Sep 24, 2026 · 48 min · 11 segments
Austin and Amit come out of hibernation with a run-down of some of the happenings in international football: from a(nother) expanded World Cup, to the news around the USMNT, Germany, France, Portugal…
Yeah, I mean, like, I think you and I are obviously we don't need to relitigate the whole what was that? What was it called? The FIFA advanced FIFA? I don't know.
And, you know, put money directly in the pockets of federations as if FIFA wasn't already putting money directly in the pockets of individual federations.
I think it's pretty obvious that you and I are both probably generally against that idea of international football, while also acknowledging that $20 million is a lot of money for the Bhutan Federation or the Sri Lanka Federation, whoever it may be.
Yeah, I think enough confederations at the continental level and at the thinker level of soccer were like, hey, we can't do this.
But as you outlined, from a member perspective, there's a reason why guys like Infantino have had success.
If you say, hey, support me and the dollar number in your bank account goes up to do more soccer things.
And so I think the role of FIFA in international soccer is very clearly not so cut and dry, good and bad from where it was maybe 10 years ago, right? It's very much at odds with the spirit of the game, but also like the protector.
Like, okay, you can get $20 million now, but what are you sacrificing in the future? And that's where kind of the bigger confederations slash federations come in and say, this probably isn't so good.
I think the second biggest subplot is, you know, we're less than four years out from the 2030 World Cup and we don't exactly know what that World Cup is going to look like, right? We're in this in-between of, are there going to be 48 teams? Are we doing that again? Is there going to be the 64-team expansion, which is being pushed heavily, obviously down here in South America by the powers that be, self-servingly so that there can be more games in South America at that World Cup? And it kind of feels like all of this will hinge on the whole Infantino re-election campaign, right?
Yeah, I mean, like, I think you and I are obviously we don't need to relitigate the whole what was that? What was it called? The FIFA advanced FIFA? I don't know.
And, you know, put money directly in the pockets of federations as if FIFA wasn't already putting money directly in the pockets of individual federations.
I think it's pretty obvious that you and I are both probably generally against that idea of international football, while also acknowledging that $20 million is a lot of money for the Bhutan Federation or the Sri Lanka Federation, whoever it may be.
Yeah, I think enough confederations at the continental level and at the thinker level of soccer were like, hey, we can't do this.
But as you outlined, from a member perspective, there's a reason why guys like Infantino have had success.
If you say, hey, support me and the dollar number in your bank account goes up to do more soccer things.
And so I think the role of FIFA in international soccer is very clearly not so cut and dry, good and bad from where it was maybe 10 years ago, right? It's very much at odds with the spirit of the game, but also like the protector.
Like, okay, you can get $20 million now, but what are you sacrificing in the future? And that's where kind of the bigger confederations slash federations come in and say, this probably isn't so good.
I think the second biggest subplot is, you know, we're less than four years out from the 2030 World Cup and we don't exactly know what that World Cup is going to look like, right? We're in this in-between of, are there going to be 48 teams? Are we doing that again? Is there going to be the 64-team expansion, which is being pushed heavily, obviously down here in South America by the powers that be, self-servingly so that there can be more games in South America at that World Cup? And it kind of feels like all of this will hinge on the whole Infantino re-election campaign, right?
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