From Putin to Trump: 5 Times FIFA Bent the Knee

From Putin to Trump: 5 Times FIFA Bent the Knee

From The Tara Palmeri Show by Tara Palmeri

July 19, 2026 · 11 min

About this episode

Tara Palmeri and Ken Bensinger explore FIFA's controversial history and its intertwining with global politics and corruption.

FIFA calls itself the guardian of the world's game — but pull back the curtain, Tara Palmeri argues, and it looks less like a sports body and more like a global power broker where politics and money matter more than soccer. In this documentary-style breakdown, Tara is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger, author of "Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal," to walk through FIFA's most damning chapters. They trace the through-line of patronage: Russia's bribe-fueled 2018 World Cup and Gianni Infantino's full-throated embrace of Vladimir Putin (who awarded him the Order of Friendship at the Kremlin); the 1978 tournament staged in Argentina under a murderous military dictatorship; Qatar 2022, won through bribery and built by migrant workers who died by the thousands, then defended by Infantino's surreal "Today I feel Qatari, today I feel a migrant worker" speech; and the engineered 2034 process that cleared every rival so Saudi Arabia could win unopposed — shortly before state oil giant Aramco signed a massive FIFA sponsorship. Finally, they get to the 2026 World Cup on North American soil, where — for the first…

People in this episode

Host: Tara Palmeri

Guest: Ken Bensinger

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FIFA

Books & works: Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal

Places: Russia, Argentina, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, North America

More episodes of The Tara Palmeri Show

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Tara Palmeri Show podcast page.