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Speaker 1: It's the most popular sport in the world, two hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty million players in two hundred nations. Soccer is

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Speaker 1: the sport of the people. At the top of the

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Speaker 1: professional pyramid is FIFA, somewhat mysterious group of elite businessmen

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Speaker 1: who promote the sport and organized the biggest international sports

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Speaker 1: contest on Earth, the World Cup. Yeah, it's the pud

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Speaker 1: It's ultimate game, like every four years. It's the ultimate

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Speaker 1: celebration of the splendor and brilliance of the beautiful game.

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Speaker 1: It will be some can can on the show Sunday

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Speaker 1: say tonight's from all the champions over lall. This clash

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Speaker 1: of nations generates four and a half billion dollars in

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Speaker 1: revenue and attracts more than two billion eyeballs. That kind

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Speaker 1: of influence can move international agendas. But behind the excitement

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Speaker 1: and spectacle lurks an ugly truth and assorted history, as

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Speaker 1: allegations of corruption within FIFA have now infiltrated every level

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Speaker 1: of football's global governing body. In two thousand and fifteen,

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Speaker 1: American authorities rated a five star hotel in Switzerland and

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Speaker 1: arrested some of soccer's top executives. It was a corruption

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Speaker 1: scandal that rocked the world. FIFA now a byeword for

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Speaker 1: global corruption and introduced us to a cast of criminals

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Speaker 1: and shady characters, the rival even the most dramatic floppers

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Speaker 1: in the game. The list of crimes is long, including rocketeering,

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Speaker 1: fraud and money laundry. Bribery and FIFA go together like peanut,

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Speaker 1: butter and jelly. But FIFA's problems didn't start in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, and they're far from going away. The

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Speaker 1: FIFA scandal rumbles all. This is the story of the

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Speaker 1: largest corruption scandal in history in the world's most popular sport.

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Speaker 1: The story of how a ruped a few turn the

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Speaker 1: beautiful game into an international con job. And as soccer

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Speaker 1: begins it's March towards this year's World Cup. In the

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Speaker 1: tiny gas rich nation of Qatar, this multibillion dollar business

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Speaker 1: continues to operate out of bounds. You'll hear all about

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Speaker 1: it on our new podcast, The Lords of Soccer Al

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Speaker 1: FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game. I'm Connor Powell. The twelve

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Speaker 1: part series from My Heart Radio and Inside Voices, launches

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Speaker 1: June sixteen. Listen to The Lords of Soccer on the

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Speaker 1: i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts.