really don't.
00:25:50think you would, and and I think the expansion these world cups, if
00:25:54you're taking it outside the US, where it's a very capitalist market, where people
00:25:57are happy to pay thousands to be part the game day experience as you
00:26:01previously mind. there then yes, and I think FIFA
00:26:05saw this American World Cup as something uh where they could make
00:26:09record amounts of money. I don't think you'll be able to do the same with the
00:26:13same amount of prices if you go to Africa, if you go to South America,
00:26:17if you go to Australia or if you go to uh parts of Europe, it just won't
00:26:21fly. I'm I'm not sure why these football executives are always wanting to
00:26:25make things bigger and better. We we mentioned that 64 team
00:26:28option for the next world cup, it just feels too. much, but
00:26:32is that the only way that these executives can keep up with all
00:26:36the you know request to make more money, you
00:26:40know,
00:26:41in in the 48 world cup, i feel like the evolution of football kind of helped as well, you
00:26:45had lower sides still be able to produce good football, are we
00:26:49there in terms the 64 world cup? i
00:26:53think we're at our limit, tell when you when you look at this world cup, i mean of
00:26:56course there were the success stories Cape Verde going through, i
00:27:00think expanding more team. would simply dilute the
00:27:04competition and so quickly as well, to do it at the next
00:27:07world cup, I'll get it, it's for revenue, but we keep saying about
00:27:11revenue about how can FIFA make more money, the question is why does FIFA need
00:27:15to make more money, they're openly boasting about having billions
00:27:19in the bank, the they're not in debt, this is supposed
00:27:23to be not for profit organization, gianny infantino's
00:27:26rain is potentially about to come crashing down, only
00:27:30moments ago he was looking for. report from legends the
00:27:34game and it turned out he's got lugo
00:27:36uh on x demanding his resignation saying it's too late for
00:27:40Gianni to save his dignity but maybe he can save football uh by
00:27:44stepping down so look at this kind of attitude
00:27:48and the way we've seen the 55 UEFA nations
00:27:51abandoning uh Gianni Infantino shows you that
00:27:55perhaps this expansion this need and this
00:27:58obsession with how to make more money instead of how...
00:28:02to just enjoy the World Cup as
00:28:04it is, it's a beautiful game, it's hard to qualify, it's hard to win a
00:28:08World Cup, and this should be about the fans. Take a leaf out the
00:28:12Bundesliga's book when you look at the ticket prices, if the
00:28:16ticket prices for away Champions League games for Bayern Munich for
00:28:19example, on more than what the Germans would pay, the club subsidizes
00:28:23that, that is real football, that is what it's all
00:28:26about, and I don't think we can constantly sit here and say, how can
00:28:30FIFA make more money, and this expectation us, the consumer,
00:28:33us, the fans to constantly say, okay, well it's okay if FIFA
00:28:37expand, they need to make more money, they don't need to make more money, they've got more
00:28:41than enough money, janni infantino should have been happy with this $6 million a
00:28:45year salary, but he wasn't, and look where he is now, yeah, exactly,
00:28:49lance, always love talking to you, man, uh, we could do it all day long, they're saying we don't have all day
00:28:52long, lan Santos in London, my colleague, thank you so much for joining be on the game
00:28:56man, all right, what a developing story this
00:29:00whole FIFA investment plan, saga has been, i'm sure by the next time
00:29:04we talk about it, things will have changed so so much, maybe with different
00:29:08president, you don't know, i don't want to jinx it, but uh, that's it for this edition
00:29:11of beyond the game, thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time, bye
00:29:15bye,
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