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Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let you know this is a compilation episode.

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Hello, good one, and welcome to It Could Happen here. My name is Dan Al-Kurd, and I'm a researcher

and analyst of Arab and Palestinian politics.

Today I want to talk about football, soccer, whatever, and I'll just start by saying, obviously, FIFA is a terrible, terrible organization.

And while there are many heartwarming events in this World Cup, the World Cup gets me, gets a lot of us, despite everything.

There have also been egregious incidents against players and referees and fans from the global south.

Take for example what happened to the Somali referee who wasn't allowed to come into the U.S. to do his job.

He was kept hours and hours in the airport before being unceremoniously returned to Somalia. Similarly, the head of the U.S. to do his job. He was kept hours and hours in the airport before being unceremoniously

returned to Somalia. Similarly, the head of the Palestine Football Association was denied a visa

into the United States, not allowed to come to the World Cup on U.S. soil. This is in spite of the fact

that FIFA invited association heads from around the world to attend, and he did attend the opening

game in Mexico City.

Or one of the worst incidents, if you can call it that, the way that the Iranian team has been

treated. They weren't allowed to stay in the U.S. despite the games they were playing in this country,

were constantly made to fly back to Mexico after every game. Clearly, they were put at a severe

...