White Elephants

How did this small, Middle Eastern autocracy, with no international soccer pedigree or modern stadium infrastructure, land the ultimate international sporting competition: the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Money. Lots of money.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Today’s episode is all about hope. The stunning success of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team offered FIFA a roadmap to a better way of doing business, one that promised soaring profits while embracing the organization’s core mission: to spread soccer and fair play around the ...  Show more

As things heat up in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Sean meets soccer journalist Philippe Auclair in a London pub (of course) to talk about the many crimes stalking the Beautiful Game—from bribery and fraud within FIFA, to the covered-up deaths of workers in Doha, and crypto a ...  Show more

An IRS agent uncovers a trail of embezzlement in an American soccer official’s transactions, the FBI investigates bribery allegations surrounding the World Cup bidding process, and a massive, international corruption scandal explodes in the heart of the world’s most beloved sport ...  Show more

Roger Bennet and Tommy Vietor are back for Season 2 of World Corrupt! And this time, Rog and Tommy are diving into how Saudi Arabia, the biggest exporter of oil in the world and a nation in the news for human rights abuses, became the latest geopolitical powerplayer sweeping g ...

FIFA’s World Cup of Soccer is a version of the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the Stanley Cup – all rolled into one very international extravaganza. This year, the games have been hip-deep in controversies that have nothing to do with athleticism.

Declan Hill is an i ...