The World Cup lands at last: Opening week pointers, ongoing concerns and online dominance

14:21David Cushnan:But I thought Ben made a really astute point in the podcast where he talked about what this World Cup will also produce beyond that already semi-official official collection of creators is we're going to discover new creators. People are going to pop up. People are going to go viral. And it could be one particular moment. It could be, as you say, a series, something that they do that just breaks through and starts trending or finds its way into all our algorithms and stars will be created in that creator space as a result of this tournament. And I think that's very new. And, you know, you will then see them for the next tournament probably come into some sort of official creator collective that a FIFA or a brand is putting together.

15:09David Cushnan:We have seen now probably what for the last, what was it? Was it, if you think about Olympics and World's Cup, was it London 2012 that people talked about as the first social media Olympics. We've seen that different tags being given to major mega events over the past sort of decade and a half as the social media space, as the digital world, as the online world has expanded, has evolved. And I'm not prepared yet to give this World Cup a label, but there will be one that will emerge. Perhaps a leading contender at the moment is the Podcast World Cup, as podcasts increasingly make their evolution, certainly at the top end into broadcast products and, you know, video products.

15:48David Cushnan:There's going to be something in that world that this World Cup will end up being remembered by. Maybe it is the first truly always-on World Cup where everybody has a very personalized and individual experience of consuming it.

16:04James Emmett:Yeah, definitely interested to see what we're going to be reflecting on at the end of this World Cup when it comes to those sort of broadcasty podcast experiments and who's doing what for who. A lot of these folks are over there, the podcasters certainly, with wearing multiple hats. You've got a note here saying Rio Ferdinand's in an Airbnb. Yeah, I saw Rio Ferdinand sort of

16:28David Cushnan:holed up in an Airbnb somewhere out on the West Coast.

16:30James Emmett:Who's paying him to do that? I do wonder.

16:32David Cushnan:I think it might be Airbnb. Sure. But he's hosting, and I must say, I haven't yet subscribed to this, a series of his, is it called Rio Ferdinand Presents? His podcast strand. But the economics of punditry is maybe a slightly broader conversation to have. But you're definitely seeing this model and Gary Neville's The Overlap and Gary Lineker's The Rest is Football are probably the two big examples of this, where you have groups of pundits who are working for traditional rights-holding broadcasters, TV channels in the traditional form, but are also going to be spending this World Cup pumping out their own stuff under their own name or their own brand effectively.

17:10David Cushnan:And that's maybe the first time we've truly seen that at a World Cup. I don't remember. I mean, clearly, if you look at the overlap and the rest is football, they weren't, if they existed at all, they weren't particularly or certainly as established as they are now three and a half years ago when the focus of everybody was Qatar. Yeah, indeed.

17:29James Emmett:Shall we take a brief interlude from the World Cup to talk about a few other bits and pieces that are happening and then, of course, inevitably return to it post that? Let's take a hydration break, shall we? Let's.

17:39David Cushnan:Las Vegas has signed an extension to its partnership, its citywide partnership with F1 until at East 2037, city officials greenlighting a major contract renewal. And this is all the hotels and the Convention Authority because, of course, F1 promotes the Las Vegas race itself, but relies on the kind of access and sanctioning of lots of groups within Las Vegas, particularly around the Strip. Dublin's Croke Park will host Katie Taylor's final fight in September after a deal was struck after many months of negotiations with Matchroom Boxing and Lidl Ireland will be the title sponsor of what I think will be a pretty highly anticipated event.

18:25David Cushnan:Audi, meanwhile, has extended its long-term title sponsorship of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup until 2030. Not one in the UK that we pay that much attention to, but actually a really, really hefty deal in a lot of very significant European markets, that one.

18:42James Emmett:Florentino Perez has been re-elected as president of Real Madrid. His new term runs until 2013. He's already promising big changes, big moves at Real Madrid, splashing the cash on various players and Jose Mourinho back. Although in that election campaign, a new young contender emerged who did much better than expected in the voting. And it does augur precariously for Perez and Perez's supporters as they go into this next term.

19:17David Cushnan:37-year-old Enrique Raquelme, well beaten in the end, but as you say, maybe surprised at some people. But once again, or at least until 2030, it's Laurentino Perez in charge.

19:28James Emmett:The Qatar Olympic Committee has appointed former Uradu executive Fatima Sultain Al-Kawari as CEO of its bid team for the 2036 Olympics. And SNAP's Amol Malhotra has been promoted to a broader role as Global Head of Content and Partnerships.

19:46David Cushnan:Well done, Amol. Well done, Amol. And congratulations. Right. Back to the World Cup, James. Straight back to the World Cup. Because it's really, it's the biggest, and I say this as a, as you know, somebody who loves the Olympics. But this one hits a bit different, doesn't it? The Men's World Cup. And certainly when you have the biggest World Cup ever in the biggest sport in the world, in the biggest market in the world, the US, I think it is going to, as we have touched on in previous podcasts, suck quite a lot of the oxygen out of the sports industry and certainly the headlines over the next six weeks.

20:22David Cushnan:And as with all these tournaments, when the sport actually begins, that takes a lot of the attention inevitably. And suddenly we're into conversations about tactics and wins and losses and great goals and controversies on the field. But there's clearly a wealth of business storylines, of political storylines around this tournament. We have covered them in some depth over many years now. And it's worth remembering that it's about eight years since the United bid for 2026 was first formed. John Christick, one of the key architects of that original bid, USA, Canada, Mexico. USA very much as the senior partner, and you can see that in terms of the distribution of games.

21:08David Cushnan:But Mexico and Canada is key elements of this joint effort, which saw off a bid from Morocco back in 2018. And since then, we've been through a very comprehensive and competitive and at some point slightly controversial host city selection process. The dynamics, as we've talked about, of FIFA and its relationship with host cities has been something that's been under the microscope. you have fifa's change in model of how it organizes world cups and taking more control central control over the organization and the operations of the competition you have gianni infantino right at the heart in some cases at times a one-man promotional machine for this world cup very much the front man his instagram account very much the central focus of a lot of the the marketing and the way that the narrative from FIFA has come across with this tournament.

22:07David Cushnan:And above all that, as you touched on at the start, you have Donald Trump back in the White House and Infantino's many and concerted efforts to curry favour, to form a relationship with Donald Trump, to keep Donald Trump on side and the current administration to try and ensure that the next six, seven weeks passes with as minimum of challenge as possible. That's the backdrop. And there's probably a few bits, well, there's certainly a few bits underneath that to consider. But it's been, I mean, I think first of all, it's worth saying it's been quite a journey so far.

22:45James Emmett:Yeah, for sure. There are all sorts of talking points that could possibly raise their heads over the next, what is it, 12, 13, 14, a million weeks? Honestly, an extraordinary length, this tournament. Obviously, you referred to Trump there. There's all sorts of political questions wrapped up in this World Cup, not least the Iran question. How is it possible for a nation to compete on the soil of a country that is openly at war with it? We will see. There will be this idea that sport and politics don't mix is clearly utter rot. We'll see how that goes.

23:28David Cushnan:That's going to be one of the big stories over the first week, I think. The Iranian team flying in and out on the day of matches from their sort of hastily convened Mexican training camp base into, I think they're playing largely on the west coast of the US.

23:43James Emmett:The Iranian team, you know there are no slouches. Do you know where they're ranked in the world? I was astounded when I did my sweepstakes. Would they be?

23:50David Cushnan:They're the 21st. According to FIFA, they're the 21st best team in the world. It's not impossible that the USA play Iran in the knockout phase, which would be, apart from anything else, the most extraordinary occasion. 98, USA, Iran. Fantastic game. That's going to be a major theme. There's obviously, as with all major events, wherever they're staged, going to be heightened security. And that's going to be something that's going to be closely monitored. there's clearly you know all the questions and we've seen stories this week in the immediate build-up to the tournament around immigration and visas and access to the US in particular and it's worth saying that aside from all the politics what you have here is FIFA and yes Canada and Mexico will host some games but FIFA's focus has squarely been on the US and this is not only the biggest World Cup and an expanded World Cup but it is by a distance the most commercially rampant World Cup.

24:49David Cushnan:Oh, yes.

24:49James Emmett:The folks inside FIFA will have to work hard to move away from the idea of this being the money grab World Cup. Obviously, we've got the ongoing story around tickets, ticket sales, FIFA's position as both seller and intermediary trying to sort of take fees from both sides, deliberately holding back tickets to give the impression of scarcity while risking having empty seats all over the place. Clearly North America, USA in particular, there are different ticketing dynamics and expected behaviours in place. People in general much more used to paying large amounts for tickets. Also the idea of dynamic pricing, you could get a bargain, you know, the day before an event.

25:31James Emmett:That's ongoing. There'll be a lot of discussion around the format of the World Cup, expanded 48 teams. Will this feel bloated and largely meaningless for much of the time or will it have enough jeopardy and quality to sustain real interest and broadcast numbers and everything that people want it's a very hard world cup and

25:54David Cushnan:we've seen this in in the last couple of editions so it's not necessarily just about the 48 teams but um it's i have found it personal experience very hard to try and explain the format of this world cup and the concept of third place teams in groups potentially qualifying but maybe not qualifying to a six-year-old. Don't bother. That is a challenge.

26:15James Emmett:Well, do you know what? It's a challenge. I've not found the answer to. It's a challenge that I'm sure some at FIFA will be thinking, well, the solve to that is by going to 64 teams.

26:24David Cushnan:I've also just realised my son is seven. Yeah. There we go.

26:28James Emmett:Drinks, breaks, of course, which are there for health and wellness reasons, but will, of course, raise questions about in-game advertising and the door being open to that in the future for football.

26:41David Cushnan:And let's keep an eye on the weather because these strict lightning protocols, and we have seen that in England's final warm-up game, which was delayed in Florida by, I think, about an hour. This strict US policy on effectively having to clear stadiums, evacuate stadiums, if there's a lightning strike detected within a particular radius of the venue. We saw it during the Club World Cup. We will see it at some point during the World Cup. And the, you know, FIFA's, they will have built this into their thinking, but there's going to have to be some adaptability and some flexibility in the scheduling around this.

27:22David Cushnan:It could play absolute havoc with broadcaster schedules and everything that comes with that. there's definitely some weather around in certain parts of the the us and that's a non-negotiable that's a you know that's a legal position um that you cannot have crowds near lightning strikes very sensible by the way it's sensible david yeah it is going to cause an impact an impact that we haven't really seen at too many football tournaments certainly in the recent past dave to wrap this

27:51James Emmett:one up i want i'm going to ask you a sort of one question with two parts to it what in general are you most looking forward to about this World Cup? And who is your dark horse, either to do well as a team or as an individual sort of coming to the fore?

28:07David Cushnan:I think sitting in the UK, I think there is something quite fun, although sometimes quite awkward, about World Cups that are happening a long way away and in a different time zone. And that requires you to, if you want, watch football at times of the day that you might not ordinarily. You should be asleep. Should be asleep. I actually think my sleeper hit of this, my sleeper medium of this World Cup could be radio, actually. I think with a lot of games happening late at night, just take the radio to bed with you. Could be a bit of an option if you don't want to stay up for the full TV viewing.

28:44David Cushnan:I think when all is said and done, World Cups are absolutely fascinating things, on field, off field. And there are going to be some surprises. There's some stuff will happen that we haven't even considered. And I think how the various stakeholders react to that will be quite interesting as ever. Yeah.

29:02James Emmett:For me, I am looking forward to a wildcard element, I guess on the content front, becoming a sort of dominant force, a big topic of conversation here. I'm thinking someone like Dana White inserting himself controversially into a discussion around the World Cup. And my sort of dark horse top tip is Canada. I think Canada being slept on, host nation, of course, lots of enthusiasm and history in soccer in Canada. And I think they could do very well. We've got to draw a line under it there, David. Thanks very much. See you next week. See you then.