World Cup 2026 special issue ft. Danyel Reiche & Tamir Bar-On

The 2026 World Cup is already generating political heat long before kick-off. In this episode, Francesco is joined by Tamir Bar-On and Danyel Reiche, sport and politics experts and editors of a new special issue in Soccer & Society on the World Cup 2026 to unpack what the tournament reveals about global football and world politics. From the first-ever tri-nation hosting arrangement across the United States, Mexico and Canada to debates over security, migration and soaring ticket prices, from Trump's personal ambitions to the growing global reach of the tournament through its expanded 48-team format, this episode covers all the main Footpol themes!  

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the football podcast. Today I host my partner with us. I'm particularly happy because we've got uh a very topical um episode. We're gonna be talking about um the politics of the uh World Cup that starts in a few days. Uh and we've got two excellent uh guests for the topic, Tamir Baron and Daniel Reige. Tamir and Daniel, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Francesco, for having us.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Thank you, Francesco. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yeah, thanks for your time. And Daniel, for you of course, is is a second time, and and if listeners have not done it, we had an excellent episode on, should we say, the politics of um football in Germany, and particularly the 50 plus one uh um model that I really encourage listeners to go and check out because it's very, very interesting. But today we're talking about a different different topic completely. But before we go there, I just want to give a bit of background. Um, I mean, people that uh research and work sport and politics in particular are familiar uh with you guys, but for listeners more in general, let me give you just a bit of a bio uh on uh beyond what you guys have done um uh in in the area. So Daniel uh Daniel Reik is an associate professor at the Department of Government and Society at the United Arab Emirates University. Uh in the past, he has taught at several institutions, including American University in Beirut and Georgetown University in Qatar. He's a graduate of Leibniz University in Germany. Um his past research has focused on two areas energy and sport and politics. Um, and the latter has been his recent priority, luckily for us. Uh he has published widely in both areas. Um within sport and politics, um Daniel has edited uh with Tamil Sorek um a volume titled Sport Politics and Society in the Middle East, which was published uh by Hearst Oxford University Press in 2019. His peer-reviewed articles have been published in both area studies journals and broader um oriented journals. Um he has also published uh Success and Failure of Countries at the Olympic Games in 2016 with Drautlich and is the chair of the Political Studies Association Sport and Politics Study Group. Tamir Baron is an assistant professor at the Rabdan Academy. Um he completed his PhD from McGill University. He was a professor researcher at Tech de Monterey and a member of Mexico's national system of researchers. Um Tamir is also taught at the Royal Military College of Canada, Wilfred L'Oreal University, the University of Windsor, and Yale University. He's a specialist on radical right, extremism and terrorism. So listeners may also be familiar with with that part of your uh work, Tamir. And he has uh published numerous peer-reviewed articles and eight academic books. But very much like Daniel is also an expert on sport and politics, um, football in particular. Um, he's published uh two volumes in this area: The Word Through Soccer, The Cultural Impact of a Global Sport, and Beyond Soccer, International Relations and Politics Seen Through the Beautiful Game. Both of these have been published by Roman and Littlefield, and we will then um include uh links to uh publications by both Daniel and Tamir um to the show. So if people want to go and check it out, um it's easier to uh uh to find their work there. So really looking forward to this chat. I mean, one of the reasons why we got you guys here is because uh it just had a special issue coming out on the uh World Cup, which I'm gonna be perfectly honest. I've got an article in there, so I've got some kind of vested interest in these. But can you tell us a bit about the special issue and what is what is in there?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Sure, okay. So um I think uh I'll tackle that question. Uh thank you very much, uh Francesco. So uh our idea was to uh uh in fact have uh a group of scholars opine about the 2026 World Cup. Um and uh we collected uh scholars from different disciplines. We have uh political scientists, uh we have uh economists, um, we have uh people that are doing anthropological studies, um, and we separated the special issue into uh five different themes. Uh those uh themes, and here Daniel can can jump in as well, uh, include uh uh security themes, they include uh uh the the uh economics of the world cup, they uh include uh soft power and football, they include uh uh the World Cup and fandom, and uh they include um the North American culture uh of the World Cup, because for the first time this World Cup is going to be hosted by three North American countries, the uh Canada, the United States of America, and Mexico. Um uh and so those are the basic themes. Uh and uh I also, like you, Francesco, I did a piece in there uh on uh FIFA World Cup Security, uh, in which we try to look at three different ways in which we can conceptualize uh FIFA World Cup Security. Uh of course, Daniel also has a piece in there, uh uh, and that's uh more uh related to uh the United States and uh North American football. Um but uh yeah I think I'll stop there.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

And I think we should add that Francesco has an article in it titled The Greatest Theater on Earth, World Cups a Spaces to Represent Political Causes.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

I should have really gone for a shorter title. Could you remind us the title of the special issue? Is it out already?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Uh so the title is The North American World Cup uh 2026, and the publisher um uh so it's a soccer and soci the journal's name is Soccer and Society, it's published by Taylor and Francis. Um, and officially that's published in June and July. Uh but the publisher has already released the articles online. So if one goes on the soccer and society page, and many articles are also open access.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Okay, that's great. So, I mean, Tamir, you mentioned that uh you guys have got specific country expertise on the countries that are also in the World Cup. But before we go there, can I ask you something a bit more generic on kind of the relationship between sport and politics, just to start our conversation? Uh now, obviously, uh both in terms of the um special issue, but also of your own work, there is a sort of there are views or there are there is an understanding of how sport and football specifically can help us understand the world. Um, so what do specifically major tournaments like World Cup tell us, or or how can they how can they help us understand and explain international politics? Why are they important as well?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

So I I think there are there are many ways in which this answer can go, but one of the first things uh that that I can underscore is that there are going to be 48 participating teams. So, in a sense, this can help us look at the national teams themselves and what they represent. That is, uh, they represent, do they represent nations? Do they represent sovereign states? It's very interesting that not all of the participating teams this time uh are actually sovereign states. Uh Curaçao is actually a very good example, right? Uh technically, it uh belongs uh to uh the the Netherlands. Uh and obviously it's it's fairly autonomous and it has a national football team, it's uh within CONCACAF. So I think um football and the way it's structured can help us understand things like nationalism, uh it can help us understand sovereignty. I think if you look at, for example, who hosts World Cups or who has won World Cups, this as well, I think, can tell you about the nature of the power worldwide. Uh so if you look at who has won World Cups, it's only a handful of countries that have won World Cups, and they've all been from Europe and South America. Uh if you look at hosts, uh, Mexico is an interesting example. Um it's unusual because it's the first country that's actually hosted the World Cup three times. And so what does hosting of a World Cup tell us in terms of the desires of the country in hosting the World Cup? What is it trying to achieve? What type of um legitimacy is it trying to gain? Are there economic motivations that it's trying to achieve? Or um does it simply tell us that Mexico has actually quite good political acumen within FIFA? So, I mean, I can go on about what it is that the World Cups can tell us about politics, but those are just a couple of examples that might be useful.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Daniel, you wanna uh you want to add something there?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Yeah, absolutely. I think um uh I would say we are moving towards a multipolar world of football. Um, and um maybe the difference to international politics is that the great powers in politics are not necessarily the great powers of football, as for example, the example of China shows. Uh, but uh the similarity is that um uh so there's not only uh I mean when it comes to World Cup champions, as Tamir mentioned, yes, but uh when we look at hosting, at participation, it has become much more inclusive. So every World Cup was either hosted by uh Europe or South America, with the notable exception of Mexico until 1994. And then we got a much more diverse uh uh um uh hosting, so 1994 the US, 2002 uh Japan and Korea, uh 2010 uh South Africa, 2022 Qatar. And when it comes to participation, um so um when I was born, uh 16 teams only participated in the World Cup. And then the first World Cup I actively remember 1982 in Spain. For the first time we had 24 participants, then 1998 France, we had 32, now 48. And I know that uh many you know Western football fans from countries like mine, Germany or England, see the very critical uh and say, Oh, the quality of the play goes down, but no, uh, you know, I think uh football is a true global sport, and more countries uh uh deserve to participate. Um, and also it's not fair that some continents are dominating. Um, and um so uh in 1966 in England, uh before the World Cup, the African countries boycotted the qualification because there was not one guaranteed spot for Africa, they were supposed to compete with Asia for one spot for Africa and Asia together. So after this boycott since 1970, Asia and Africa have one spot each. And if we look now at 2026, we have 10 African and nine Asian countries participating. I think that's great. And if people criticize this, okay, then please offer that Europe gets much less spots, but no one is offering that, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:01

That's a very good point. I should remind listeners that uh we have had uh a month ago an excellent episode on Curaçao in the context of we are having an episode episode on all the new new journals, and so people should go and check this out. Okay, let me take advantage of your expertise on uh the countries that are hosting the world cup. You mentioned that uh this uh formula of sort of three countries is uh an interesting one, it's and it's it it's kind of it's new. So, what about the three countries that are hosting the World Cup? Um, is football important there? Is it uh um uh what is what is the relations of sort of the politics and football? I know it's a very broad question, but what can you tell us there? What should we expect from those countries and what should people keep an eye on from the point of view of Mexico, Canada, and the and the US?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

The three cases are quite different, and uh Tamir lived very long in Mexico and he's a Canadian citizen, so I think he should answer on those countries, but I can talk a bit about the US. Um, so I think um in the US, there's always this phrase of exceptionalism when it comes to US soccer, uh, because it's not the most popular sport, uh, which is true, but it's you know, there are other countries. I mean, uh India, cricket, New Zealand, uh rugby, and so on. So uh there are a couple of other countries in the world where uh soccer, football is not the number one sport. The second, what is special about the US is the popularity of women's soccer and the success of women's soccer, um, and uh much more successful than the men. And um, although it's not the main sport uh on TV, um, which is more American football, baseball, basketball, um, uh hockey, but but uh uh soccer is doing very well when it comes to participation. Yeah, so uh it's uh one of the most popular sports when it comes to grassroots participation. So I think soccer is doing pretty well. It has a couple of specifics which are shaped by the American sport culture. One is that uh in the professional leagues there is no promotion relegation. Um, and um uh the interesting thing is uh that there is not the major league of soccer, but there is another professional league, the USL, which is soon uh um um starting with promotion relegation. So that's one big change. And the MLS uh they uh is running so far from the uh during the calendar year, from the beginning to the end of the year, they soon changed their schedule from fall to spring, so aligning with the major European leagues. So that's interesting. And when we look at specifically college soccer, the topic I have researched and the importance of college soccer for the national team, we see also another alignment with global trends. Because in 1990, when the US participated in the World Cup for the first time since 40 years, um all the 22 players had a college background. 19 of them even stayed the full four years in college. Um, and um that's not the case anymore. In 2022, in Qatar, just eight of 26 had a college history, and uh only three of them stayed for the full four years. So now they go to the academies of the MLS club, they go to academies of British German teams. So here we can clearly see that the US is more aligning with global standards, although I would like to mention uh my last point that uh when we look at the women's soccer, the colleges still play a major role. And still um uh almost all the players in 2023 at the World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, still 21 out of 23 of the players in the squad had a college background. So for women's soccer, it still plays a major role. So here we can see uh the US has its specifics that are shaped by a general sport culture, but it's increasingly moving towards aligning with global trends.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

That's great, thank you very much, Tamir. You know, take uh Canada or Mexico first.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Sure. Uh I'll take Mexico first. I lived there for 14 years, and I would say that Mexicans are obsessed with football. Uh, or sometimes they'll call it football soccer to differentiate it from American football. Um, because they, you know, is so close to the United States and they have so many connections with the United States. Um I noticed uh in Mexico uh that uh football is you know almost on the verge of a national religion. Uh but what plagues Mexican football is um in fact not qualifying for the World Cup because they qualify for the World Cup repeatedly, but it's getting to the quarterfinals. That is, and it's an obsession. You have so many Mexican commentators talking about this. Why can Mexicans not get to the quarterfinals? What is it about the national psyche that you know prevents Mexicans from getting to the quarterfinals? Um so I think that's really interesting. Now, in terms of the link to politics, I think you know there are a few things that I can underscore. One is going back to the 86 World Cup when Mexico hosted. Um, and the games were extremely well attended. Um and uh, you know, Mexico, I think, uh uh certainly had a positive image from the world as a result of the World Cup in '86 and 1970 hosting those. But internally there were serious problems. One year before, in 1985, there was a major earthquake in Mexico City, and the government's response was poor to say the least. And um so this was remembered by the population. And when the president and other political officials went to the stadium, they were roundly booed, showing displeasure with the fact that Mexico hosts the World Cup, but they can't deal with the ramifications of an earthquake, and they cannot assist the population. I think similar discontent exists right now for this World Cup. Many Mexicans ask themselves, as cartel violence increases rapidly throughout the country, they wonder why it is that Mexico spends so much money on a hundred thousand security personnel? Why is it that Mexico spends so much money on hosting World Cups? Can Mexico not spend more money on education, on fighting institutionalized corruption, on uh doing something about the disappearances of so many people within Mexico, uh, the femicides, right? The women that are just killed because they're a woman. Um so um I think you know Mexico's problem is that they come out smelling pretty good for the rest of the world, but this doesn't quash internal domestic discontent. People kind of read through the hosting of the World Cup, and many read through it as well, the government is just trying to wash its hands of all these massive problems that we have at home. So that's that's Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Mexico, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Do you want me to say Canada a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Tell us a few things about Canada, yes, please. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

I mean so very, very different. I think it's not a hegemonic sport, as Markovitz would say in Canada. There are other sports that dominate um principally the national sport, which is lacrosse and really the most popular sport which is ice hockey um but uh just like in the united states the trend is particularly amongst immigrant communities uh and on the grassroots level soccer is the fastest growing sport um now what's interesting i think about football in canada if we take the last world cup where canada uh participated just for the second time ever in qatar um you had in fact a team um a national team that was in a sense very representative of canada that is um canada is officially multicultural since 1988 and uh the national team um had uh um approximately 25 percent uh people who are immigrants first and second generation and if you look at canada's current population today uh over 8 million people um 23 percent of the population are of immigrant background and that's just going to keep growing because Canada is one of the biggest immigrant receiving uh countries in the world and as for example Europe increasingly closes its borders uh more and more people are looking to destinations like Canada that are perceived to be as more welcoming uh towards uh immigrants um in terms of hosting the World Cup um I think there is um some uh trepidation uh there is there's um a bit of disdain for FIFA the fact that it you know most of the profits accrue towards FIFA from World Cups um and yet um the Canadian government has to put in so much money as well as you know perhaps provinces and municipalities so I think this is a big issue um and uh but uh it will be interesting uh to see how well Canada performs and if it can eventually get its first win. Uh I'm thinking they're playing in my home city as well in Toronto so I hope uh that they can get at least the first win first ever World Cup win um perhaps in Toronto. Their group is I would say now that Italy is out yes I'm sorry for you Francesco really and it's a great footballing country as well so I'm sorry for that uh but given that they're not there and that you have uh Bosnia there and you have Qatar in Switzerland I think that's a pretty favorable group and you know I could see um I mean I think the European countries are quite strong but I could see a possible win against Qatar and you know maybe a uh tie against Bosnia um I'm not so sure about Switzerland that might be a tall task uh so let's let's see uh if they can get their first ever win.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

If I may add a mini detail on on Canada with what is interesting is that we have three Canadian clubs in the major league of soccer um Toronto, Montreal and the Vancouver Whitecaps though there are currently discussions that um the Vancouver Whitecaps might relocate to the US so this remains to be seen what's going to happen. And um also um I think it's interesting Tamir the popularity of the Mexican team in the US because there are so many people of of Mexican uh origin in the US so the US is a huge market and Mexico likes to play have games of its national team in the in the US so um so there are some connections between uh the three countries in football terms.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Okay thank you very much it was an excellent overview of football cultures in the uh in the three countries and I think perhaps sometimes the differences between the three countries are um from a football point of view have been a bit um ignored not ignored but not considered so much because the focus has been so much on on the on the big orange elephant in the room one one might say uh now obviously there's been uh there's been a lot about um the impact on of the war on Iran and the war between the US and Israel and and Iran um and what is gonna what it means in terms of the World Cup and particularly on the sort of uh President Trump um Gianni infantina relationship and how this has been managed so far so I mean obviously this there's just a few days before the start of the world cup but we got no way of knowing you know what the developments are gonna be but what what can we say about that um is the is kind of is FIFA gonna be able to isolate the World Cup from from what happens at outside should we should we expect fireworks?

SPEAKER_01 27:55

What is your take on this i'm I'm fully aware I'm trying you I'm asking you guys to guess what's gonna happen in the future so what what can you tell us though I mean uh look uh Iran uh won their qualification group in Asia they were by far the best team so they deserve to be in the World Cup and there is now recent uh precedent of an exclusion of a country in the World Cup and I would assume that Infantino in his conversations with President Trump made it clear that um there can't be a World Cup without all the countries who who qualified. What's going to happen during the World Cup, I think that would be really a guessing game. I would assume maybe some of the supporting staff might have difficulties to enter the country, etc but I doubt that would happen with players. So we need also to see whether all Iranian players will be nominated and are able to participate that were in the team that qualified because there have been recent incidents with with players who you know there's a player who plays in the United Arab Emirates and he recently posted the picture with the ruler of Dubai and now there are statements from the Iranian Football Federation that he he cannot represent the country anymore.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

So we need to see whether these things are really happening or not at the time of the speaking we don't know the squad and we don't know how smooth the uh entry into uh the US goes um certainly um it's it's a unique situation that we have uh a country hosting uh a World Cup that's um uh doing a war on another participating countries um but I think it would be certainly a win for football and for FIFA uh if uh Iran participates they certainly deserve to participate and uh let's keep in mind they play two of the three matches in Los Angeles which some people joke is one of the largest Iranian cities in the world so there are lots of expats who literally hate uh the Iranian government you know so there won't be pro-regime statements from from supporters it's it's more of it will be more of the opposite Tamir what's your view so um my view is that um it will be very interesting to see if hostilities resume and let's hope they don't okay because that will will will change things uh quite a bit and uh then you know we might uh be in a different situation I don't know uh but uh in terms of you know obligations of FIFA obligations towards Iran as a qualifying country I think those are very clear it's it should be there right it it has uh uh a lot of merit in terms of its uh very arduous qualification phase um what I think is will be helpful in terms of you know undermining kind of issues of let's say the Iranian team or other teams getting into the country is perhaps the the the very cozy relationship that Trump has with Infantino. Infantino uh we know that um uh he has an office in Trump Tower this is very interesting we also know that the first ever FIFA Peace Prize went to none other than uh Donald Trump which was kind of like a compensation for him not winning the actual Nobel prize which was won by the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado there is um some precedence here for um World Cups and FIFA as a kind of impetus towards peace in 2001 there was a parliamentarian from Sweden Laris Gustafson and he actually nominated football uh for a Nobel Peace Prize uh saying that it um acts in a sense as a mechanism for unity uh for uh countries that are uh perhaps don't have relations or that have conflicting agendas and we should remember that at the 1998 World Cup there was that famous photo uh between the US and the Iranian team before the match um I think it was a nice gesture uh you know officially there are no relations between the two countries um uh since um uh the aftermath of the Islamic revolution in 1979. Um and so there is a way in which football sometimes has a kind of positive impact on societies. And um uh I hope uh that uh for this world cup um that you know the the the despite the fact that there uh was this war uh um and that the Iranians uh nonetheless will will be there and that we can somehow um in some senses try to and I know it's very difficult to disentangle you know the let's say the political from the human uh because after all I mean these are you know football players um and they they have a lot of merit and they they actually uh qualified and so they they deserve to be there irrespective of what we think of the politics behind everything.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

I mean the issue of football funds and who gets to go to the World Cup has has dominated uh the news in the last couple of weeks both in terms of the cost of the World Cup but also in terms of kind of visa policies and and people just deciding not to go up because they come from certain countries or they express some political views. This is not is it is it a normal thing is it something happens in all World Cups or are we is it a bit of a sort of exception and and should be what should be we should we be worried about it from the point of view of us as football fans more than political scientists?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

I mean we have two issues here one is that uh it's very hard for uh people from few qualified countries to to to actually make it to the US because there is a US travel ban on some countries or for some other countries uh you know it's hard it's just a difficult process to apply for a visa because you need to leave like a large security payment. But I think for me uh the major issue uh of this World Cup is the lack of of affordability you know um so this dynamic pricing I think it's scandalous that it's happening and uh I mean even if Iranians could travel to the US I mean who could afford you know uh so uh I as a middle class uh uh uh uh man I won't travel to the World Cup because I think it's too expensive if I would go there with my kids etc it's like several months salary you know so I think the prices are crazy and uh I really uh regret you know uh that uh FIFA is doing this I mean okay they want to increase a bit uh the revenue from ticketing uh apart from uh uh sponsoring and and and and broadcasting uh a major pillar uh of of their revenue stream uh but but uh I I think that's what I see really very negative. I mean this is a high cost and uh football is a sport uh for everyone uh but not at this World Cup.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yeah and I I would add uh you know to kind of uh chime in on what Daniel is saying the um national coach of the Scottish team has actually uh even exhorted um Scottish fans not to go if it's going to create problems with their families, right? If they're not going to be able to afford it and they're going to be indebted. So you know clearly some things are you know more important uh than than um going to a football match and um it it's quite astonishing though nonetheless how these prices have been g uh these tickets sorry have been gobbled up by uh by fans around the world um I'd be curious to know um who those fans are right that are going um and from which countries um but um I I agree with with Daniel that you know one major piece of reform has to be um those ticket prices uh with FIFA not to speak about many other problems that FIFA has um you know including you know issues of institutionalized corruption thank you very much so I have the luxury of having two not one but two expert experts on sport and politics today so I I'm gonna ask you something slightly different we talk about the obvious issues that that might dominate the World Cup but what else might be if you look at the calendar the the matches taking place I don't know the environment all of these issues what might be the other things that from a sport and politics point of view dominate the world cup what could be kind of the the X factor the surprise thing that we have not been talking about much and then actually dominates the the narrative I think it's hard to say you know uh um uh each world cup has its topics um in Qatar uh there was this issue the the New York Times wrote an article the World Cup 33rd team so there was like so much solidarity with Palestine and people were waving Palestinian flags um and uh so that was an issue in Qatar um and um here certainly uh we will see a wave of US nationalism because it's also the 250th birthday during the World Cup and uh Trump is trying to to to to use that and we also have the midterms in the US coming up um so it's hard to see you know hard to say because um some things can also happen that none of us uh can can anticipate yeah so i i i would say that you know an issue that is particularly complex is how do you coordinate different types of security both traditional and non-traditional security when you're hosting a World Cup consisting of you know three sovereign countries and 48 national teams so I think there's a lot of unpredictability in relation to that and a lot of complexity um and of course you know the three sovereign countries are just hoping that it ends uh and that it was wonderful and that there was no there were no major issues so I mean in the last few years the last few editions we have seen teams like Morocco or Japan doing very well and and beating the some of the traditional powers but we have not still we've not yet seen a sort of surprise winner.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Could this be the the right World Cup to see maybe an Asian team or or an African team winning and what would that mean on the on the football pitch and beyond that what what would you say?

SPEAKER_00 40:46

So I think it's plausible uh that we have um an African or uh an Asian winner I I would put my best bets on uh Morocco that finished fourth at the 2022 World Cup and um in my estimation an Asian country that goes under the radar in terms of football and that's Japan I see great progress in their football um and so that's like a dark horse for me um I think that in terms of Morocco the investment in football has been tremendous uh particularly since 2009 and now we're we're we're seeing the results I'm curious to see that they can maintain kind of the same standing as 2022 and at least enter the semifinals but I think if they do they're they're uh certainly it's possible that they they win the World Cup. And I think should that happen I think that would be a source of great pride for um I think non-Europeans and non-South Americans particularly uh the African and Asian continents I'm not sure whether I think that an African or Asian country is winning the World Cup.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

So in the past we had eight countries winning the World Cup. I don't think Brazil will win another World Cup. I don't think Germany will win another one Italy's not qualified Uruguay I also don't think they win but I if we look at the other for Spain, England, France and Argentina I think it might be one of those uh as a German I would find it a bit funny if England wins their first World Cup since 1966 with a German coach.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

But let's see okay well thank you so much for your time it's been such a fascinating conversation I hope you you enjoy your World Cup.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

So I mean is it Canada for you or is there any other team that you're gonna be looking at specifically so yeah you know Canada and you know given my uh 14 years in Mexico my wife is also Mexican uh so I'm I'm going for uh Canada and Mexico and uh you mentioned that you had a podcast on smaller footballing countries it would be nice to see you know um some upsets so you know I I really appreciated the first match of the last World Cup in 2022 when Saudi Arabia in in what was you know described by many people as a miracle defeated uh Argentina which became the champions um so it'd be nice if a uh Cape Verde or a Curaçao or you know the likes of uh Jordan you know um do do well um uh at least even have uh one or two upsets uh from uh those uh smaller uh nations as a German I have very modest goals you know the last two world cups Germany didn't survive the group stage so if they survive this time the group stage I would be already very happy and if if they don't it's gonna be your team then Daniel that's hard um you know I was always following US soccer all my life so I always liked the US national team um and um of course I will also follow bits the countries here from the region uh I mean Tamir and I are both based in Abu Dhabi but the UAE has not qualified but it will be interesting uh Qatar Saudi Iraq how they're doing yeah okay thank you very much for your time and I hope you will you enjoy uh the World Cup and and speak to you soon thank you very much thanks Daniel thanks Tamir thank you Francesco thank you Francesco before we go could I please remind our listeners to subscribe uh like follow share rate our podcast on whatever hub they're getting it from it would really help us and also please do get in touch with us um with feedback um advice on what guests we should be having on or uh ideas for episodes just tell us you know I I like an episode on that topic and we'll make it happen uh people can get in touch with us in different ways we got an email footballpodcast at gmail.com uh you can find us on blue sky you can find us on Instagram the handle is football for all of these or you can get in touch on LinkedIn with me or with Guy so it's quite easy to to reach us um please do uh we we really rely on listeners for ideas um thanks again for your support and I will see you or speak to you in next in two weeks time bye bye