Why FIFA Prefers Working With Dictatorships 

When -Gru- Infantino attended the Women's WC in Australia recently he asked for government supplied security but was told the FO. 😆

I really do respect your unsolicited honesty in these videos, I think most youtubers would hide away and sugar coat these sort of topics!

This is the reason why Bharat (a.k.a. India) is not interested in hosting a FIFA World Cup atleast for the next 25 years.

I wish I could put my finger on why stadiums like the Rose Bowl seem so much more fitting for a World Cup than those like the So-Fi. I think it has something to do with their unadorned epic scale connoting both accessibility for the little people and an openness to the elements, and by extension the world. They remind us that it is the people's game. The So-Fi seems like a palace where only the worthy may pass the threshold; it's grotesque

If you look at how my country Myanmar being allowed to host football tournaments despite the ongoing genocide by our brutal dictator from a group called Tatmadaw, you will understand what FIFA is representing.

A simpsons reference just confirms that you Alfie are one of the good ones. You put out banger after banger videos with football content that no one other does. Hope your 2nd channel grows big aswell

For the intellectual underpinnings of how football (and society). is run these days, look no further than the founders of neoliberalism, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. Whose thought influenced a literal overthrow of a democratically elected government in Chile, 50 years ago this month, where it was thought a brutal dictatorship was necessary to make the country safe for international capitalism. In a coup, regarded as the ‘original 9/11’ (taking place on September 11th 1973). I know this goes beyond the remit of a football discussion, but the relationship between democracy and capitalism, has always been a toxic one. Yet vested interests try and convince us, you can’t have the former without the latter.

What on earth is going on with Ajax? Their bad form plus chaos among the fans would be a great video, good doc as always Alfie

FIFA have been corrupted for more than ten years and they would just want to earn far too much of the money for their own beneficial and never to develop the footballing landscape on the whole,good friends!!!🙏

The answer is simple:they do it for the money, not for ideology.

but but but we need to "keep politics out of football" 🤥

FIFA really wants to work with Xi, but Chinese football is just soooooooooooooooooo bad

It feels weird being schooled on how the world really works by a football pundit.

I love that Alfie is speaking about topics like this, because it reminds me that not everyone in the world is completely careless about the way football is developing

We can even go further back, 2010 and 2014 were played in some of the most corrupt democracies in the world

Another fantastic video. I'm not American, but I think that NFL stadiums are very impressive.

2026 was supposed to be in 3 Canadian cities: Toronto, Vancouver, and Edmonton. Edmonton was not chosen, because the city demanded to host knockout matches. The mayor said only by hosting knockout match can they justify spending the cash needed to host the World Cup.

The FIFA should just discontinue and a new world football asociation should be created but without the corruption this time. It's goal should be promoting football, not making money.

“A kleptocracy ruled by a much less charming Dobby the house elf.” “What is Russia?” “Correct.”

Ronaldo (yes, R9 himself) said at the time, in response to the protests leading up to the World Cup: "A World Cup isn't made with hospitals or schools."

What on Earth is going on at Chelsea? (As a Chelsea fan, I humbly ask you to cook my football club with no remorse.)

What on Earth is going on in El Salvador? From corruption in the National team, to the league in shambles, not being able to qualify for a World Cup in more than 40 plus years. I would love your personal insight from an outsider looking in and how it went wrong and still is. Thanks Alfie, keep up the great work 🙏🏽

Another beauty!!! PROUD TO HAVE VOTED ALFIE IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONTENT AWARDS!!!!! If this channel doesn’t get some recognition I will eat all the brown paper bags stuffed with FIFA’s dirty cash!!!!

You have to look at Kazakhstan as an example. Despite being an authoritarian state, it joined UEFA in 2002, not because of developing football, but because it wanted to embezzle money from UEFA financial support. UEFA is much richer and superior than AFC, so Kazakhstan dictator could use them for its need. And FIFA endorsed it after Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey pressured. Simply put: FIFA facilitated it because Asian countries were mostly poor at the time. UEFA has since made new requirements, starting from 2016, that nations with autocratic tendency will be limited of hosting chances, known as requirements of specific criteria relating to the respect of human rights. This was done prior to the UEFA Euro 2024 bid between Germany and Turkey (another dictatorship) to warn dictators that playing in Europe isn't for free, after the mistake of giving Azerbaijan the rights to host the European Games in 2015. And to demonstrate the promise, UEFA recently banned Russia, an authoritarian state, from qualifying for World Cup, Euros and other club competitions, while signifying that Belarusian teams must play outside Belarus, after the invasion of Ukraine. Baby step, just baby step, however... When you look at the fact that Kazakhstan has played numerous friendly games against Asian opponents prior to 2024 Euro qualification (not counting the Nations League), I think that they knew their days of staying of UEFA is numbered. The Kazakh dictatorship is afraid and perhaps they will try to negotiate for a potential return to AFC since AFC is more tolerant to dictators than UEFA. And with FIFA being true to its role as a corporation, it may endorse Kazakhstan's readmission to AFC, no? Especially given that Russia is also discussing about moving to the AFC as the mean to keep up its authoritarian tendency.

FIFA and The Olympics are wonderful things that disappoint you every time you see them in the news. Whether it be their actions or the actions of the actions of the countries they host in or both, there's always something these two are involved in.

Damn Alfie not pulling any punches here! Once again asking the hard questions and shining light on some of the darkest areas of the sport. Cant give you enough plaudits on your work, please keep making amazing content ❤️

alfie and his dreams of seizing the means of football authority for the glory of the proletariat

Simply put, FIFA loves those who have money and power, rather than those upholding democratic values. If China is allowed to host the FIFA World Cup, it will be granted. That's the problem.

Putting Morocco in the same sentence as North Korea, China, and Saudi Arabia is literally insane😂😂 At this point if you're a Muslim country that automatically means you're a dictatorship😂

Regardless of complications, FIFA is eager to work with the US because the US TV rights for a tournament hosted in the nation are going to be off the charts. US television rights are enormous compared to those in any other part of the world.

at the end of the day, making profits is much more important than human rights

I think a country's WC bid should be outright rejected if they don't already have all the necessary infrastructure in place!

Winston Churchill - “democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others that have been tried.”

I live in Pasadena and remember the 94 World Cup final. After the game thousands and thousands of people headed to Old Town to celebrate. Such a great stadium. As a comment in this video says it's a stadium for the little people. Fifa wouldn't be able to swindle the rich people with luxury suites.

Also applies to the Olympics and World Cups in other sports. If I were the head of the global governing body of a sport and Saudi Arabia offered to build 8 new state of the art stadiums to host the World Cup, something Germany or Canada wouldn't offer because of public backlash in those countries, it would be stupid of me to reject the Saudi offer. And that's excluding the bribes. P.S. - Would love a what the hell is wrong with Ajax and Basel

Laughed out loud at your description of dear old Suella, what an evil woman.

Brit imperialist calling 'dictatorship' *unsubscribe*

I really hope that the 2026 World Cup Final will not be hosted at the AT&T Stadium. The pitch is absolutely awful, artificial turf and really dangerous, Australia played Mexico there the other week, and everyone expected at least one injury, and sure enough, Jackson Irvine will be out for most of this season. Of course they would replace it with real grass for the World Cup, it's a matter of principle lol.

Alfie has just criticised Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Putin and FIFA in the same video. Expecting him to disappear in mysterious circumstances soon.

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 551) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

I can't wait to watch my first live World Cup match in 2026 in Nashville. Especially since I boycotted the last one and didn't watch a second. But Nashville is supposed to have a new stadium by 26.

Less paperwork and bureaucracy.

By the way,congratulations to your beloved Hull City for the yesterday's 3-1 away win at Stoke City to move your team to fourth in English Championship standings with fifteen points,good friend Alfie Potts Harmer!!!🏋‍♂️

That picture at 11:22 is haunting

easy question, fifa prefers countries that will forego the most basic of human rights so we can have our fireworks show for a month while poor workers spend four years either dying or being crippled for life building stadiums

If you can allow the US to host the games then allow those other countries to do the same

This darkly reminds that only 10% of us are living in democracy and FIFA is complicit on it. We should feel grateful toward being democratic, rather than living in authoritarian nations.

My new favorite comeback for "womens football isn't good" is "yeah, well, at least their last 4 world cup hosts aren't awful dictatorships". They did have that stint with China in 07 but for the most part it's been pretty good countries.

Sooooo North Korea for the next world cup announcement?

That every Nation gets 1 Vote in FIFA allows smaller countries to gang together in Block votes to swing things their way. A system based on FIFA Rankings would be fairer to the better football teams - so bottom place San Marino get 1 Vote all the way up to top place Argentina get 211 Votes.

If FIFA really cared about Human Rights, they would always need to host the World Cup between San Marino and Costa Rica because not even the "democracies" of the West have a clean HR records, far from it.

Because dictatorships get things done quicker and easier. Wink wink.

Another brilliant video, the level of satire is phenomenal. You mentioned a potential video on how billionaires may have more power than government in some cases, would a video on how EPL owners have the leverage over UK Gov (e.g. no independent regulator yet) be a good example of that perhaps?

A video on Jorge Mendes next?

Uefa loves them too,uefa cup finals are exclusively hosted in countries with strongman leaders,Hungary is hosting an event every season,they hosted the bubble tournament, Ukraine under Putin's puppet leader,turkey.

Democracy doesn’t exist outside a few places such as the Zapatista territory in Chiapas. So honestly FIFA probably loves most of the world.

Simpsons is bigger than Manchester United

The last few videos on this channel have turned into preaching dribble like I get what your talking about is wrong but I didn’t come to a soccer channel to be preached about the right and wrongs for 30 minutes

Alfie, just announce you're standing for the Lib Dems in your constituency.

Alert! Alert! Look well at the rainbow. The fish will rise soon. Chico is in the house. Visit him. The sky is blue. The fish will not take much time to rise. The fish is red.

I swear I've seen at least three different Putins in this video.

alternative title: "why a corrupt dictatorship prefers working with dictatorships"

Mind you, America are still miles ahead of all four previous hosts in terms of press freedom and protest rights

Turns out when a dictator wants something (like a soccer tournament), they don't let pesky things like people safety of living conditions of their people get in the way. FIFA loves that go getter attitude!

the use of the word dictatorship is getting thrown around here very loosely

Love the videos but hate your commentary that goes up an octave on the last word of every sentence.

And they just gave the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia…

All things considered, one could almost say that FIFA is a facilitating entity, or at least an adjunct to, fascist/ authoritarian regimes. Probably the best football video ever but never sell out to zombie Mass Media puppets Alfie. Although the cost of new US stadiums and TV revenues partly explains it - if you haven't made one already that might have slipped my attention - can we have a video explaining why the upper reaches (and a fairly large proportion of the lower reaches, if one earns below £300 a week) of English football have now largely become a largely boring, middle-class game ( despite the Media's cheery delight in maintaining that everything in the Premier League is as natural and as pure as it can possibly be) instead of a working class or peoples' game (and why I can't afford a pint in any pub except Weatherspoons that's outside the city centres of UK cities or a ponsified football, or other, venue). Cheers.

It’s amazing that the FIFA’s officials are like between Ed Wuncler Sr from the Boondocks and a Bond villain level of evil is just comical at this point. Same with the Olympics lol

Just accept the fact that not every country is a Liberal Democracy

I’m just here upset that my former mayor refused to host World Cup or Copa America matches in my home city of Chicago. Maybe it’ll change in the coming years. Maybe it won’t

If you can allow the US to host the games then allow those other countries to do the same

Do a video of the downfall of Ajax

Excellent reporting as always. One of my best subscriptions

Idk why a world cup can't be organized outside of the government, just use the stadiums that already exist. I get it, not every country has giant ones already, but nor do most countries have enough money to up and build one for the purpose of a 4 week tournament.

0:05 head phone warning. Owe my ear lol.

I have to admit Alfie, sometimes I drift away for a bit when listening to you - but, you make stellar content, and you excel at deep-digging journalism. Keep at it ❤

Moneyb without don't question ask?

Because they throw lots of money at them?

For FIFA it's "all about the money, money."

Answer: Money

SC call really love dictators it would love the United😂😂😂 whether or not most people think the United States of the three kind of shape are not the United States really is

#thepeopleschannel A documentary of non league team fisher fc would be good :)

The benevolent dictator is absolutely possible and the best possible thing, it's just admittedly very hard to find

FIFA "We don't want Governments interfering in football" Also FIFA "We want Governments to stump up loads of money for international tournaments" Like the Olympics, the World Cup certainly, should be based in an international mandated territory for both events, not a country.

I think FIFA hates the fact that CONACAF is hosting the 2026 World Cup, because they can't take anything from the pot, as stadiums like SoFi Stadium, Allegiant Stadium, AT&T Stadium, MetLife Stadium, Mercedes Benz Stadium and Lincoln Financial Field are already there and have all the infrastructure in place, and sure Lincoln Financial Field might be the oldest stadium I listed as it was built in 2003, but it's still a well maintained venue as it hosts Philadelphia Eagles and Temple University football, was the first home for the Philadelphia Union, will be the host to WrestleMania 40, and has hosted big events such as the NHL Stadium Series outdoor games, multiple NFC Championship games, the annual Army-Navy game, hell, the area that Lincoln Financial Field is in can actually handle multiple events at once, recently there was a Mexico game played at the Linc, and at the same time the Philadelphia Phillies were playing in the National League Championship Series at Citizens Bank Park and the Philadelphia Flyers held their home opener at the Wells Fargo Center, all three buildings in the Philadelphia Sports Complex along with every parking spot on the complex grounds being sold out

Well, now FIFA will love to see another one in 2026 when they come to the US. I figured by then Trump will reign supreme, Putin style.

I'm actually looking forward to the World Cup in North America hopefully we can enjoy the football n be so involved in political landscape of the hosting country.

My only critique is that when talking about fifa dont carring about HR is that Alfie did not talk about US and their beauty (sarcasm) penal system.

Based

Fact check: Argentina was selected as the host before the junta came to power.

Im not at all making a case for dictatorship here, I’m happy with a democratic system. But in reality anyone would prefer to deal with a dictatorship. Especially when it’s something the dictatorship wants to do like say host a World Cup that they bid on, it may not be people’s cup of tea but it’s no doubt a hell of allot easier to get things don’t in a dictatorship when you’re doing something the dictator wants to happen. I mean duh

Instutitions are made of people. People like to be aquintances of rich and powerful people. There is no personal gain from doing the opposite, on the contrary, that may harm you pretty badly when you have the authority to derail the plans of those powerful rich people.

Because they are easier to work with its as simple as that. We may not like it, but unfortunately, that's how it works

I don’t mean to alarm anyone but I’m getting a sense this FIFA company is a tad dodgy

FIFA been corrupted for over 100 years, look at Mussolini world cup which was 100% fixed Which included refs even tackling and passing. Argentina 1970 corrupt world cup, ussr winning euros despite most teams refusing to play communists. Fifa has always about who gives them the most money or who makes them the most money.

"Human rights? But what about human wrongs?" ~ Gianni Infantino, probably

It's all about money.

We need a “what on earth is going on at Ajax” video so bad

Lots of money, very stable, and most importantly less paperwork and regulations.