And

then the President of the United States pardoned the guy and made him U.S. ambassador to Paris.

So this is a hugely well-connected group of, quote, private investors that are connected to Trump very, very directly.

And it throws into question a number of decisions during this last World Cup.

For non-soccer fans, let me take just a quick moment.

There was a huge controversy when an American soccer star got a red card and received an automatic one-game suspension for the next game.

And Donald Trump phones up Infantino along with his Jeffrey Epstein-connected Secretary of Commerce, that's Howard Lutnick, and they have meetings with Infantino, who's the president of FIFA, saying overturn this decision and allow the U.S. player to play.

Where is this going to go, and will it get past the irony and get to a place where this plan dies and there's a new way of running the World Cup or it stays as it is without private equity, without this deal?

Did you ever come across any, any of this when it comes to match fixing, uh, during World Cup qualifiers?

It's so commonplace, certainly in West Asia, that it was spoken about as almost kind of an occupational hazard, uh, by the top international referees of the Asian Football Confederation, AFC.

You know, various sheikhs would walk into the dressing room and throw down quarter of a million dollars and say, "Get me a penalty or send somebody off." Gulf monarchies are renowned for their horse and camel races and the pride that these guys take in, in having the best stables.

It's the same thing with their national football teams.

Could this in turn have fueled conspiracy theories of government intelligence agencies trying to influence what happens on the pitch to achieve security goals even at the biggest tournament on Earth?

I remember when I did an interview with Sepp Blatter, the former secretary general and then president of FIFA.

He spoke about the presence of Asian match fixers at every single one of FIFA's tournament.

That's starting at the under 17, under 20 Women's World Cup and the men's football tournament itself.

But did you watch the 2026 World Cup, and what were your thoughts of what you saw unfolding?

Yeah, look, I did watch 2026.

I'm a passionate fan of international soccer.

I risked my life, as you know, portraying various criminal gangs who corrupt, bake international sports tournaments and sports leagues around the world.

So for me, 2026 was not as bad as 2022.

2022 in Qatar...

It was literally, the World Cup was built on a pile of bones and blood.

which

Maybe they should ignore it, but Declan, your thoughts?

Well, I had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing.

I mean, Infantino would say something like that.

But, you know, let's just call him out on this.

Have you ever done this before? Have you ever changed the rules under this particular statute before? Oh, once in 1962, they allowed a Brazilian player to play in the final object, seek a red card.

They allowed Cristian Ronaldo, because he got a red card in a friendly game, number of months before the world cup to play the full world cup but those are the only exceptions to this rule and in neither of those other two cases did the president of the united states of america phone up infantino and say hey you're hosting this multi-billion dollar worth tournament in my country can you re-look at this rule that will benefit me and my team.

Because let's also look at the political issue here.

But I was just wondering, like, Do you think FIFA, such a huge organization on the world stage, is there likely to be match fixing going on there? Or is it more confined to maybe college sports or other sports? Like which sports has got the most corruption?

Why does it have so many swear words surrounding that acronym and the characters, the current president Gianni Infantino, the president before Sepp Blatter? Why are they such controversial figures? How would you sort of corral that into a few sentences?

Well, listen, anyone who doesn't know the history of FIFA and the background of FIFA, sit down.

This is such a wild and wacky ride.

It's extraordinary.

First of all, they are a legally defined criminal organization.

The Southern District of New York is the court circuit that hears the big mafia trials, the five families, the Russian mob, whatever.

And in 2015, U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI arrest Over 40 of the senior FIFA executives bring them to that court circuit.

And it's been going on since for decades, hasn't it?