The Truth About FIFA, Messi, and Ronaldo

This tournament has a lot of people feeling like it's scripted. A lot of. I mean, I'm sure.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let's not run away from it. Let's deal with the elephant in the room so you and I can continue on our friendship.

Okay, okay. There are many people who feel like Argentina and Lionel Messi are the darlings of FIFA.

And Infantino does everything in his power To make sure that they have

Both an easy path in the tournament And an easy path in games So let's start with the games argument first

A lot of people are complaining That Argentina has an easy journey to the final

Which shows the bias that FIFA has I try to disagree

I disagree because Argentina You disagree because you love Messi No, no, I disagree because of facts So, Argentina.

So, when you look at the facts, Argentina actually was supposed to play either Spain or Uruguay in the next round. Yeah.

But then Uruguay bottled it and Cape Verde came second. Oh, yeah, that's true. Argentina wasn't supposed to play Cape Verde. That's true.

So, the way FIFA makes these draws is the top teams, the blockbuster box office games should always be in the latter rounds.

Right. But then what happens is the big teams, because soccer is not scripted, the big teams normally mess up.

So England fails to beat Ghana. Ghana. Yeah. Spain fails to beat Cape Verde. Yeah.

The Netherlands fails to beat Japan. Uruguay gets knocked out. Uruguay gets knocked out. And that's how you mess up. Argentina, on the other hand, they take care of business.

So if Argentina had failed to beat Jordan, maybe, now they would have ended up on the other side. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So the teams that take care of business always get rewarded with an easier path.

So FIFA goes like, we're going to put the big teams to ensure. Because FIFA doesn't want France to meet Argentina in the round of 32.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They want France-Argentina in the final. But football is not scripted.

One of the two teams messes up, ends up on the other side of the bracket. Now you have one side of the bracket very stacked because England didn't do their job.

Netherlands didn't do their job. Portugal didn't do... Spain didn't do their job. Spain didn't do their... Yeah. No, that's true. If Portugal beats...

Colombia or Congo. Not even Colombia, Congo. Yeah. Because Colombia was a bit of a tight game. If they beat Congo, the way they beat Uzbekistan.

now portugal is on the easiest part of the draw so that's

the way it works and now when when you talk about messi for me i'm

going to sound by saying this but actually if anything as opposed to how you always

yes fifa favors ronaldo it

sounds crazy but fifa wow so let's talk about the red card right the red card was contentious was it was it not but coming to the world cup there was one player who had a red card ronaldo got a red card in one of their last got fires.

Oh, yeah, you're right. El Bowling, yes, an Ireland player. Oh, yeah, you're right. He was supposed to sub an automatic three-match ban. Yes. But what did FIFA do?

What did Infantino do? Infantino went like, we can't miss Ronaldo for the World Cup. I forgot about that. So he gave him one match and then he suspended the other two.

That's the first time. Yeah, you're right, actually. Yes. We've never had a suspended sentence in football. Never. Never. That's never happened before.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the first recipient of a suspended sentence on a red card. The one game he missed against what team?

You're not wrong, actually. That's a good argument. Imagine if Messi had received that preferential treatment. I'll go back to another.

I'll take you years back, 2013. The Ballon d'Or, because sometimes people go like, oh, Messi is favoured for the Ballon d'Or.

The Ballon d'Or voting was supposed to be closed November 15th. Ronaldo scores a hat-trick against Sweden November 19th.

FIFA extends the Ballon d'Or for the first and last time to November 29th and goes like, you can change your results to reflect recent performances.

There's been a pattern upon pattern of FIFA favoring Ronaldo, but Ronaldo fans always go like, no, FIFA favor is Messi.

So for me, Argentina takes care of business. If other teams took care of business, a big team like maybe Portugal or England are supposed to get nine points out of nine.

Spain is supposed to get nine points out of nine. If we're honest, that's how the tournament is designed.

The tournaments are generally designed in such a way That the favorites are supposed to Go up against the smaller teams Which benefits smaller teams

Strangely enough in some ways You know it's like a moment to prove yourselves

It's great for box office ratings etc for you But the downside is you're facing a bigger team But when the teams don't perform When Vozinha does what Vozinha did against Spain Man I can't tell you

Cape Verde has won the World Cup Because Let me show you the scenarios here Cape Verde has won the World Cup

They held Spain to a goal list draw One of the favorites To win this one And we thought That was the result We went like Oh they're done They have done their beat

Cape Verde can go home happy They went like Nope we're not No They went through In their next game

Did the same thing Third game They have a goal

difference Of zero going through Which is pretty impressive For World Cup opening rounds And then And then Now they're going to play Argentina

In the round of 32 Which is a win-win for them That's what I'm saying It's a win Because if Argentina Beats them