The day Infantino & Trump BROKE the World Cup - The Sports Agents

**Rob Magowan** (0:00)
This has now put a cloud over the tournament, and FIFA have brought this, and Infantino has brought this, all on themselves and himself.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:08)
You're part of the FIFA team.

**Donald Trump** (0:10)
That's good.

**Adam Crafton** (0:13)
This is kind of FIFA overstepping about the thing that everyone cares about, which is, can my team win a game? FIFA had lost control of their own tournament.

**Hercules Gomez** (0:25)
He's forever going to be known. This is going to be the Balogun situation, that this is going to follow him around for the rest of his career. That's the terrible thing for this player who had himself a ridiculous World Cup and opened a lot of eyes.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:36)
And you definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize.

**Nedum Onuoha** (0:41)
FIFA became political, and that ultimately means that the leader, in my opinion, has to change.

**Adam Crafton** (0:49)
This is a global production.

**Rob Magowan** (0:57)
Hello, welcome to The Sports Agents. Hi, Nedum, all good?

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:01)
Oh, superb, saying yourself.

**Rob Magowan** (1:02)
How's America?

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:04)
It's American, yeah. How are you, where are you?

**Rob Magowan** (1:08)
Just in a UK heat wave.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:10)
Oh, all right, okay, decent, yeah. No, I can't appreciate it.

**Rob Magowan** (1:12)
I wouldn't like to be playing football in this heat. I'd need a hydration break.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:16)
Do you need a hydration break or two? Just one or two, what do you reckon?

**Rob Magowan** (1:19)
I'd probably need about seven in a 45-minute half. I'll let you in to see that I played paddle on Sunday with three former professional footballers who were all probably between 15 and 12 years younger than me.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:36)
Do you know what, fair play to you, Chappers, fair play. I think for those guys to ask you to be involved and for you to be able to back it and then go and work afterwards.

**Rob Magowan** (1:44)
They want to humiliate me, Nedum.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:46)
Were they better or worse than you thought they would be?

**Rob Magowan** (1:49)
Oh, no, well, Rooney and Joe Hart were incredible.

**Nedum Onuoha** (1:53)
Incredible? That's a statement.

**Rob Magowan** (1:54)
Yeah, very, very good. Micah thought he was Boris Becker reincarnated, not that Boris Becker is dead, but Boris Becker reincarnated and he didn't move a great deal, but just stood at the net.

**Nedum Onuoha** (2:06)
Yeah, with all due respect to Micah, knees-wise, I think he looks like he's lost a lot of weight, to be fair to him.

**Rob Magowan** (2:12)
Shout out to Micah. He's lost a lot of weight, as has Wayne, actually. They both lost loads of weight.

**Nedum Onuoha** (2:16)
Yeah, fair play, fair play. I think from Micah's standpoint, I don't think he's helping the knees out that much. So yeah, he will be a net player.

**Rob Magowan** (2:24)
I don't know what he was like when you were around him, football-wise, but he didn't shut up for the whole 90 minutes that we played. He, like, commentated on the whole bloody thing from start to finish.

**Nedum Onuoha** (2:35)
Welcome to the professional experience, Chappers. Like, footballers and pros being quiet is as rare as it comes. It is relentless and worse, though, when you enter that environment, you get a chance to see how competitive it really is. And it's not mild, is it?

**Rob Magowan** (2:48)
No, it wasn't. Anyhow, just about survived.
It's been another big week at the World Cup. We'll come on to the football a little bit later, but unfortunately, we have to start with the politics.

**Donald Trump** (2:59)
But all I did, all I did, I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. And, you know, again, I'm good at this stuff. I didn't think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled. That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that would be different. And I think it's a terrible... If they wouldn't allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best, maybe among the best players on the team to play, I think it would have had a big stain.
And I related just that to you. I didn't tell them what to do. I can't tell them what to do.

**Rob Magowan** (3:36)
So can Gianni Infantino survive his friendship with Donald Trump? Adam Crafton from The Athletic, who broke the story, and Hercules Gomez, former US. Men's National Team player and current ESPN analyst, are both with us. I just want to start with you, Adam, before I know Nedum has got so much to say on this that basically I'm just going to put my feet up for the next 15 minutes.