In this episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg speaks with investigative journalist Karim Zidan about Donald Trump’s long and increasingly political relationship with sport.

For decades, Trump has used boxing, professional wrestling, golf, mixed martial arts, and football to build his brand, cultivate power, and place himself at the centre of the spectacle.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has attended major sporting events, signed executive orders on sport, created White House task forces for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and surrounded himself with a network of sports executives, athletes, influencers, and political operators.

Karim Zidan explains how sport has become part of Trump’s political infrastructure - a space where strength, masculinity, nationalism, loyalty, grievance, and entertainment are turned into political power.

The conversation looks at Trump’s relationship with combat sports, from boxing and professional wrestling to the UFC; the role of figures such as Dana White, Joe Rogan, Casey Wasserman, and others.

Karim Zidan is an investigative journalist who writes about the intersection of sport, politics, power, authoritarianism, and human rights. He is also the author of the forthcoming book The Ultimate Strongmen, which examines how mixed martial arts has become a powerful tool for political agendas, propaganda, and control.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Guest: Karim Zidan, investigative journalist and author

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Lost in the ocean by limujii & Cold Case by Riverside

This story is written by Monika Streule for Play the Game and narrated by Stanis Elsborg.

In this episode, urban anthropologist Monika Streule takes us to Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, where 2026 World Cup-related projects, infrastructure upgrades, and urban development are colliding with local struggles over water, land, housing, public space, and environmental protection.

In Mexico City, residents near the Azteca Stadium continue to resist projects they fear will increase water scarcity, displacement, and gentrification.

In Monterrey, the build-up to the World Cup has intersected with long-running conflicts over public land, air pollution, water access, and the protection of rivers.

And in Guadalajara, the Akron Stadium and its surroundings near La Primavera forest raise questions about urban expansion, wildfire risks, pressure on water resources, and the limits of sustainability branding.

The episode looks beyond the global spectacle and asks what happens locally when the world’s biggest football tournament arrives.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Author: Monika Streule, urban anthropologist and professor of social anthropology based in Mexico City

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Cold Case by Riverside

Jules Boykoff: Sportswashing, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, and the 2028 Olympic Games

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in North America, Jules Boykoff asks us to look beyond the spectacle.

For millions of fans, the tournament will bring football, drama, beauty, and emotion. But behind the spectacle lies another story – one about power, money, political prestige, and who gets to use sport, and for what purpose.

In this episode, you will hear Jules Boykoff speak about sportswashing, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Boykoff is a political scientist, author, former professional football player, and one of the most critical voices on the politics of sport and mega-events.

His analysis focuses on the concept of sportswashing: how political leaders, states, and powerful institutions use sport to build prestige, stoke nationalism, and deflect attention from chronic problems at home.

In the case of the 2026 World Cup, Boykoff turns his attention to FIFA, Donald Trump, and the political and commercial machinery surrounding the tournament.

But his argument does not stop with football. Two years after the World Cup, the Olympic Games will come to Los Angeles – raising many of the same questions about power, profit, public money, policing, displacement, and political image-making.

The episode also comes as Boykoff releases his new book, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Speaker: Jules Boykoff, political scientist, author, and former professional football player

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley.

This story is written by journalist Steve Menary for Play the Game and narrated by Stanis Elsborg.

Is FIFA moving into the betting industry faster than it can protect the integrity of the game?

Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, football’s global governing body is deepening its relationship with betting operators, prediction markets, data companies, and streaming rights - and, on June 9, FIFA announced Kraken as an official crypto exchange supporter of the tournament.

The result is a rapidly expanding commercial landscape where new betting opportunities are emerging not only around the World Cup itself, but also around low-level matches streamed on FIFA+.

Some of those matches involve amateur or poorly paid players in countries where online gambling is illegal. Yet they can still end up on global betting markets, raising questions about offshore operators, cryptocurrency, weak regulation, and match-fixing risks.

This episode looks at how FIFA’s commercial partnerships are bringing thousands of matches closer to betting markets, why sports integrity experts are concerned about prediction markets ahead of the 2026 World Cup, and whether football’s systems of protection and accountability can keep up.

This is a story about money, governance, betting, and the integrity of football – from the biggest World Cup ever staged to some of the smallest leagues in the game.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Author: Steve Menary, journalist

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Cold Case by Riverside

“Silence is sport’s worst enemy!”

That is the message from Qatar 2022 whistleblower Abdullah Ibhais, the former media manager for Qatar’s World Cup organising committee, who paid a heavy price for speaking out about the treatment of migrant workers ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In the opening episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg speaks with Ibhais in an exclusive interview about the latest developments in his case.

After travelling to Norway to speak publicly about FIFA, Qatar, and the World Cup, Ibhais says he was stopped at the airport on his return to Jordan, questioned, and had his passport confiscated.

The episode also features Ibhais’ powerful presentation from Play the Game 2025, where he describes Qatar’s media strategy in the years leading up to the tournament — a strategy he sums up as: “Deflect, discredit, and deny.”

This is the story of an insider turned whistleblower – a story about prison, pressure, media control, FIFA, migrant workers, and the global politics behind Qatar 2022.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Guest: Abdullah Ibhais, whistleblower, communications and advocacy consultant, Jordan

*This episode is produced by Play the Game*

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley

Welcome to the Play the Game Podcast

Play the Game Podcast is a new podcast about the people, powers, and politics shaping sport.

The podcast brings you voices, stories, and debates that rarely get enough space in the world of sport.

For almost three decades, Play the Game has worked to create space for open, critical, and informed dialogue about international sport through conferences, analyses, and journalism.

Now, we are bringing that work to your headphones.

In the podcast, you will hear from investigative journalists, researchers, athletes, whistleblowers, sports leaders, decision-makers, and others who help uncover what is happening behind the scenes of international sport.

Episodes will include interviews, narrated articles, conference presentations, and critical debates on some of the biggest challenges facing sport today — from corruption, match-fixing, doping, and human rights to geopolitics, gambling, sustainability, athlete welfare, and abuse in sport.

Some episodes will give new life to important material from Play the Game’s conferences and website: presentations, articles, and conversations that deserve to travel further than the room where they were first heard. Others will open up new conversations about the questions that sport still struggles to answer.

Play the Game Podcast is for everyone who believes that sport deserves scrutiny, transparency, and open debate.

Subscribe now, and listen soon on all major podcast platforms.

For more information visit www.playthegame.org/podcast