Insuperable: Europe’s football fiasco
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A “Super League” plan wrong-footed fans, clubs, even governments. We examine what the failed bid says about the sport’s economics. We return to the George Floyd case and the landmark conviction of his murderer. The Kurds have long sought their own state in the Middle East; that now looks as unlikely as ever. And why spelling is so persistently counter-intuitive.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we |
| 0:10.1 | provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. After a landmark ruling against the |
| 0:19.6 | police officer who murdered George Floyd, |
| 0:21.6 | we have a quick word with our United States editor about what the verdict means. |
| 0:25.6 | And the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, |
| 0:29.6 | but unlike other ethnicities, they've never had their own state. |
| 0:33.6 | Not for the lack of trying. |
| 0:35.6 | We take a look through decades of dashed hopes and at where things stand now. |
| 0:40.9 | Plus, you probably know many of the rules, I before E, except after C and so on. |
| 0:46.9 | But the truth is that spelling, particularly in English, is weird. |
| 0:51.2 | That's W-E-I-R-D. |
| 0:53.8 | We ask why that is and whether anything should or even could be done about it. |
| 0:57.0 | ... |
| 0:58.0 | ... First up, though, We say football! We say football! |
| 1:12.6 | We say football! |
| 1:14.6 | In London last night, football fans celebrated in the streets. |
| 1:19.6 | We just made history! |
| 1:21.6 | We just made history! |
| 1:23.6 | The cheers weren't for a new trophy, |
| 1:25.6 | but rather for the failure of a plan that had convulsed |
| 1:28.5 | the sport for the past few days. On Sunday, 12 of Europe's best-known football clubs had said |
| 1:34.8 | they were going to break away from existing competitions to form a super league. But the ambitious |
... |
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