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TRANSCRIPT
Bill Connelly: It does feel like FIFA is really kind of trying to test the boundaries here of like, how how miserable can we make everything beforehand and have still people still show up and watch and pay and have a great time. We’re going to find out because the game always rules.
Jane Coaston: I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show watching Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal make a Trump-nominated candidate for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals extremely uncomfortable.
[clip of Senator Richard Blumenthal] Let me ask you, was the Capitol attack on January 6th?
[clip of Daniel Mack Traynor] Senator, the actions on January 6th were deeply troubling to watch, but I’m not going to characterize it beyond that.
Jane Coaston: It turns out even basic questions are tough when you have an orange president to please. On today’s show, we get into the messy politics of the World Cup with ESPN’s Bill Connelly. Before we get in to all that, here’s what we’re following today, Wednesday, June 10th.
[clip of unnamed news journalist] [?], Mr. President, about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning. Could that be a–
[clip of President Donald Trump] No.
[clip of unnamed news journalist] –negative look for Republicans?
[clip of President Donald Trump] The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation.
Jane Coaston: Add loving inflation to the list of things President Trump and I don’t have in common. Rising gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in three years last month. The Labor Department said consumer prices rose 4.2% in May from a year earlier. That’s the third straight monthly increase. Inflation had been cooling before Trump imposed sweeping tariffs in April of 2025. Prices have since surged after the Iran War made oil and gas more expensive. Which is bad! And speaking of war, the U.S. launched airstrikes early Wednesday against Iran, and Tehran fired back at countries in the region. While taking questions from reporters at the White House, Trump elaborated on this Truth Social thread that said, quote, “they’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price.”
[clip of President Donald Trump] Well, we’re going to be attacking them, and attacking them very hard.
[clip of unnamed news journalist 2] You’re resuming bombing?
[clip of President Donald Trump] Yeah, well, we are. Based on the helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that.
Jane Coaston: A U.S. Army attack helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. On Tuesday, Trump said the helicopter was shot down. An official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity said the helicopter had collided with an Iranian drone.
[clip of President Donald Trump] We’ll see what happens. But we hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today in case you miss it, in case you don’t turn on your television set. And we’ll see you what happens with the deal. We’re really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers.
Jane Coaston: Amid all his blabbing, Trump signed a bill into law today that gives his immigration and deportation agenda a nearly $70 billion boost for the rest of his time in the White House. House Republicans pushed the measure through despite the objections of Democrats. The law brings to an end a nearly six-month fight over Department of Homeland Security funding, which began with the shooting deaths of two U.S. Citizens during federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year. On today’s segment of who tweeted that, I bring you an absolute gem following Tuesday’s primaries. Quote, “enjoying my first cup of coffee since getting my ass kicked last night and reading about how Dems nominated the guy with the Nazi tattoo.” Any guesses? If you said South Carolina Republican representative Nancy Mace, you’d be right and she’s not wrong. Mace came in fifth in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial primary. Trump-backed Lieutenant Governor Pamela Yvette will face State Attorney General Alan Wilson in a runoff on June 23rd. And that guy with the Nazi tattoo? That’s Graham Platner. Platner won the main Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, setting up a high-stakes race against Republican Senator Susan Collins. It’s a resounding victory for Platner in the face of numerous scandals. And that’s the news. [music break] Let’s talk about the World Cup. The World Cup is the world’s biggest sporting event, with an estimated five billion people watching the tournament in 2022. This year’s edition will make history in two ways. It’s being hosted by three countries, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and it will feature 48 teams, expanded from the previous field of 32. Fans of Argentina, Cote d’Ivoire, and other countries have already flooded TikTok and Instagram with their journeys to watch their favorite teams play. But also at play are a lot of politics. That’s not new, of course. But what is new is how the Trump administration is influencing events on and off the field. For one, there are travel bans that have made it impossible for fans from Iran and Haiti to go to games in the U.S. There’s also the expected presence of immigration and customs enforcement officers at stadiums, and FIFA’s generally cozy relationship with Trump. Basically, the president is making an already weird and wild sporting event even stranger. So how will politics impact the World Cup this summer? To find out, I spoke to Bill Connelly. He’s a staff writer for ESPN covering soccer and college football. Bill, welcome to What a Day.
Bill Connelly: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Jane Coaston: The World Cup is kicking off this week, first with a game in Mexico City on Thursday and then with a game in Los Angeles on Friday. But not everyone who is supposed to be here has been able to get into the U.S. Thanks to the Trump administration’s immigration policies. What do we know about who’s getting in and who isn’t?
Bill Connelly: Number one, we know there’s you know one of the top refs, a guy from Somalia, not let in, went back to a hero’s welcome in Somalia apparently, and apparently they couldn’t just rearrange the schedule to where he refs in Mexico or something, so he just got sent home and we have one fewer ref now than previous. And then as of like less than two weeks ago, the Iran team will be allowed into the country to play their games. Um, but a lot of their staff were still waiting on visas and I don’t think they’re all that optimistic. And I think, you know, there was a rumor that they were going to have to leave by midnight on the day of the game, get back to Mexico. Um, But that, that might turn out to be false. We’ll see, we might give them a little more flexibility than that. But regardless, that has definitely happened. And honestly, you, know, just from the general inflexibility of the United States, uh, when it comes to opening up some of these policies, like for for Russia and Qatar, there was no Russia did not have a visa process and with a FIFA pass, you could basically get into Qatar for the time of the tournament. And the U.S. never agreed to that, no matter you know two different administrations didn’t agree to that because of general, whatever, immigration or terrorism concerns. But um obviously it’s gotten a little more stringent. They’ve talked about loosening things up, but that came a little too late. And so I don’t think many fans from some of the affected nations even tried to come. So we don’t know how many of those would have, you know, been turned down to begin with.
Jane Coaston: How do you think that’s going to influence just the game environment? Because one of my favorite things about watching the World Cup is seeing, you know, you see the interactions. I mean, we’ve been seeing in the friendlies, you see interactions of like, fans of like Australia and Mexico, and fans of like Cote d’Ivoire have taken over Philly. Like that’s one of my favorite things about the tournament.
Bill Connelly: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: If you have fans from a bunch of these countries who literally have tickets but can’t enter the United States, how’s that gonna influence the game environment?
Bill Connelly: Well, I mean, I think already the ticket prices themselves are going to influence it a good amount to begin with, just because we’ve priced out a huge portion of the world’s population um with the ticket prices. And obviously some of these will come down at the end, the tickets will be unsold, then you can snatch them, upgrade at the last second. Not anybody was coming over from you know Tunisia or something on the off chance that they could get a cheap ticket at the last second. So I mean already um you know the environments were going to be impacted regardless. And obviously now there are certain countries that probably won’t have much fan support beyond, you know, people who are dual citizens or who are already here. And, um, you know, maybe they can make up the difference that is, it is one of the best things about soccer in general is just the environments that it can create. The world cup was already a little behind in that regard because of all the travel involved and the costs. And this one’s going to be behind even more.
Jane Coaston: Let’s, let’s just back up for a second. The world cup is a massive deal for soccer fans.
Bill Connelly: Yes.
Jane Coaston: Soccer players, professionals, people all over the world, like Didier Drogba helped pause a war when Cote d’Ivoire made it to the world cup, like 20 years ago. So it’s inherently political and has been, but what do you think makes the world cup specifically such a political flash point year after year? Is it about the teams playing each other? About FIFA? What, what is it?
Bill Connelly: Yeah, I mean, part of this is is just the most popular, everything we think of with football in the United States, soccer is for the rest of the world. You know, world’s a big place and it’s going to stir up a lot of passion. It’s gonna get a lot of very influential people involved as is. But for the last 50 years, FIFA, 50 plus really, FIFA’s kind of mastered this little game where in the name of spreading the game. Um, they’re also buying influence and, uh, buying, you know, buying literal things, uh physical tangible things, because, uh you know if you’re running for FIFA president, every country gets a vote and so what’s the best way to win that vote, uh scoop up all the smaller countries that don’t have the influence and want to have influence in this world, uh. You know, and if you are an ambitious country, like say Qatar, uh there is an obvious path to kind of buying your way in, uh you know, the biggest, I think the, what is it 2010, when the 2018 and ’22 World Cups were awarded simultaneously. Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president at the time, just basically wanted to buy a, not a FIFA Peace Prize, a Nobel Peace Prize. And he wanted to basically set it up so that they could award 2018 to Russia and 2022 to the United States at the same time, bring the world together, make everybody a happy, harmonious place and get himself a Nobel peace prize. Um, because that didn’t happened the way it did, and because they were basically working so far out into the future, everybody who was on that council, who, who voted on the world cup sites, basically realized this is their chance for one last score. And, uh, that opened the door for somebody to usurp the United States, kind of cut in line a little bit. And, ah, it ended up being awarded to Russia and Qatar at the same time, which then massive corruption charges, um, you know, heads rolled, so to speak. And, and they kind of cleared out the leadership and Gianni Infantino came in. With the lesson that basically our problem was we were corrupt in private, as opposed to just being openly welcoming of all money of any kind out in the open. And he’s taken things to a new level, it seems like.
Jane Coaston: We’ll get back to my conversation with Bill Connelly in a moment. No stoppage time or VAR required. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a 5-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]
[AD BREAK]
Jane Coaston: Let’s get back to my conversation with ESPN’s Bill Connelly. So the World Cup always puts its host country’s problems in the spotlight. Uh Qatar, it was having migrants build all your stadiums in 300 degree weather. And here in the U.S. in 2026, that means immigration. So as we discussed, some people aren’t being allowed to enter the country, whether they’re referees or fans, but also the Trump administration has confirmed that ICE will be present at the US World Cup games for quote, “national security.” What do we know about what ICE will be doing at those games?
Bill Connelly: Um. We’re all very curious to find out. It is going to be um, I mean the details have obviously been very sparse but part of anybody covering the World Cup for ESPN and everybody else, that’s right at the top of the list of things to to watch for because yeah, they haven’t really hidden any of this and you talk about things that are going to impact the the crowd, the level of the crowd the intensity and fun in the festivities. This is supposed to be the most fun event in the world. Obviously FIFA tried to, you know, well, it won’t be you know, people can still get in and everything, but they clearly do not have any say in how this is going to go. And I think we’re all very, very curious once the matches start, um especially with the United States match in Los Angeles on Friday, we’re gonna see. We don’t really know yet because they haven’t said anything beyond there will be ICE presence. And we’re very excited to see what that means.
Jane Coaston: So despite all of the politics that show up every time, the World Cup is still at its core, like the mecca for soccer lovers.
Bill Connelly: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: But I was thinking about for this World Cup where I was going into it feeling so negative and then you start seeing videos of people like traveling across the country and going to Buc-ee’s for the first time.
Bill Connelly: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: Or you see you know Morocco fans, like celebrating in the streets because their team is here, you’ve got fans from Norway taking over parts of New York. Do you think that this World Cup will be remembered differently because of the politics? Or do you think that the power of the sport can overcome the politics again?
Bill Connelly: It does feel like FIFA is really kind of trying to test the boundaries here of like how how miserable can we make everything beforehand and have still people still show up and watch and pay and have a great time. We’re going to find out because the game always rules it just it’s unavoidable for all the talk about Qatar and all the build up to that World Cup. We got a France Argentina final that might have been the best final in the history of the World Cup it was just a magnificent match and you know, especially with the expanded field. Granted, that makes this thing last about a year and a half. It’s just gonna be the most exhausting tournament ever. But then also, you get almost every star that you can think of in this sport is going to be in the United States or Canada or Mexico playing in this event. You’re gonna have all the star power. You’re going to have all the countries who can make it. You know, I’m covering a match in Kansas City. Get to see the Netherlands, the orange army of fans. Very excited about it. We’re gonna see the social videos of it. It’s–
Jane Coaston: Are they going to do the right left thing? Oh, that’s going to be so fun.
Bill Connelly: I, they better. I’m going to have to, you know, if they don’t, I’m going to have to get everybody back outside to line up and do it so I can see it. But um.
Jane Coaston: Uh, for those who are not aware, the fans of the Netherlands do this line dance thing where they all yell like right and left and it’s if you’ve ever watched like 10,000 people all doing something while looking like they’re having the best time, it it rules.
Bill Connelly: No, it’s going to be the power of this event and the power of the sport, the fact that so much of the world is obsessed over it and so many fanbases are just so fun to be around while this is all going on. It’s going be fun. And it’s just a question of whether the off the pitch stuff, uh pitch, by the way, pitch off the pitch.
Jane Coaston: Yes. Pitch.
Bill Connelly: Um. You know, that it’s how much of a distraction that really provides, you know with the ICE presence and all these other things, it has been so conflicting trying to prepare everything that we’re going to prepare for this, for covering this tournament because there are these horrible annoying things and also it’s going to be great. There are going to great matches and that’s going overpower a lot of it.
Jane Coaston: Bill, thank you so much for joining me and enjoy the games.
Bill Connelly: Absolutely.
Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Bill Connelly. He writes about soccer and college football for ESPN.
[AD BREAK]
Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, say goodbye, maybe, to warrantless surveillance and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Trump’s decision to name Bill Pulte acting Director of National Intelligence might mean that Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will sunset at the end of this week, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. And admittedly, it’s a little funny that a major facet of the American security state might disappear because Trump wants to pick a guy everyone hates for a position he shouldn’t have. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Fohr, Erica Morrison, and Adriene Hill. Our team includes Hayley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.
