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Speaker 1: The circular conveyor belt a cabman Dou's Trobooven International Airport

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Speaker 1: is chaos. Passengers returning from Qatar elbow for room to

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Speaker 1: grab their cellophane wrap suitcases and battered cardboard boxes filled

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Speaker 1: with expensive and hard to get stuff like flat screen TVs,

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Speaker 1: mobile phones, and designer clothes. But in this clamor you'll

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Speaker 1: find another type of traveler, eyes swollen with grief, clutching

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Speaker 1: crumpled tissues, reaching into the jumbled mess of luggage to

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Speaker 1: claim something far more precious. The big wooden boxes they

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Speaker 1: reach for are sometimes a light beige color, other times

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Speaker 1: they're painted a bright red. They all have the same

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Speaker 1: words stamped on the side, human remains. We've got coffins

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Speaker 1: coming home every day more than a worker day on average,

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Speaker 1: is dying. It's a senior see repeated in airports across

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Speaker 1: Asia and Africa. FIFA's alleged tradition of bribery is taking

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Speaker 1: a real human toll. Ever since the tiny oil rich

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Speaker 1: nation of Qatar was awarded the World Cup in that

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Speaker 1: sham election back in two thousand and ten, millions of

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Speaker 1: migrant workers have fled the soul crushing poverty of Nepal, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan,

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Speaker 1: the Philippines in countless other countries for jobs building Qatar's

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Speaker 1: World Cup stadiums, new roads and tourist hotels. But opportunity

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Speaker 1: has come with a deadly price. In the last decade, thousands,

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Speaker 1: yes thousands, of these temporary workers have died, their families

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Speaker 1: left to scuffle with tourists to retrieve their remains. The

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Speaker 1: Guardian found that over six thousand, five hundred migrant workers

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Speaker 1: have died in Qatar since the country was awarded the

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Speaker 1: contract for the two World Cup. More than six thousand,

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Speaker 1: five hundred people, just regular people trying to make a

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Speaker 1: better life, killed while working in Qatar. It's hard to

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Speaker 1: wrap your head around a death toll that large, and

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Speaker 1: if you can believe it, that staggering number might even

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Speaker 1: be larger. The exact number of workers killed in support

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Speaker 1: of the World Cup isn't truly known because Qatar, FIFA's

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Speaker 1: World Cup partner, refuses to release the information. The Guardian newspaper,

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Speaker 1: which initially compiled the list of deaths, only had death

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Speaker 1: records from five countries India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

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Speaker 1: Many other countries in Africa and Asia refused or are

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Speaker 1: unable to provide the data, so it's almost certain the

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Speaker 1: total is higher. But the scale of the death should

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Speaker 1: be world shaking news on its own, and I guess

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Speaker 1: the average soccer fan hasn't even heard about it. I'm

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Speaker 1: Connor Powell. This is episode twelve Qatar. By listening to

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Speaker 1: this series, you now understand FIFA's dark history. It's racist origins,

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Speaker 1: it's misogyny, it's coziness with authoritarian regimes, it's singular pursuit

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Speaker 1: of profit, it's systemic corruption. And you've heard how Qatar

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Speaker 1: won the rights to host the biggest sporting event in

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Speaker 1: the world, and how that sketchy vote led to the

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Speaker 1: indictments of dozens of soccer officials in two thousand and fifteen.

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Speaker 1: But with the first match of the World Cup just

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Speaker 1: months away, I want to explain to you in detail

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Speaker 1: that two thousand ten selection of Qatar is doing to

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Speaker 1: some of the poorest people in the world. And why

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Speaker 1: a desert country smaller than the state of Connecticut, with

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Speaker 1: scorching hot temperatures and no modern FIFA quality soccer stadiums whatsoever,

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Speaker 1: has turned out to be an awful dare I say

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Speaker 1: im moral choice to host the World Cup and how

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Speaker 1: FIFA's decision to award the tournament to Guitar shows FIFA

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Speaker 1: hasn't learned its lessons, as the organization continues to exhibit

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Speaker 1: an almost total disregard for human rights and basic decency.

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Speaker 1: It's a clever commercial. It plays on every emotion a

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Speaker 1: sports fan has. Weaving in and out in between the

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Speaker 1: legs of dozens of grown adults. A young boy in

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Speaker 1: jane shorts with ratty white sneakers skillfully maneuvers a tattered

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Speaker 1: soccer ball across the bone dry dirt floor of a

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Speaker 1: public market. He encounters a conveniently placed set of mirrors.

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Speaker 1: He leans in to steal a glimpse of his own reflection,

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Speaker 1: but instead of seeing himself, the young soccer player sees

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Speaker 1: the beaming smile of the Argentine superstar Lionel Messi looking

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Speaker 1: right back at him. Sat get any I guess in

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Speaker 1: The essence and allure of this television commercial is pretty obvious.

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Speaker 1: No matter what language you speak or where you come from,

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Speaker 1: you could be the next Messi. This slick commercial just

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Speaker 1: one of many that ran across Africa in the last decade.

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Speaker 1: Was produced and paid for by Qatar's Aspire Academy. The

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Speaker 1: Aspire Zone is a world class destination for sports excellence

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Speaker 1: and has some of the world's finest sporting state dames

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Speaker 1: and venues, where we offer unparalleled opportunities for athlete development,

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Speaker 1: education and the making of champions. With its distinctive sloping

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Speaker 1: sapphire blue roof, Qatar's massive, thirteen story tall Aspired Dome

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Speaker 1: Stadium can be seen from miles away. At nearly one

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Speaker 1: point three million square feet, that's more than twice the

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Speaker 1: area covered by the Superdome in New Orleans. Aspire is

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Speaker 1: a state of the art sports training complex created to

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Speaker 1: produce the next generation of world class soccer players. This

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Speaker 1: place is astounding. I mean even the top clubs in

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Speaker 1: the world like Manchester United environed men off and go

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Speaker 1: train there and they're astounded by the facilities. That's journal

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Speaker 1: of Sebastian Abbott, author of The Away Game, the epic

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Speaker 1: search for Soccer's Next Superstars, which is all about sport

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Speaker 1: and Qatar. The Aspire Academy, he said, is not only

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Speaker 1: the largest end or sporting complex in the world, it

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Speaker 1: also reflects in embodies tiny Qatar's global ambitions. There's a

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Speaker 1: joke that Katar is really just a family business with

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Speaker 1: a seat at the United Nations because it's basically the

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Speaker 1: family wealth of the royal family. Qatar, or more specifically,

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Speaker 1: its royal family, led by the Emir Shaik Tamim bin

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Speaker 1: Hammad Alfani, is determined to use its seemingly infinite wealth

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Speaker 1: to establish the Gulf nation as a major player on

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Speaker 1: the world stage. While its neighbors Dubai and Abu Dhabi

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Speaker 1: have tapped their vast resources to become commercial and financial hubs,

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Speaker 1: Qatar has tried to transform its oil and gas fortune

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Speaker 1: into political and athletic power. They've used that cash in

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Speaker 1: all sorts of ways to try and, you know, increase

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Speaker 1: their standing on the world stage. You can sort of

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Speaker 1: understand it from their perspective, because is if you're a

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Speaker 1: tiny little country like they are, how else are you

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Speaker 1: going to throw your weight around. Long before Qatar was

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Speaker 1: awarded the World Cup, the Emir's brother, shake Jessum, a

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Speaker 1: massive soccer fan who built a lush, regulation size soccer

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Speaker 1: field at his palace in Doha, set out to accomplish

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Speaker 1: what seemed an impossible task to elevate Qatar's national soccer

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Speaker 1: team into the upper echelons of the sport. Qatar's national

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Speaker 1: soccer team is anything but a powerhouse. It's never come

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Speaker 1: close to qualifying for a World Cup, and it's consistently

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Speaker 1: ranked in the bottom half of FIFA's international tables. With

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Speaker 1: a native population of just three hundred thousand or so citizens,

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Speaker 1: Qatar doesn't have the depth to field a native team

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Speaker 1: that can compete in its own regional soccer tournaments, let

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Speaker 1: alone the World Cup. What it lacks in players, however,

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Speaker 1: it more than makes up for in financial resources. After

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Speaker 1: spending a reported billion dollars constructing the Aspire Academy complex,

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Speaker 1: Qatar launched a massive worldwide search for young soccer players.

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Speaker 1: They started at home in Qatar and found few quality prospects.

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Speaker 1: So Qatar set its sights on Africa, home to a

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Speaker 1: billion people. I hate to say it's so crassly, but

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Speaker 1: in Africa, Qatar found people passionate about soccer who were

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Speaker 1: too poor to pass up the opportunity. Beginning in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seven, backed by slick TV commercials featuring messy

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Speaker 1: and armed with free Nike gear to pass out to

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Speaker 1: hopeful stars in the making, Aspire Academy scouts began combing

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Speaker 1: through the dusty and dirt soccer pitches of Morocco, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria,

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Speaker 1: Senegal and South Africa. In the last decade alone, more

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Speaker 1: than five billion young boys have tried out for Qatar's

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Speaker 1: Aspire Academy. Here's Sebastian habit. There's such a small nation that, yeah,

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Speaker 1: how else are they going to compete on the world

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Speaker 1: stage unless they can tap players from other countries. They

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Speaker 1: were scouting thirteen year old boys. So I would find

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Speaker 1: these young kids, bring them to Katar, have them live

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Speaker 1: in Doha at Aspire Academy, train them and eventually give

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Speaker 1: them passports and have them play for the Katar national team.

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Speaker 1: To succeed in athletics, Qatar has long recruited outside talent.

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Speaker 1: Qatar does have a long history of basically paying foreigners

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Speaker 1: to become Katari nationals and compete for Qatar in sports,

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Speaker 1: in the Olympics and otherwise. I mean, they've donated everything

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Speaker 1: from weightlifting to ping pong to chess, and they've done

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Speaker 1: it in soccer as well. In two thousand and three,

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Speaker 1: the Kenyan steeplechase runner Stephen Sharno accepted Qatari citizenship in

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Speaker 1: exchange for one thousand dollars a month. A few years later,

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Speaker 1: Qatar offered three Brazilian soccer players a million dollars each

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Speaker 1: to become Qatari citizens and hopes they had helped the

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Speaker 1: tiny peninsula nation to qualify for the World Cup. The

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Speaker 1: plan didn't work. Now Qatar isn't alone. It is a

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Speaker 1: fairly common practice to recruit outside talent. It's done by

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Speaker 1: many countries, including the United States. But recruiting children, some

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Speaker 1: as young as thirteen, it's not only uncommon, it's downright sketchy.

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Speaker 1: You hadn't ever really in history had a country go

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Speaker 1: and conduct a massive talent search like this across a

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Speaker 1: place like Africa, searching for players for its national team,

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Speaker 1: and so it's sort of unprecedented, even though by all

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Speaker 1: accounts the Aspire Academy is a top notch training program

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Speaker 1: with state of the art medical and educational facilities. The

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Speaker 1: practice of recruiting young athletes off alarm bells not only

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Speaker 1: with European sports columnists and human rights groups, but also

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Speaker 1: within FIFA, which we know, you know, historically they don't

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Speaker 1: seem overly concerned with human rights. They got a lot

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Speaker 1: of criticism from folks internationally that they basically kind of

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Speaker 1: like harvesting Africa's best young players to nationalize them, which

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Speaker 1: didn't go over well with a lot of folks. Not

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Speaker 1: long after Qatar launched the aspired program, FIFA change that's

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Speaker 1: eligibility rules, making it harder for young players to switch nationalities.

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Speaker 1: They never sort of openly admitted that that was definitely

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Speaker 1: their plan, although at the beginning they said we were

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Speaker 1: open to these kids becoming country players, but they eventually

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Speaker 1: changed their tune and say no, these players will play

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Speaker 1: for their own national teams. It definitely continued to be

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Speaker 1: controversial because a lot of people continued to suspect that

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Speaker 1: even though Katar was saying these kids wouldn't represent Qatar,

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Speaker 1: that somehow Katar would find a way to have them

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Speaker 1: do that. For many years, FIFA's presidents at Bladder was

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Speaker 1: critical of Qatar's player harvesting. Qatar is stealing the best

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Speaker 1: players from Africa meant the home teams weren't as strong,

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Speaker 1: and the Confederation of African Football they didn't like that. Remember, Bladder,

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Speaker 1: like his predecessors y'all havlange South Africa as his base

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Speaker 1: of support. Both of them want a lot of FIFA elections,

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Speaker 1: keeping the legal and the illegal money flowing to African countries.

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Speaker 1: Then in two thousand and eight, Bladder visited Qatar and

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Speaker 1: the trip, says Sebastian Abbott, let him to have a

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Speaker 1: change of heart, platter, changes tune and became very supportive

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Speaker 1: of football dreams and aspire. And on that trip in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight reportedly said to the Amir of Qatar,

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Speaker 1: We're going to bring the World Cup to Katar, and

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Speaker 1: two years later FIFA did just that. From a distance,

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Speaker 1: Dohas Abdullaphin Jessam Street just seems to disappear and becomes

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Speaker 1: a stunning turquoise blue body of water. No, it's not

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Speaker 1: a desert mirage caused by Qatar's legendary summer heat. Instead,

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Speaker 1: several hundreds of the busy downtown road was painted blue

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and nineteen in an experiment to reflect

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Speaker 1: the sun's rays and reduce the city's overall temperature, known

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Speaker 1: to reach highs of one hundred and twenty degrees fahrenheit,

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Speaker 1: cracking car dashboards and melting plastic trim. To state the obvious,

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Speaker 1: Qatar is a climate that makes plain soccer outside in

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Speaker 1: the summer impossible, even with the streets painted blue. Summer

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Speaker 1: temperatures and cutsar can reach some fifty degrees celsius, a

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Speaker 1: difficult environment to hold a professional sporting than outdoors. The

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Speaker 1: idea of staging the World's Cup in the desert has

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Speaker 1: been tentious since its announcements. FIFA's own inspection team, after

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Speaker 1: visiting Qatar in two thousand and ten, called the oppressive

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Speaker 1: heat a potential health risk. A country that is a

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Speaker 1: hundred and five degrees in the summer, a country that

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Speaker 1: had virtually no infrastructure at all as far as soccer stadiums,

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Speaker 1: this just made absolutely no sense for them to win

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Speaker 1: the bid. We now know Qatar bribed a lot of

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Speaker 1: people to win the two thousand twenty two World Cup,

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Speaker 1: but the wealthy Gulf nation also made a lot of

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Speaker 1: promises the FIFA before that two thousand and ten vote,

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Speaker 1: and now they've got to be reconciled. The lack of

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Speaker 1: modern FIFA style stadiums, event infrastructure, and Qatar's searing heat

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Speaker 1: we're all seen back in two thousand and ten as

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Speaker 1: significant challenges that would prevent FIFA from awarding a summer

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Speaker 1: tournament to Qatar. Qatar acknowledged its potential shortcomings and promised

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Speaker 1: to quote novel approach to the summer event and pointed

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Speaker 1: to the Aspire Academy as proof it could design massive

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Speaker 1: sporting facilities in the desert. It promised mitigations, money will

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Speaker 1: be thrown at the problems and the hate will be

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Speaker 1: overcome by technology for the countries and promising cobbon neutral

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Speaker 1: and cooled stadiums, training facilities and fan areas. Energy will

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Speaker 1: be supplied by Solo Park, with money seemingly not an issue.

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Speaker 1: The CEO of Qatar's World Cup bid, Hassan al Thawati,

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Speaker 1: promised to build twelve new state of the art temperature

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Speaker 1: controlled stadiums and to avoid the mistakes of previous World

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Speaker 1: Cup hosts like Brazil, who built stadiums that languished and

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Speaker 1: blood communities dry when the tournament ended. Here shake Hassan

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Speaker 1: al Thawatti making his case, the government has guaranteed four

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Speaker 1: billion dollars to cover the costs of our twelve stunning

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Speaker 1: football specific, state of the art stadiums. After two we

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Speaker 1: will this mantle the modular elements of our stadiums and

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Speaker 1: reconfigure a total of a hundred and seventy thousand seats

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Speaker 1: to create up to twenty two new stadiums in developing nations.

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Speaker 1: But four years after FIFA awarded Guitar the two thousand

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Speaker 1: twenty two World Cup, the wealthy golf Kingdom began backtracking

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Speaker 1: as the logistics of a summer tournament became untenable. First

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Speaker 1: ago the number of stadiums they promised, which was cut

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Speaker 1: from twelve down to eight, and then they radically altered

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Speaker 1: the traditional summer schedule of the tournament. After much debate

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Speaker 1: and deliberation, FIFA confirmed a Winter World Call for cutter In,

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Speaker 1: which will run from November to December. The temperatures will

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Speaker 1: still be uncomfortable in the winter, but doable with air

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Speaker 1: kindishteing if it all works. However, moving the tournament to

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Speaker 1: avoid the worst of Qatar's heat also puts players safety

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Speaker 1: at risk, and reek's havoc on soccer's lucrative professional leagues

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Speaker 1: like Italy's Loliga, Germany's Bundesliga, the UK's Premier League, and

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Speaker 1: even America's own MLS. They all will be forced to

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Speaker 1: shut down mid season for about six weeks. The tournament

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Speaker 1: schedule is different this time, as there will be four

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Speaker 1: games every day during the group stage, a first in

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Speaker 1: World Cup history. To try to accommodate the many professional

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Speaker 1: leagues that will be impacted by this unusual winter World Cup,

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Speaker 1: Viva has had to reduce the number of days in

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Speaker 1: the tournament. Normally, thirty two team World Cup we played

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Speaker 1: over the course of thirty two days. During the two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen Russia World Cup, players had about four

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Speaker 1: to five days off between games, but with quitars shortened schedule,

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Speaker 1: the games will be played over a compressed twenty eight days.

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Speaker 1: Most teams will get three days off between games, but

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Speaker 1: in the knockout state some will only get two days

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Speaker 1: of recovery. This will be the shortest tournament since nine

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Speaker 1: when they're only sixteen teams competing, meaning the very best

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Speaker 1: players in the world are being forced to play with

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Speaker 1: reduced recovery times between matches. Many players will then immediately

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Speaker 1: return to their domestic leagues, jumping right back into the

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Speaker 1: rigors of professional soccer with little chance to rest. Oh

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Speaker 1: and the COVID nineteen pandemic has completely rearranged the qualifying

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Speaker 1: part of the two thousand twenty two World Cup, making

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Speaker 1: things even more difficult. Sure these athletes are all professionals

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Speaker 1: who make a ton of money, traveled by private jets

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Speaker 1: and stay in five star hotels. But FIFA, which let's

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Speaker 1: remember is supposedly all about the good of the game,

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Speaker 1: is forcing the world's best players to put an unprecedented

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Speaker 1: strain on their bodies. It's conceivable Qatar's World Cup will

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Speaker 1: be one of the most injury riddled tournaments. Ever, However,

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Speaker 1: as problematic and dangerous as the Qatar World Cup will

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Speaker 1: be for players, it's nothing, and I mean it is

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Speaker 1: nothing compared to the horrors FIFA and Qatar have unleashed

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Speaker 1: on the people building the World Cup infrastructure. It was

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Speaker 1: late March two th Norway's best players nervously looked at

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Speaker 1: each other as they walked out under the nights lights

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Speaker 1: and onto the green soccer pitch. Please rise, Oh no Way,

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Speaker 1: with slight nods of their head and sly glances of support.

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Speaker 1: One by one, they peeled off their red warm up jackets.

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Speaker 1: Wrapping their arms around each other's shoulders, they unveiled their

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Speaker 1: message as their anthem played. All eleven starters of Norway's

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Speaker 1: national soccer team before their tooth thousand, twenty two World

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Speaker 1: Cup qualifying match against tribalter were the same white cotton

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Speaker 1: t shirt. Emblazoned across their chest was the phrase human rights.

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Speaker 1: On and off the pitch. Norway's statement of protests was

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Speaker 1: only the first. The next night, Germany's national side took

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Speaker 1: the pitch with the phrase human rights spelled out in

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Speaker 1: large white block letters on their black shirts. Then Denmark

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Speaker 1: made a plea their target Qatar, specifically it's abysmal human

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Speaker 1: rights record and brutal treatment of migrant workers. For the

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Speaker 1: last decade, FIFA has ignored calls to strip the World

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Speaker 1: Cup from Qatar. Here's FIFA presidents at bladder in two

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Speaker 1: thousand thirteen, who did everything in his power to avoid

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Speaker 1: even talking about the corrupt two thousand ten vote and

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Speaker 1: the growing concerns human rights groups had expressed about the

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Speaker 1: rush to build a tournament in the desert. The decision

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Speaker 1: taken by Executive Committee in October that there is not

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Speaker 1: one single doubt that the World Cup twenty twenty two

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Speaker 1: will be organized in Qatar, decision taken by the Executive

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Speaker 1: Committee on the second of December and not diversible. Today,

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Speaker 1: FIFA is led by longtime soccer executive Gianni Infantino, who

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Speaker 1: were placed the bladder after the godfather of soccer was

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Speaker 1: booted out of office in two thousand fifteen. After Norway

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Speaker 1: and the other team's voiced their protests in the spring

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Speaker 1: of two thousand and one, FIFA under Infantino issued a

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Speaker 1: statement saying the players would not be punished and that

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Speaker 1: FIFA believed in freedom of speech and the power of

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Speaker 1: soccer to be a force for good. Whether the sport

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Speaker 1: under FIFA's watch is a force for good is still

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Speaker 1: very much up for debate. That soccer and the World

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Speaker 1: Cup are a force of that, there is no doubt.

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Speaker 1: One only has to look at Qatar's ever transforming landscape,

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Speaker 1: with its endless tangle of new roads and metro tracks,

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Speaker 1: glistening skyscrapers, and massive steel stadiums, all built at an

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Speaker 1: unimaginable cost. Work is progressing on Kata's World Cup venues,

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Speaker 1: but Amnesty International says improvements to migrant worker rights are

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Speaker 1: not progressing fast enough. Long before European soccer players began

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Speaker 1: protesting Qatar's treatment of migrant workers, groups like Amnesty International

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Speaker 1: and the International Trade Union Confederation we're pushing for new

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Speaker 1: laws and worker protections. Qatar has made improvements, but the

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Speaker 1: conservative Arab Kingdom and FIFA have rejected accusations that the

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Speaker 1: thousands of workers who died were building World Cup infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: The headline that came out of The Guardian was inherently misleading.

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Speaker 1: That's Hassan Alpha Watti, the CEO of Qatar's World Cup

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Speaker 1: organizing committee. He insists the reports of thousands of deaths

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Speaker 1: lack contexts. Six workers did not die on workup World

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Speaker 1: Cup stadiums. If we're looking at specifically World Cup stadiums,

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Speaker 1: we have had, unfortunately, three work related deaths and thirty

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Speaker 1: five non work related debts. Frankly, it's Alpha Watti's argument

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Speaker 1: that lacks context. He doesn't explain how the other six thousand,

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Speaker 1: five hundred workers died, and he doesn't even address the

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Speaker 1: thousands of bodies leaving Qatar and arrive in in African

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Speaker 1: and Asian airports. You see, Qatar and FIFA only want

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Speaker 1: to count the fatalities directly related to construction of new

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Speaker 1: stadiums and training facilities, but those are only a small

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Speaker 1: part of the building going on to support the World Cup.

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Speaker 1: The construction and Qatar is booming dozens of projects, including

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Speaker 1: seven stadiums, Rhodes hotels, and even a new air report

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Speaker 1: have been completed or are underway. It is these projects,

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Speaker 1: say human rights groups like Amnesty International and the Guardian newspaper,

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Speaker 1: that have killed thousands since got won the right to

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Speaker 1: host the World Cup back in all this development construction

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Speaker 1: expansion is because of the World Cup. That's Mustafa Cadri,

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Speaker 1: executive director of Equitum Research, which advocates for the labor

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Speaker 1: rights of migrant workers. He's done reporting for Amnesty International

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Speaker 1: about Qatar and the World Cup. He says, the Qatari

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Speaker 1: World Cup Organizing Committee and FIFA have overlooked all of

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Speaker 1: the construction projects built to support the World Cup when

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Speaker 1: releasing their official death count. It's all related. They're building

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Speaker 1: this massive railway system, new hotels are being built, new

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Speaker 1: public spaces, shopping malls. It's really obvious that all of

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Speaker 1: this is connected. So this idea that you can somehow

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Speaker 1: isolate what happens within the World Cup from everything outside

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Speaker 1: it is simply just nonsensical. Qatar intentionally keeps the death

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Speaker 1: records of migrant workers vague, issuing death certificates with ambiguous

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Speaker 1: descriptions like natural causes or cardiac failure. Many death certificates

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Speaker 1: simply say the cause of death is unknown. Remember, these

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Speaker 1: are mostly young and healthy man that Qatar imports to work. Statistically,

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Speaker 1: this isn't an age group that should be dying of

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Speaker 1: natural causes or cardiac failure, unless, of course, they're forced

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Speaker 1: to work in unsafe environments like the insanely hot temperatures

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Speaker 1: and Qatar. And really, why isn't Qatar doing more to

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Speaker 1: investigate these deaths. Sharon Burrow, the International Trade Union Confederations

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Speaker 1: General Secretary, didn't hold back when asked about Qatar's brutal

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Speaker 1: working conditions. Qatar is a slave state in the twenty

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Speaker 1: one century. Even when the construction projects don't kill the worker,

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Speaker 1: they're still forced to live under barbaric conditions, and for

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Speaker 1: most of the last decade, FIFA couldn't have cared less.

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Speaker 1: Doha's glass and steel Altbita Tower is famous for its vertical,

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Speaker 1: twisting design. It's long symbolized guitars march to a more

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Speaker 1: modern future. Even today, as it's been joined by dozens

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Speaker 1: of other newer structures, the iconic building sticks out on

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Speaker 1: Doha's skyline. When the two thousand twenty two World Cup

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Speaker 1: Organizing Committee was looking for office space about a decade ago,

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Speaker 1: the Albita Tower was the obvious choice. From its thirty

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Speaker 1: eighth and thirty ninth floors, Qatar soccer bosses developed the

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Speaker 1: early blueprints for the first ever tournament in the Middle East.

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Speaker 1: As much of a beacon for development as the Albita

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Speaker 1: Towers for qataris. It also represents the callousness in inhumane

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Speaker 1: system that underpins Guitars March of Progress and then two

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Speaker 1: thousand twenty two World Cup. Some of the men who

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Speaker 1: built these offices have become victims of serious labor exploitation.

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Speaker 1: You see, back in two thousand twelve, just as planning

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Speaker 1: for the World Cup was ramping up, it came out

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Speaker 1: that many of the migrant workers who built the sleek

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Speaker 1: new Albita Tower we're basically living as modern slaves. They

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Speaker 1: went some paid for over a year. They were abandoned

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Speaker 1: by their employer and left to live in squala. That's

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Speaker 1: from a Guardian newspaper report. Qatar's government, including its Prime Minister,

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Speaker 1: knew of the situation and for months did nothing. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the treatment of Albida's workers it's hardly unique. Many migrant

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Speaker 1: workers in Qatar live in horrible conditions. After all our

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Speaker 1: work d This is the sort of home they returned to,

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Speaker 1: overcrowded compounds, often twelve men to a room, and minimal

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Speaker 1: bathroom facilities. Here, again, as Mustafa Kadji, who spent years

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Speaker 1: investigating labor practices in the Middle East, the only way

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Speaker 1: to describe them is appalling. You're talking about often is

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Speaker 1: completely broken down, sort of Soviet era looking, very concrete

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Speaker 1: apartment blocks with unwashed walls, of very dirty walls with

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Speaker 1: no one coming to clean. The ground is very filthy,

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Speaker 1: often with toilets which might have cubicles with no doors,

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Speaker 1: with broken sinks with terrible smells, kitchens which are really

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Speaker 1: infested with insects. When you go to these sites, the

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Speaker 1: first thing that really comes to mind is it feels

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00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: like a prison. You've got these gated areas, the security

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00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: have to check in when you go to work accommodations.

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Speaker 1: There's often bars around their windows. They're very clear sort

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Speaker 1: of boundaries, and it's also that the sense of physical

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Speaker 1: enclosure is really really strong. This life of squalor and

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Speaker 1: indentured servitude isn't unique to Qatar. It's the norm across

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Speaker 1: the entire Middle East from migrant workers and has been

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Speaker 1: so for decades cut her. Another Arab Gulf states developed

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Speaker 1: a system called kafala, meaning sponsorship, to bring in workers

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Speaker 1: from around the world. Businesses like I don't know, say,

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Speaker 1: a firm building World Cup infrastructure, uses third party agents

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Speaker 1: to lure workers from poor countries and then the construction

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Speaker 1: firm sponsors the workers employment in a country like Qatar.

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00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: On the surface, it seems like oh when when these

428
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: workers get hooked on this belief, this idea that their

429
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 1: life can be better, the firms get healthy young workers

430
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: and desperate families get a shot at a better life.

431
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,719
Speaker 1: You're eighteen years old, so there's increasing pressure from your

432
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: family to get married, to have children like your elder

433
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: brother or your realty is that are older than you,

434
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 1: and you don't really see many opportunities in your home country.

435
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: And they'll really win them over with these stories of

436
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: these amazing opportunities and that over a short period of

437
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 1: time you'll be sending over so much money that you'll

438
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: eventually have enough money for a dowry or to have

439
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: a wedding and have children, all that sort of thing.

440
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: But they have to go far away and they have

441
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 1: to pay really large sums of money, but it's worth it.

442
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: It's almost like getting a mortgage on a house. You know,

443
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 1: when you're young, you sort of wonder how on earth

444
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:30,920
Speaker 1: will you pay off that mortgage, But you kind of

445
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: feel eventually you'll pay off that loan, and what you'll

446
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: have at the end of it is as an asset.

447
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 1: In their case, the asset is a job, is money

448
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 1: they can send home and a better prospect of life.

449
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:46,600
Speaker 1: So that's how they get hooked in. What recruiters don't mention,

450
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 1: or the feces, smeared bathrooms, the twelve hour days under

451
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: the heart golf sun, or the fact that workers residency

452
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: rates are tied to the job. This is Mickey Warden

453
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: of Human Rates Watch and Jeremy Shap of ESPN. If

454
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: your employer is abusive or forces you to work long hours,

455
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 1: forces you to live in squalid conditions, there's really nothing

456
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: you can do about it. A migrant worker can't leave

457
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,080
Speaker 1: the country without an exit visa. That visa has to

458
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: be approved by his employer, no matter how callous, in humane,

459
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 1: or just playing awful the company is. This inability to

460
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 1: switch jobs leaves workers vulnerable to exploitation. The winner to

461
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:35,000
Speaker 1: organize the two twenty two FIFA vote Cup is Ka.

462
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 1: Long before set Bladder announced Qatar as the two thousand

463
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: and twenty two World Cup host, the follows systems in

464
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: moral hazards were well documented. Here's Qatari saik Mohammed bin

465
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: Hammad Alfouni admitting as much back in two thousand and thirteen.

466
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 1: I said previously, this workers welfare issue has come about

467
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: long before we were awarded the hosting rights. We've had

468
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of workers in for the past fifteen

469
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 1: to twenty years. FIFA executives knew way before two thousand

470
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 1: and ten that a World Cup and Qatar would require

471
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 1: a massive infrastructure program, one the likes of the soccer

472
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: world had never seen before, and that meant a huge

473
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 1: number of workers would be sent to Qatar to work

474
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:27,719
Speaker 1: under deplorable conditions. Knowing this, FIFA and Sepp Bladder did

475
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 1: what they always do, look the other way. As far

476
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,800
Speaker 1: as FIFA is concerned, the onus is on the companies

477
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 1: that employ the labors. Last year, FIFA's president said workers

478
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 1: are the responsibility of the companies who hire them, not

479
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: of FIFA. From the beginning, FIFA sloughed off any responsibility.

480
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: Here is set Bladder in two thousand and fifteen when

481
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 1: asked about worker treatment, I know many people hold me

482
00:33:54,880 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 1: ultimately responsible for the actions and reputation of the noble

483
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 1: the football community. We all, I cannot monitor everyone all

484
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 1: of the time. FIFA keeps insisting there isn't much you

485
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: can do about the treatment of migrant workers and their deaths.

486
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:20,320
Speaker 1: FIFA benefits from these environments where scrutiny is highly limited,

487
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: and yet publicly, when there is some scrutiny and there's

488
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: exposureable the bad things that is made public, will say, well,

489
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 1: we don't have control. Well, it can't both be right,

490
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 1: of course, with things FIFA really cares about, no organization

491
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: is more aggressive or demanding. Remember Brazil and it's ban

492
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 1: on alcohol. In two thousand three, the Brazilian government banned

493
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:49,120
Speaker 1: alcohol from stadiums because of the enormously high death rate

494
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:53,280
Speaker 1: amongst fans. Before the two thousand fourteen World Cup, FIFA

495
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: drew a line in the sand and demanded Brazil change

496
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,479
Speaker 1: its laws to permit beer sales and stadiums. I'm sorry

497
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: to say, and maybe I look a bit arrogance, but

498
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:05,439
Speaker 1: that's something will not negotiate her. I mean, there will

499
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 1: be and there must be as part of the of

500
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: the law, the fact that we are the right to

501
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: sell beer. FIFA has forced government after government after government

502
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 1: to bend to its will and change tax laws to

503
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,839
Speaker 1: ensure FIFA rakes in every single shiny penny it can.

504
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,400
Speaker 1: It is FIFA and it's FIFA subsidiaries that are fully

505
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 1: exempt from any tax whatsoever levied at whatever level, state level,

506
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:36,680
Speaker 1: the municipality level, all sorts of Texas consumption, texas income, texas,

507
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,800
Speaker 1: you name it. It's all except when it comes to

508
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: human rights. FIFA claims it's powerless, but FIFA has pushed

509
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:48,360
Speaker 1: for changes when it comes to money. Cadre says, we

510
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:51,799
Speaker 1: know when it comes to other things like sponsorship rights,

511
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:55,800
Speaker 1: when it comes to the requirements for the tournament stadiums,

512
00:35:56,040 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 1: when it comes to all those things around the financial, corporate,

513
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 1: the professional side for FIFA, then in fact you see

514
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 1: that Gutta has bent over backwards to accommodate them. FIFA's

515
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: position on Qutars migrant workers has come at a cost,

516
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:16,280
Speaker 1: an avalanche, now a volcano of bad press. The tournament

517
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 1: built moreover on the blood of foreign construction workers. The

518
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:25,320
Speaker 1: other great FIFA scandal, the ugly game. For years, major

519
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 1: sponsors have watched the cut our World Cup descend into

520
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,280
Speaker 1: accusations of corruption and appalling labor conditions, as the deaths

521
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 1: of construction workers pile up, with endless scrutiny from human

522
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 1: rights groups and SEP ladders departure. In two thousand and fifteen,

523
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 1: FIFA's new president, Gianni Infantino has and I'll give them

524
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 1: a little bit of credit here, has called for improved

525
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,839
Speaker 1: worker conditions. We pulled it as a condition in our

526
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:56,520
Speaker 1: bidding process is rule our competitions, and wherever we go

527
00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:02,080
Speaker 1: around the world, we are of course highlighting the need

528
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:07,240
Speaker 1: for protecting human rights. When it comes to the situation

529
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: in in Qatar in particular, I think we need to

530
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: be fair there as well and admit that a lot

531
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 1: of progress has happened and all the progress in the

532
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:25,640
Speaker 1: conditions of the workers in recent years. With a very

533
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 1: soft nudge from FIFA, Qatar past legislation revamping its employment system.

534
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:35,760
Speaker 1: In theory, workers can now switch jobs without leaving the country.

535
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: A new minimum monthly salary is guaranteed and must be

536
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: paid electronically, and employers must provide suitable food and accommodations

537
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 1: or pay extra if they don't. But here's the rub.

538
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 1: Enforcement of all these new laws is haphazarded best. Even

539
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 1: with these changes, the mistreatment of workers continues in Qatar.

540
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 1: Thousands of migrant workers are still being exploited, and too

541
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: many are dying. There's no denying The two thousand, twenty

542
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 1: two World Cup will be the most technologically advanced World

543
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: Cup ever, with its estimated three billion dollars of futuristic

544
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: stadiums and transportation infrastructure. It will be a modern marvel.

545
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: At the same time, it's a modern human tragedy. FIFA

546
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: can do better. FIFA has to do better. This is

547
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 1: a PostScript. The red blood on the brick wall is fake,

548
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 1: but the bullet holes are very much real. The six

549
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,919
Speaker 1: by ten ft section of the Lincoln Park garage where

550
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:57,479
Speaker 1: seven Irish bootleggers were murdered by al Capone's South Side

551
00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:02,480
Speaker 1: Chicago gang on Valentine's Day nineteen, just one of the

552
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,839
Speaker 1: some two thousand rare artifacts and exhibits in the Las

553
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:10,440
Speaker 1: Vegas Mob Museum. The wall, like many other exhibits, helps

554
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:13,440
Speaker 1: tell the story of the world's most notorious gangsters and

555
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: organized crime syndicates. You know, the jewel thieves, the cyber hackers,

556
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:24,040
Speaker 1: the Irish and Italian mobsters, the Mexican drug cartels, and

557
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: the international soccer executives. This may not fit the perfect

558
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: picture of organized crime, but it looks like it. It

559
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 1: feels like it, you know, it tastes like it. That's right.

560
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: Among the many criminals and crooks profiled and enshrined in

561
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: the Las Vegas Mob Museum, there's a little corner reserve

562
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: for the Federation International the Football Association FIFA. Jeff Schumacher,

563
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,600
Speaker 1: the vice president of exhibits at the museum, says, FIFA

564
00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:59,279
Speaker 1: takes all the boxes for a continuing criminal enterprise. From

565
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: our standpoint, twenty years is a pretty good run for

566
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,959
Speaker 1: a criminal enterprise. I think some people who came into

567
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 1: the museum may have been surprised to come across our

568
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 1: FIFA exhibit, But once they absorbed the contents of the exhibit,

569
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 1: once they read about what had transpired, and they saw

570
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:20,920
Speaker 1: how the European press in particular had covered the FIFA scandal,

571
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: I think they understood why it was a logical fit

572
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: for the museum. As you've heard in this series, FIFA's

573
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: sometimes criminal and moral and horrendous behavior isn't just centered

574
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:35,919
Speaker 1: around one person or the two thousand and fifteen corruption case.

575
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,440
Speaker 1: FIFA started as a racist organization under its European colonial

576
00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:44,280
Speaker 1: minded founders, and then became a full fledged criminal enterprise

577
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:49,080
Speaker 1: under its boss Johavalang in the nineteen seventies. It's criminality

578
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:53,720
Speaker 1: only grew and expanded under the mild mannered Sep Bladder

579
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 1: in the last fifty years. The men who have run

580
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: FIFA have old right wing military junta's, turned a blind

581
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 1: eye to gross human rights abuses, encourage rampants, sexism and

582
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:11,320
Speaker 1: vulgar misogyny, and oversaw a global system of money laundering,

583
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 1: bribery and financial misdeeds. Today, FIFA would like you to

584
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: believe the corruption, the sexism, the racism, the canoodling with

585
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: authoritarian regimes, it's all a thing of the past, historical

586
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:28,319
Speaker 1: legacy of those other Let's not talk about them. They're

587
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: gone now FIFA leaders, but the US Justice Department and

588
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:36,360
Speaker 1: Swiss prosecutors continue to issue indictments against FIFA and World

589
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: Soccer executives in Among those indicted were two former senior

590
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:45,760
Speaker 1: sports executives from twenty first Century Fox and in November

591
00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: two thousand one, as you heard, step Ladder and former

592
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:53,759
Speaker 1: Way for President Michelle Platini were indicted in Switzerland, though

593
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:58,800
Speaker 1: a Swiss judge has since thrown the indictment out. Today,

594
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 1: Gianni Infantine, current FIFA president, is under investigation by European authorities.

595
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: So while the names have changed, FIFA really hasn't. Billions

596
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:15,400
Speaker 1: of people, including myself, will watch the World Cup in

597
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,240
Speaker 1: Many of us will think about the time we played

598
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 1: the game as children. We'll put ourselves in the cleats

599
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: of our favorite player. We'll be kids again on that

600
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:29,440
Speaker 1: grass pitch, that patch of dirt, just kicking the ball around.

601
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 1: We will not think about those men in their finely

602
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 1: tailored suits grabbing envelopes of cash and exchange for a

603
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:41,439
Speaker 1: crooked vote. But imagine if FIFA did what it said

604
00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 1: it should. Imagine if it used the power and passion

605
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:48,479
Speaker 1: for the beautiful game to make a better world. Maybe

606
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 1: this podcast will be a small part of a much

607
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:56,360
Speaker 1: larger effort to bring about some meaningful reforms. As Mustafa

608
00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:59,239
Speaker 1: Kadre told me, if sport is meant to be a

609
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 1: public good, if it's meant to be a community activity,

610
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 1: if it's meant to be ours, then we have to

611
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 1: democratize it. It has to represent us. It has to

612
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,800
Speaker 1: represent our values. It can't just be a vehicle for

613
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 1: making money. I believe there's hope. The indictments, the success

614
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,799
Speaker 1: of women's soccer, the growing voice of players speaking out

615
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,880
Speaker 1: against human rights violations. There's hope as long as a

616
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:27,560
Speaker 1: child somewhere, anywhere in the world kicks a ball and

617
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:45,280
Speaker 1: starts to play The Beautiful Game. The Lords of Soccer

618
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: Al FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices

619
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:53,080
Speaker 1: Media production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series

620
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,160
Speaker 1: was written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me

621
00:43:56,640 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 1: Connor Powell, Logan he Tell, and Katie mcmurran provided the

622
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:04,479
Speaker 1: sound design, with assistance from j C. Swaddick and Jake

623
00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:08,800
Speaker 1: blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer and Jeffrey

624
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 1: Katz was our story editor. Our fact checker is Alexa

625
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:16,320
Speaker 1: O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray, who produced the series

626
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 1: for I Heart Radio. If you have any comments or questions,

627
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:22,839
Speaker 1: please reach out. You can find us on Twitter. I'm

628
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 1: at Connor m. Powell and Gary is at Gary Robert

629
00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:31,239
Speaker 1: Scott and if you have any stories about FIFA, let

630
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 1: us know. If you like what you hear, please give

631
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:37,480
Speaker 1: us a shout out at the hashtag lords of soccer,