Protests, ticket prices and visas - problems of the World Cup | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the global news podcast from. the BBC. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and. today we're joined by Dale Johnson, our. football issues correspondent. And Dale, the World Cup kicks off today, the. biggest ever, but is it the most. controversial? Well, first of all, take. us through the scale of this tournament. >> Well, yeah, it's the biggest tournament. we've ever had in in the World Cup. There's going to be. 48 teams playing 104 matches. Used to be. only 32 teams taking part. It's over. three countries and it's going to be.

really quite a complicated tournament to. organize, but also to watch and to. follow, certainly if you're not in the. United States, if you're in Europe, where a lot of the good the games are. being played overnight. So, it's really. quite unprecedented, certainly on scale. and the size and the number of games. >> It's also the first time that the hosts. have been at war with one of the. participants. I'm talking, of course, about the US and Iran. President Trump. launching that war despite winning the. the FIFA Peace Prize. That's going to.

make things difficult, isn't it? >> It is, yeah, and obviously there's not. just the Iran situation in terms of what. happened after the FIFA Peace Prize. There was also. the attack on on Venezuela and the. capture. of their people in the power there. So, it's been a case of since that peace. peace prize has been quite a few. incidents which really have brought that. into question. So, it's going to be interesting to see. what happens on that front. >> Yeah, take us through the logistics. facing the Iranian team. They've claimed.

that some of their staff haven't got. visas. They've had to move their their. base. >> Yes, at one stage we didn't really know. whether Iran would really take part and. Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, has gone on record in his press. conference last night to say that it. would have been impossible to get them. to the tournament without him, but there. are real issues. The team are not. allowed to stay in the United States. They're having to stay in Tijuana, which. is just over the border in Mexico and. then they're only getting permission to. fly in and out of the games. [clears throat] 24 hours either side of.

the match. And like you say, there's. there's been 15 members of the. delegation who've been refused visas for. the United States, so they will not be. able to not be able to go to the games. Uh and then of course you have the big. issue that Iran are not yet in the. United States. Until they get through. border control and get to the game, then. we can't be absolutely certain that. immigration are going to let them into. the country. >> Yeah, it's not only the Iranian team. that might have difficulties getting in. Some fans have had their visas denied,

and even a World Cup referee. >> Yes, we're just hearing earlier today. that the Ivory Coast fans have been told. they will not be allowed to enter the. US. So, the those fans that were going. to arrive, around 500 to go to their. games, will not now be arriving. But, certainly the most controversial aspect. is Omar Artan, who is a Somalian. referee. He's the number one referee in. Africa. He was supposed to be refereeing. at this tournament, but when he arrived. at Miami Airport. earlier this week, immigration.

spoke to him for 11 hours and. interrogated him, and they decided that. he should not be allowed permission to. enter the United States. And so, when. you have one of FIFA's own officials, one of their own employees, who cannot. get through immigration, then you can. understand why supporters and anybody. else who who's coming from outside the. United States may have fears about. actually getting into the country. >> Yeah, you might have thought that Gianni. Infantino, given his close relationship. with President Trump, might have been. able to to have a word to get that.

referee in. >> Well, exactly. Yeah, he said in his. press conference last night that he was. just unfortunate that the Somalian. referee couldn't get into the country. I. think the referee would probably have. liked a a few more words about his. career and how he'd earned the chance to. referee at the at the World Cup and for. the pinnacle of his career, but instead. he's had to go back onto the the Um now, Infantino says they're not kings of the. world, they can't override the decisions. that are made by by governments and. immigration authorities, but it just. seems a bit strange that you've got.

somebody that's one of the essentially. integral part of this World Cup. refereeing matches, and they couldn't. guarantee that he could get into the. country. >> Now, we've also seen national sides. being searched as they head into the US. Uzbekistan and their their manager, Italian superstar Fabio Cannavaro, also. the Senegalese team. Now, both those. sides have said these are a routine. searches, but it all adds to the the. noise surrounding the tournament. >> It does add to the noise, but there was. actually when Belgium played two games.

in the United States in March, they were. shown having been these exact same same. pictures. on the tarmac. So, I think it was. Atlanta Airport, if I remember. correctly. So, it That shows that it. it's not just a case of. African countries or Asian countries. being picked on. because of it it's actually what their. policy is in terms of. the immigration when somebody's getting. a private jet and doesn't have to go. through the 2-hour queues for for. passport control and security control. But, let's just say take the the Iraqi.

striker who was also questioned for 9 or. 10 hours before he was allowed to enter. the United States. And let's also. remember that so far, there are only 29. teams that have entered the United. States. There's potentially another 19. that need to enter. Some of them may not. enter for another week or two, or maybe. not until the knockout stages. So, this. story certainly isn't over just because. the World Cup is about to kick off. >> And of course, the fans who are in the. United States might bump into. immigration agents in the stadiums. ICE,

of course, very controversial over the. killings of those two US citizens in in. Minneapolis. What will fans face in the. stadiums? >> There's a lot of apprehension, I think, amongst fans. It's certainly in terms of. the four teams who are representing. who have supporters who should be banned. from flying into the US the likes of. Haiti Iran. and Senegal among them. So I think. there's a fear that when their games. come around it's of course Haiti versus. Scotland on.

on Saturday. >> [music]. >> There's a fear that they the ice might. turn up at the stadium and look to to. round up some of some of their. supporters. >> And talking of the fans there've been. plenty of complaints about the price of. of tickets. What's been going on there? >> Yeah well it's been going on for since. the since the prices came out in. December really. They've just been. astronomical certainly compared to the. Qatar World Cup where they've been two. times more expensive for the group stage. going up to seven times more expensive. for the knockout stages and then the.

World Cup where it's $8,000 for the. cheapest World Cup ticket for the final. and. it's just people don't feel like they. can afford this now. Gianni Infantino in. his press conference again defended the. ticket prices again said it's because of. the US market and again said that they. have to charge a price which brings in. the money and he says we should not be. getting we should we should be getting. the money that we deserve rather than. this going to the secondary market which. is the resale market which FIFA has its. own platform for of course. So FIFA.

claim they're doing the right thing so. this money can be redistributed around. world football whereas I think a lot of. football football fans just feel they've. been fleeced in terms of the amount of. money it's costing them to to get into. the World Cup games. >> Looking at the economy Gianni Infantino. said the World Cup would be the. equivalent of having three Super Bowls a. day and yet there are reports that hotel. bookings are down flights are down so. will this be the bonanza that the.

Americans might be hoping for? >> Well the American Hotel Association. released a report a few weeks ago where. they said that the hotel bookings were. way below below what they were. anticipating and they blamed a few. things on that. One of them was FIFA for. reserving far too many rooms. 70% of the. block bookings FIFA have made have been. cancelled. And said what this caused was. the prices which were unjustified cuz it. created demand which just wasn't there. And that just means that supporters have. been put off traveling to this World Cup.

for two reasons. You got the ticket. prices and you got the hotel prices. And. you've also got the political backdrop. in terms of just not feeling welcome in. making the trip. So, all these hoteliers. felt that in terms of making this a. successful World Cup for that economic. boom they were promised to happen, what. they needed was international travelers. And because of the whole situation. around all those aspects, those. international travelers aren't going to. arrive, the hotel rooms aren't going to. be filled, and and the local economies. are not going to get. the uplift that that FIFA said they were.

going to receive. >> Now, of course, this World Cup is being. hosted by three nations, Canada and. Mexico as well. The first game taking. place in Mexico. And there were some. fears that it could be disrupted by. protests. >> Yes, there's been a lot of protests in. Mexico in recent weeks and months. basically about the situation in the. country. There was a protest outside the. Azteca Stadium where the the game is. being played on Thursday with messages. and placards saying FIFA go home. So,

there's a real feeling that due to the. the drug group wars that are going on. and the unrest in Mexico that the World. Cup really isn't welcome. in Mexico. But as we've seen in many. tournaments, we saw it in Brazil as well. with this type of type of situation. In the end, the show goes on and and and. FIFA will try try their best to make. sure that these games go on without any. disruption. >> Yeah, there have been controversial. World Cups before. Recently, Qatar,

Russia. And once the games start, people. tend to forget the controversy. Do you. think it could be the the same this. time? >> I think there are two aspects to. consider here. I think firstly, we've. not had a World Cup before where the. administration in charge is seem to have. been so unwilling to make concessions to. to make the tournament go go go. smoothly. I think on this this this. occasion we've seen so many things. happen where you think. despite the political talk beforehand, it's not going to turn around. For. instance, we talked about ice that the.

fact that it's just not going to that's. not going to go away. There are going to. be more stories that are going to be. talked about in terms of how the. government. has handled this. >> Dale, thank you very much. Dale Johnson. there, the BBC's football issues. correspondent. If you'd like to hear. more from the Global News Podcast, click. the link below. Thanks for watching.