World Cup: Tony Khan On The USA's World Cup

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1:09Live from LA. Hello, welcome to the Football Daily. Here's a quick roundup of the scores overnight. Cape Verde have reached the knockout stages. I'll just say that again. Cape Verde have reached the knockout stages. And I love it. After a 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia. So three draws for them. Three points. Uruguay have been knocked out after being beaten 1-0 by Spain. Going to talk about that a bit later on with Guillem-Baleguet. But just to reiterate, Cape Verde have reached the knockout stages. Huge. It's so good. France beat Norway 4-1, although it's sort of Norway's second team. Senegal beat Iraq 5-0.

1:46Not great for Scotland, but then nothing's great for Scotland at the moment. And we're recording this as New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt, Iran are happening. but you can check all the scores and highlights on the BBC Sport website and app. It is nice to be back after a little day off. Hey, look, I love Betty Glover. Me too, she's great. And she was fantastic. Of course she was. And we had a lovely day with Mario as well. Yeah. It's great to have you back. I did tell the listeners and viewers that you were playing backgammon. That's right, yeah. In LA. Yeah. Why? Why were you playing backgammon?

2:21Because I love backgammon. Well, I mean, that Gammon's not going to back itself, is it? Well, exactly right, yeah. So I didn't win, unfortunately. How do you win? How do you win? How do you win backgammon? What is backgammon? You win games. Yeah, but how do you win it? I was not saying how do you win football. Well, you have to score a goal. Get all of your pieces off the board. Right, will you explain that? Brilliant, thank you. I met a hustler, a backgammon hustler last night. And it was really exciting. Sounds very gangster. Yeah. Well, this guy... Go on. I'm surprised you're still here today, Rick.

2:56I've got his number. So I might not be here tomorrow. In a kind of friendly way of a, I've got your number. A bit of both, I think. Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, we had like a blazing row. It was really... I loved it. Right. Yeah. What did you have a blazing row about? I don't think you'll be interested. No, I'd like you to explain it because I think there'd be a lot of people asking, what is going on? Is Rick okay? How long has he been away? I'm so okay. There's a position, and he thought that the correct move was one thing, and I thought the correct move was another thing. And we had a 15-minute argument about it.

3:3015 minutes? 15-minute argument. And it was quite heated. How long does a backgammon game go on for usually? Well, it varies. I mean, normally like five, ten minutes. It's pretty quick. So 15 minutes? Yeah, it was a good chunk. And by the time we'd finished, literally there was probably 40 people there. We were the only people left there. Oh, my gosh. And then what, you swapped numbers? And then we swapped numbers and said, we'll do this again. And he did say, oh, and we'll play for money. And I was like, oh, God. It's almost like a musical. Yeah. I'd watch it. Well, you'd sing in it. I'd audition for it.

4:02Yeah. Definitely. You wouldn't get the part. But you play it. Well, you can actually play the hustler. Do you know what I'd play? I'd play the gammon. You could be the back. I still don't know what this game is. That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Thank you. We played football this morning. Yeah, a game that we all know the rules. Yes. We know that you went and bought your cleats the other week. Football boots for anyone in England? But they call them cleats here. And so I didn't have any, so I needed to go and get some. So I went to get them yesterday. I went into the shop and I spotted the ones I wanted.

4:30And I said to the guy, oh, do you have these in a 12, please? Clang. Is that a clang? I think so, yeah. But US 12, so it's an 11, really. I didn't want to go through that rigmarly. So I said 12. And he said, and I don't really want to do an impression on him, but I feel like maybe I have to. Yeah, you have to. He said, what do you know about 12? And I was like... You got served by Ray Winston. Yeah. What do you know about 12? And I was like, well, I don't know how to answer that. And he just carried on saying, what do you know about 12? Sorry, was he from East End of London? No, I'm not going to do the accent.

5:03I think you should. And then he looked at my bag. I'd bought a shirt. And he said, what's in your bag? And I was like, well, why are you asking me that? Who are you, Dale Whinton? And I said, well, I just bought a shirt. And he said, oh, yeah, good, good, good. and then he said you should go and buy some cologne in Macy's. I don't think this person worked there. No, no, he did. He's like, are you saying I smell? And then, literally on his phone, he started showing me where the shop was to go and buy cologne. Can we just say, LA, we're in Santa Monica, everyone's quite out there, aren't they? Yeah.

5:41They're quite surreal. They're all in a sitcom. Most people that are serving you actors who were trying to look for a Hollywood break I think he was just kooky yeah he was definitely kooky and I think in three years time you'll see him in a movie and go he's the guy that told me to buy cologne and I should have done you should have done that's Tom Hardy it wasn't Tom Hardy it wasn't Tom Hardy well it could have been with the accident yeah thank you the football itself was very good mainly because I scored the winning goal you scored the winning goal assisted by someone else on my team I'm like, it's more of a team game, isn't it?

6:17I don't really... It was Rick Edwards. Yeah. Rick Edwards. The Football Daily came through when it counted. I also scored a very nice goal. And this is... Look, I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but I was a little bit upset with you because when you scored your goal, assisted by me, I was pleased as punch. Yeah. Really happy. Straight in. Double high five. Fantastic. Got a winning goal. Really happy for you. When I scored my goal, what did you say? I'm glad you scored that. Yeah, I'm glad you scored that. I can't tell you how much I wish that had gone over. Well, the thing is, right, the ball came across to you and we're playing in nine-a-side goals, which obviously aren't full goals.

6:56They're not small goals. They're mid-sized goals. Yeah. And it was an open goal. No, it wasn't. It was pretty much... There was a goalkeeper. He was coming across because the ball had gone over to you. Yeah. So I'd say pretty much an open goal. Yeah. And you hit the crossbar. Yeah, I fit it into the roof of the net. It's a magnificent strike. There was no roof, it was 45 degrees. Right into the roof of the net. Yeah, absolutely. But why would you hope that I'd missed? No, because it was being filmed by the Guardian. It would have been an absolute sitter that you'd missed. It's not very supportive.

7:30No, it's not very supportive. And I'm very sorry. And I'm very happy that you assisted me for the winning goal. Anyway, let's bring in Tony Khan, owner of Fulham FC, owner of the NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars, and the CEO of All Elite Wrestling. Basically, a greedy boy. How are you, Tony? Nice to see you. Hey, very well. It's good to see you. Thanks, Rick. Thanks for coming along. Thanks, Louis. Thank you. So you have got, if I've got this right, six Fulham players at this World Cup. Do you get to enjoy watching them play? Do you have any contact with them, or do you just let them get on with it?

8:02Well, you know, I've been letting them try to focus on the matches, but I have been going, watching. I was there last night at the USA Turkey. I stayed in contact with a lot of the players that are former Fulham players, too. I had a really nice talk with Tim Ream, who's also still playing with USA, who's with us for a long time. So I love following the progress of the former Fulham players. And, of course, we have six Fulham players in the World Cup. And hopefully it looks like they're all possible to advance. When you are the owner of a football club, are you, like, buzzing from, like, lads, just go off and have the best time of your lives.

8:34I mean, it's the World Cup. Or are you like, oh, I hope they don't get injured? Well, no, I think that you're really hoping for them to do very well and hoping to see them perform very well. Obviously, in the market, that can be very good for the football club, but as a human being, I want to see them perform well for their teams. We're a very close club. I think Fulham's a family club, and it's really good to see the players who really aspire to this all year look forward to the World Cup for their entire lives for this moment. So absolutely, I want to see them do well, and we are also hoping they stay fit and you want to see everyone come out healthy, knocking the wood here in California at the table right now for that.

9:13But I definitely want to see positive results and glad to see everyone doing well in the World Cup so far. Is there a fear, though, if they do too well, then you're going to lose them? Well, it's a football business side of it, too. But as people, obviously, I want to see them do well and have a good World Cup. So I always look at it to the positive that that can be good for the club and the market, too, because there's obviously the business side of football for every team. Talking about the business side of football, obviously, you've been to a few games. Do you see this as like a scouting opportunity?

9:42Obviously, I'm sure you've been doing all the work all year round, but I guess are there any players that you go, oh, who's that? Can we have that? He's unlikely to say now, I think. Yeah, absolutely, I do. I think it is definitely a scouting opportunity. And going to football matches, whether it's the World Cup or the Gold Cup, there's a lot of good opportunities to see great football players here in America, but also I like to go see football matches wherever I can. And it's great to have so many of the top world-class footballers here on this continent. This is the greatest collection of footballers.

10:16Certainly anybody's going to be able to assemble. So I'm very excited to be able to see so many great matches so quickly over such a short period. It's great to have you here. And there's all this excitement around the World Cup right now. It's very fun. So who are you going to buy? Who are you going to buy? You've got me on the spot. There's some great opportunities, and certainly I think there are players that I've seen here at the World Cup that potentially could be great in the market for Fulham. I can't say specifically by name who, but... Do you want to just write them down on a bit of paper and laugh and go, oh!

10:50As soon as the microphone's off, yes, I'll tell you. Okay, fine. Well, I've got many dreams, but one of them is... Which one are you going to go into? Oh, I'm going to get the clean one. Oh, thank God. I've heard some of the others. Horrifying. I dream that I own Grimmsford Town Football Club one day. I'd love to be able to then just buy players as an owner. Can you do that? Or do you leave it to the recruitment team? Can you go, I really like them. Well, you know, I do a lot of work on that recruitment side. I don't know if you know this, but I actually work very closely on the recruitment, probably more so than most people in the ownership of the clubs.

11:28And for 10 years have been the sporting director. And in the summer of 2016, I came to the football club looking to hopefully make some changes in a positive direction because I had not worked in an official capacity at the club. And my father bought the club. They had been relegated from the Premier League in 2013-14. And then in the following two seasons had finished in the championship 17th and then 20th. And after finishing 20th in the championship, I really believed that Fulham could do much better. and I believe there was a bright future for Fulham, and I wanted to change the approach to the recruitment.

12:04So I asked to please have the power over the transfers, and we made a lot of changes, and there was some continuity. The only players we kept from the 2015-16 season into the summer of 2016 were Tom Kearney, Scott Parker, Ryan Fredericks, Tim Rehm, and Marcus Bettinelli were the only five first team players. And then Ryan Sessignon, we brought it from the academy, and we brought in, I believe, 18 or 19 new players. And so many great ones, including guys that have made huge contributions to the football club like Stefan Johansson, Kevin McDonald, Dennis Odoi. It was a great time. And then that year, after finishing 20th in the championship the previous year, that team finished sixth.

12:50And then the next year we did get promoted. But it's been a lot of learning and a great experience. And certainly the best results have been in the past several years and working closely with Marco Silva, who did a great job at the football club. He left very recently and we're in the process right now of identifying the next person to come in and coach the team. But I have so much respect for Marco and working with him the past five years certainly has been a great experience for all of us at the football club. And he left on a very high note after four seasons of achieving exactly what we wanted, which was building to be stable and getting those results where the past four years in the Premier League, we finished 10th, 13th, 11th, and 11th.

13:37So we had very consistent results. So I think that showed how far we had come after finishing 20th in the championship 10 years earlier. And just remind me who you're bringing in as his successor. Breaking all the news. Well, it's fair to ask. There's one name that is kind of floating around at the moment. Well, all I can say is, as I've said, talking to the supporters when I was at Craven Cottage last week, that we are speaking very closely to two candidates who both bring a lot of positives to the football club. It's a very important process. Claro, claro. Really important time. but you know being here at the World Cup and having the chance to visit with you I thought it would be great to come and do that because it's an exciting and important summer for the football club.

14:24Well as long as you keep your hands off Grimsby Town's David Artel I'm absolutely fine with that. That's one of the two names. Well if it is I mean You'd be fuming. I will wrestle you. Okay. Shall we talk about the World Cup? A lot of the talk has been about the ticket prices. You know I'm not sure if you've been aware of that. Do you think it's become too expensive for the for the average fan or well i i definitely think that uh it is a very expensive premium game but and the prices are high and it's always important to stay in touch with the fans uh and looking at the prices market by market i think it certainly is a concern but i think that what's been great is that the games are all being aired of it on free tv yeah and that is important i think in England certainly that's always a priority the BBC and ITV do a fantastic job with the coverage and and but certainly the live experience is so great and that's such a huge part of football so having tickets that are affordable is important the 48 teams thing I think was a bit controversial because people like is that going to be too much football are they going to be teams that ordinarily wouldn't be in it are you going to have some like big mismatches and actually what we've seen is some fantastic stories.

15:40I mean, Cape Verde is the obvious one. He's like, no one, no one saw this happening. And it's been brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. It has been. And it's been exciting. There's been some really fantastic stories. And you're right. There's still been drama. There's still big teams that have high stakes as we go in to the end of this group stage. And it's going to be really interesting to see who gets into the knockout round with that expanded field in that. That'll be interesting, too, because you'll have top teams getting knocked out in the sudden-death format sooner than they would have been. So it's a double-edged sword, and it'll be really interesting to see how it plays out.

16:15But it's great from the media side, so I do love it. And more matches to watch, it's fun. And it's more opportunities to watch more footballers. So from a Fulham perspective, I do think it's better because we get to see more players and more opportunities to scout. I spend a lot of time looking at data and the more time we can see players in person that the scouts all of us can get a look at the players with eyes and compare that to the data. It's really important to have a complete picture and not just rely on one side or the other. In terms of the fan experience what do you think football can still learn from your you know wrestling and American football.

16:56I think the fan experience is so fantastic in English football. It's one of the most perfect things in the world. I wouldn't change a thing about it. I love it. And I am biased because I've spent so much of my life at Craven Cottage, but it's one of the most perfect ways to spend a day. And any kind of day. It's lovely. It's just perfect. It could be snowing. It could be raining. It could be a perfect sunny day. There's no bad day at Craven Cottage. And there's a great tradition of football there. and so I love the experience and and the match day it's very different than NFL football going to a big Premier League game is certainly a lot different than an NFL playoff game but I wouldn't change a thing about it what's been interesting this time around in the World Cup we've got the hydration breaks I mean some people are going oh we now play four quarters like it's not we're not two halves it's four quarters what I loved uh yesterday John Murray commentator on BBC Five Live just said during the hydration break what does Parade even taste like?

17:58So I mean there's people that never tasted Parade going well I guess might I try it? So as you say from a commercial standpoint they're getting in there. Did the hydration break come in for the first time in the restart in 2020? Because I remember we had the hydration breaks in 2020 when we came back from the COVID restart and we absolutely had the drinks break. Do you think it's here it's a stage. You think we'll have hydration breaks in the Premier League where we definitely don't need them. I cannot speak to that at all, but in the World Cup, I think it's been good for the experience and I would have to imagine they've generated millions, if not billions of dollars in ad revenue.

18:35I'm being told here by producer Lizzie that hydration breaks were in 2022, but sparingly off a case-by-case basis, whereas here, no matter what, even if it's chucking it down with water and the players are just drenched. That's got a name, right? Rain. Rain. I've been in Venice Beach so long, I don't know what it's like. It's almost like the terminology thing. The idea of it going from a game of two halves, like that old cliche, to being four quarters kind of just makes me go, bleh. Well, you know, it's a game of four quarters. Yeah, I don't like that as a phrase. At the end of the third quarter.

19:09It doesn't really work. But maybe we just have to get used to it. We played Brentford in the empty Wembley Stadium in that season and got promoted through the English Football League Championship playoff. Having been there two years earlier and played Aston Villa in a packed over 80 ,000 people in Wembley Stadium, we were there two years later. We played in the empty. It was quite the experience. Speaking of Wembley, you're going to be there in August with AEW All-In London. Do you get to go and visit the stadium in advance of putting a wrestling show on and have a little walk around? Because obviously, I guess if you're, I think, do you hire it?

19:44I've never hired Wembley, and I'm going to speak out now. I don't think I probably ever will. But do you go there and have a little look, and can you ever kick around? I've spent so much time at Wembley Stadium over the years because we've had so many matches with Jacksonville Jaguars football. We have fixtures where Jaguars play every year at Wembley Stadium. And then we've had big games for Fulham, huge, and have now had two awesome shows at Wembley Stadium. And we set the world record for the most tickets ever sold for pro wrestling for AEW, which is a challenger startup league that we've started since I've known you.

20:24And we set the world record in that time. And we're coming back August 30th this summer, the bank holiday. It's going to be a fantastic show. And absolutely, I hope you can come. I'd love for you guys to be there. It's a bank holiday weekend. And it's going to be really special. Back onto the football. Is there a concern for you as an owner of a domestic team about how much football players are having to play now? So we've talked about it a lot in an England context because when you look at Declan Rice, I think he's played 63 games this season before the start of the World Cup. And he's having some fitness issues.

21:00And you can't help but think, well, yeah, he's played too much football. Yes. I mean, there's a lot of football being played. at multiple levels. When you look at the top footballers, 38 matches in the Premier League and the international competition, it's a year-round job. It's mad. And how long the season goes, how many matches are played. But at the same time, it goes to every level. The championship, you have 46 matches and League One, 46 matches. So at every level, there's a lot of football being played. It's incredible how hard footballers work. And I think it's why at a national and international level, all the youth aspire to be top footballers.

21:42It's so many people's dream to be in that spotlight. And we all know you have to work really, really hard to get there. And the spotlight is a lot of work and it's a lot of matches. How much time off will you give your six players who are here? I mean, it depends slightly on how far they get. I think and I would say it's a good question, but I would say a lot of that, to be fair, would be now in the hands of the new coach who's going to be coming in very soon. Who's not David Artel? But is. Rick is an absolute journalist. Look at him. He's good. Rick is good. Oh, don't he clip that up now. That'll be his ringtone.

22:20Rick's good. Rick is good. I completely agree with that. Do you think we'll still be feeling the impact of this World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico in five or ten years? Yes, 100%. I was a small boy when the World Cup was here in 1994, and I still remember it. And I hope it's not another 32 years before it comes back because I think it's had a very positive impact on the sport here. And I think America and Canada and Mexico now as well have been yearning and hoping to have the opportunity to bring the World Cup here. There are so many amazing stadiums and towns here in America. We're in a really great one.

22:58I'm biased. I love Los Angeles very much, but there are so many great cities hosting the World Cup throughout North America. And this is a huge opportunity. So I'm very glad it's here. There's a lot of great markets all over the world. But I hope that it's not 32 years again, because, again, the 1994 experience is still resonating. So I'm very sure, Lloyd, that the impact of this World Cup here in North America is going to be felt for a very long time to come. I've seen some quite funny comments from Americans saying, actually, I think we've done such a good job, we should just have it here every time.

23:32And I'm like, no, probably not that, actually. But I do admire the confidence. Yeah. Tony, thank you so much for coming on. We'll see you in August. And then maybe we'll pop down to the cottage at some point. That would be lovely. That would be nice, yeah. Love to see you guys at Craven Cottage. And see you down at Fulham Pier. You guys should come down. It's lovely now. The new Fulham Pier is really beautiful. Just very quickly, would we make a decent tag team? Yeah, I do think we should do that. You guys should do it. I think we've got an interesting combo. What if that's a thing at Wembley Stadium?

24:06What if you guys come in the ring? I mean, look. Let's not rule it out, Zody. August 30th. What if I find – now, what if I – Here we go. Okay, now, you can cut this out if you want to do it. What if I get you guys and I get the two guys from ITV? and they're the big bad guys. Come on. They're the bad guys. Come on. And the whole country would just go nuts if I said there's going to be the good guys with the BBC and the bad guys with ITV. Yeah, perfect. Now, by the way, I should note before you release this, I work for ITV. Don't worry about that. They might do well in this. No, no, no, no. I'm going to drop the people's elbow on Mark Pugach and then we'll see.

24:49That's great. Let's do it. Yeah, I mean, we're shaking on that. You guys are in. So these guys, welcome to Wembley Stadium, August 30th, AEW All-In. Rick and Lloyd are coming to the show.