The FootPol Podcast
The podcast that brings together football and politics. We'll be exploring the relationship between the two, both inside and outside the game.
The podcast covers "Big Politics" like politicians, clubs, international and national federations and other organised groups and how they use or abuse the game to "Small, Everyday Politics" in the form of community-level clubs, fan associations and the way that football reflects the political challenges of our day to day lives.
The FootPol Podcast is brought to you by co-hosts Drs Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton.
The FootPol Podcast
Carnival or Control? Politics and the 2026 World Cup ft. Pete Watson & Roger Magazine
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As the 2026 World Cup approaches, how will geopolitics, migration policy and fan culture shape the tournament across the United States, Mexico and Canada? In this episode of FootPol, Guy Burton is joined by Pete Watson (University of Leeds) and Roger Magazine (Universidad Iberoamericana) to unpack the political fault lines running through the next World Cup, from US intervention in Venezuela and FIFA’s alignment with Donald Trump to visa regimes, immigration enforcement and security-heavy hosting models. Focusing on Latin American perspectives, the discussion explores rivalries, national memory, diaspora fandom and the risk that surveillance, ticket pricing and border controls could suppress the carnival atmosphere that defines World Cups. With Mexico navigating a secondary hosting role, US venues poised to dominate the later stages and Canada largely out of the spotlight, the episode asks whether 2026 will be remembered as a festival of football — or a case study in how power, politics and security reshape the world’s biggest sporting event.
