FIFA Swamp with Grant Wahl
Bribe, Swindle or Steal
Alexandra Addison-Wrage of TRACE International
4.9 • 582 Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Reflecting on the year as it draws to a close, we note with great sadness the recent loss of sports journalist, author and inimitable soccer analyst, Grant Wahl. We're replaying today our podcast with Grant from 2017. He was generous with his time, happy to share his expertise and invariably good humored. He is missed.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Alexandra Rogge. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to talk about FIFA. |
| 0:11.7 | Based in Zurich, FIFA is the association that governs the world's most popular sport, soccer. |
| 0:16.5 | We're talking about it today because of more than a decade of outrageous corruption and unashamed |
| 0:21.1 | self-dealing. I was a member of FIFA's failed independent governance committee, so I can say |
| 0:26.0 | this with some confidence. My guest is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, a major contributor |
| 0:31.2 | to Fox Sports, and the author of the Beckham experiment, the first soccer book to become |
| 0:35.4 | a New York Times bestseller. When he came to Trace's offices for an interview a couple of years ago, several of my sports |
| 0:41.6 | fan colleagues loitered in the hallways to have a chance to meet him. |
| 0:45.0 | Grant Wall, thanks so much for joining me. |
| 0:47.3 | Do you think I've already shown my hand when it comes to my opinion of FIFA? |
| 0:51.9 | I think you have every right based on all of your experience. |
| 0:55.5 | This is a financial crime podcast. |
| 0:58.3 | So we're going to have some people listening who are not very familiar with FIFA, |
| 1:02.3 | although it's been in the news a lot lately in no small part because of your writing. |
| 1:06.5 | So can you help people understand? |
| 1:08.7 | Just give us a primer on FIFA. |
| 1:10.2 | How is it organized and what does it do? |
| 1:12.1 | Why do we need a FIFA? |
| 1:13.2 | Well, FIFA is the world governing body for soccer, |
| 1:16.7 | the world's most popular sport. |
| 1:18.6 | And it's made up of 211 now federations, |
| 1:23.2 | national member associations from around the world. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alexandra Addison-Wrage of TRACE International, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Alexandra Addison-Wrage of TRACE International and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.