‘BLATANT MONEY GRAB’ - Is Trump’s America squeezing the joy out of the World Cup?
6/12/202630 min
The World Cup has kicked off, with three red cards and a win for co-hosts Mexico while the USA face Paraguay later, but President Donald Trump is set not to attend America’s opening game.
Before a ball was even kicked, this tournament wasn’t short of controversies, from strict border controls and eye-watering ticket prices to the prospect of two countries who are at war with each other playing a game of football.
So, has the beautiful game’s biggest tournament become impossible to separate from global politics? Is this simply the reality of staging a World Cup across borders in an increasingly divided world - or are the doubters right that this World Cup could be spoiled by the drama off the pitch?
On this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy was joined by our sports reporter Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, superfan Billy The Bee who is in Mexico right now and will head to America to follow England’s games and journalist Marcela Mora y Araujo.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsBilly Grant· Guest0:00
The USA, they've sucked the joy out of the World Cup.
Marcela Mora y Araujo· Guest0:02
Everything's, like, happening as we feared. FIFA, their whole ethos, the remit is to make as much money as possible.
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan0:10
We're seeing people being excluded from this World Cup. We're seeing fans priced out of this World Cup because of the people that are, that are kind of like, you know, pigs in the troughs, really getting their, their hands dirty on, on what's supposed to be, as I mentioned, our game.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy· Host0:23
In the long history of FIFA being a farce, we see Infantino now taking it to new, new levels.
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan0:29
I think the Americans see it as, "No, this is, this is, this is our World Cup. For six weeks we're in charge. It's our thing. You gotta do things our way."
Krishnan Guru-Murthy· Host0:36
Hello, and welcome to The Forecast. The World Cup was always used by authoritarian regimes to wash their reputations in a six-week festival of football, toning down their more repressive tendencies for the period. Think Russia, Qatar, Mussolini's Italy. But Trump's America has little interest in pretending to be anything other than itself. Border controls, immigration crackdowns, hyper commercialism, eye-watering ticket prices, and a game of four quarters as ad breaks are dressed up as hydration breaks. So will security and profits squeeze the joy out of the greatest show on Earth? Or will we tune it out, focus on the football, and enjoy us all once again? I'm joined by our very own Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, super fan Billy the B Grant, who's in Mexico right now, and by sports journalist Marcela Mora y Araujo. Billy, let's