Will War Overshadow the World Cup? (With Football Daily, part 2)
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’ve got together with Americast/Newscast and Football Daily for three special episodes on what could be the most political World Cup ever.
How much will Donald Trump make it about him? Will the US-Iran war affect the tournament? And why are tickets so expensive?
We tell you everything you need to know about what’s going on off the pitch.
Adam Fleming joins from Newscast and 5 Live football commentary legend John Murray is on from Football Daily.
In this episode we look at what the US-Iran war means for Iran’s team and what strict Visa laws mean for players and fans.
Listen to Newscast here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
Listen to Football Daily here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p02nrsln
HOSTS: • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent • Adam Fleming, Newscast Host • John Murray, 5 Live Commentator
GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email Americast@bbc.co.uk • Or use #Americast
This episode was made by Miranda Slade. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producers were Chris Flynn and Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | We get it. Life is busy. You want to keep up with the news, but there's just too much going on. |
| 0:13.0 | Which is where newscast comes in. We do the work, and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, you just pop us into your ears. |
| 0:42.5 | It does mean we have to put in the hard work, though. Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. This is the second episode of our three-part mini-series we're doing as a collab. I hate saying that word. It sounds like I'm in a mandaland. Although I like the idea of collaborating. The actual thing is good because we're working with AmeriCast and the Football Daily to look at some of the issues around the World Cup. |
| 0:48.1 | So not necessarily the actual football, but the things that we'll be talking in addition to the football. |
| 0:52.7 | And with Donald Trump involved, there's obviously going to be some politics and some diplomacy happening there. |
| 1:00.0 | And helping me out is somebody who watches a lot more football than I do. Mariana. Yes, I'm here to chat football and America and social media. And we are very lucky to also be joined by Anthony, who presents |
| 1:05.8 | Americast with me, and also by John Murray, who presents Football Daily. And John, I wonder if, because in this episode we're going to be talking about the tensions between the US and Iran, are there other World Cups where the host nation has been, or not even just the host nation, but where various teams have been at war with one another, I guess, particularly the hosts. |
| 1:26.7 | I mean, United States and Iran do have history. |
| 1:29.4 | This is not the first time that they've been involved in the World Cup. |
| 1:32.5 | They've played each other at World Cup in the past in the aftermath of the Iranian |
| 1:38.4 | revolution and also the Iranian hostage-taking crisis. |
| 1:42.7 | So they were still in the relatively recent |
| 1:45.2 | memory. I can also remember the Euros when Denmark stepped in to replace Yugoslavia at the time |
| 1:51.6 | of the Civil War in the Balkans in 1992. There were also tensions between Argentina and the |
| 1:57.8 | teams from the UK at the World Cup in 82 and still in 86 after the Falklands War. |
| 2:03.7 | And as well, a very famous one was the match between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969, which helped along, it was the 100 days war between El Salvador and Honduras, and tensions were raised |
| 2:22.8 | by a World Cup qualifier between the two of them, just when things were really reaching boiling |
| 2:27.7 | point. And after that match, they spilled over and they actually went to war together. |
| 2:32.1 | John, you are the least du set of the football commentary box. |
| 2:35.9 | Well, what a... |
| 2:37.2 | There is no higher praise. |
... |
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