The joy the World Cup is giving so many across the globe is undeniable. But there’s a duality to the tournament, and as we’ve been showing you in Mehdi’s original Zeteo series ‘The Dark Side of The World Cup’, there’s always something more sinister beneath the surface.
While Iran’s games offered its fans a welcome distraction from the war being waged on the country, the treatment of their team by the US government was deeply offensive and unfair. And while Congolese fans reveled in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s run to the knockout stages – the denial of a US visa for the team’s most famous fan also reiterated that the U.S. is not fully open to the world. FIFA’s inability to hold Donald Trump to its espoused principles of inclusivity and the protection of human rights will be a stain on this World Cup.
But as Mehdi, researcher Daniele Serapiglia, NPR journalist Jasmine Garsd, and Human Rights Watch’s Minky Worden explain – it’s not a new story.
Go on a journey with us in episode two of ‘The Dark Side of The World Cup’, where we unpack FIFA’s long history of coddling and enabling undemocratic regimes – from 1934 with Italy’s Benito Mussolini, to Argentina’s military junta in 1978, to the controversies and scandals that plagued Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022.
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