Why World Cup VAR is the LinkedIn of sports, is Jude Bellingham cool with his coach?, and Bryce Harper’s bizarre FanDuel video

testing testing testing testing one two three hello there uh is anybody home yes i would like to come over for a pot of tea i would love would you like to watch england in the world cup oh cheerio world cup of tea okay hi charlotte good day madeline we're back with another episode of the sports gossip show presented by ebay live new one i liked it i liked it well here we are again here we are um we are remote still because i am back in new york but i do have pneumonia oh i know we are separated by four blocks and a whole lot of heart and a whole lot of heart and let me just say for all of our shareholders out there i think a lovely gift that would make charlotte feel better would be if you gave us a rating slash review on apple or spotify and you also may be subscribed on apple spotify or youtube any of them those places would be fabulous and really means the world and really helps us out so yeah that's that's my gift i'm giving charlotte via our shareholders thank you so much uh i think that the only thing along with antibiotics and you know uh industrial grade cough medicine that would make me feel better is rating and reviewing and liking and subscribing and telling all of your friends so exactly it really makes a difference as i always say it really does it really does um all right well madeline we as always have a jam-packed show we do we are first going to get into a little bit of baseball drama with philly star bryce harper and fan duel um and cameo a lot of moving parts in this story and then we have a lot of world cup drama to get to the semi-finals are upon us and we're going to dig into all of it we sure are um yeah it's crazy that the world cup is is almost over i'm i know i miss the heady days of just game after game after game i know it's kind of sad i feel like i was in it was such a nice um transition from the nba finals to then like straight into more sports and it just kind of it felt so seamless and smooth and i just had the tv on all day every day watching random world cup games that i think i'm going to miss it i think i'm going to miss it i think i'm going to miss it i know i know the thing about the world cup that i really love is it's like drinking from a fire hose in the beginning you know it's just like you you let the soccer just like wash over you and then you have to wait for games this week so tonight tonight we have a game tomorrow we have a game and then sunday but i'm like no i want them all the time i want them all the time right now right now and another thing that i've been wait what i was just gonna say maybe we should just go just put on like they should have youtube channels that's just like front to like 24 7 old world cup yes you know you know fifa would be so mad they would send a season to assist the second one of those started they're like no no we own this footage no no no slap slap your hand bad bad something i've been doing uh which has nothing nothing to do with what we're about to talk about but it did just kind of remind me i have been getting serve videos on tiktok i don't know if any other shareholders have been getting these same videos of fan edits of game four of og's tipping now i'm getting them like this week sorry today today i woke up this morning before i even had coffee yeah i opened tiktok sorry guys i don't know what you what you want me to say i was checking our notifications for the show follow at sports gossip show on tiktok and i just had my phone and i was just locked into like a five minute fan edit of game four and i was like i was like oh i'm a sicko you that is wrong the knicks just got into your bloodstream and haven't left no they haven't left i was like we're in the middle of the world cup's almost over we're that far away from that's crazy i'm just now i've been served now multiple of these videos from people on tiktok let me ask you a question what beyond and be please please tell me the truth have you made any no i should though i should you know what i should do is oh god there's that like inspirational tiktok song i can't remember which one which song it is um i should cut together our clips from game four with like slow-mo and and dramatic music yes i mean look if anyone can edit a banger of a little of a vertical vid it's madeline hill you know i try my best got to use those social media manager skills for something you succeed you succeed every time um all right well let's talk about the bryce harper drama he is star of the uh philadelphia phillies um i will also say i did watch the home run derby on netflix last night oh how was it you know i love a good home run you do i didn't notice about you i i'm gonna i forgot it about myself and then it was on and i was like god i freaking love the home run derby i really do and i really love baseball and you know we don't talk about baseball that much because i don't know why and so you know what i think it is yeah what i think it's there's they have so many games it's so it baseball has so so many games twice as many games basketball is 82 games baseball is 160 games so many games it's it's it's too many games that is the w has fewer games which makes more sense even though they're going to more which i think they're yeah they're going to more games yeah yeah um no it's it's so many games we should talk about baseball and as we get closer to playoffs we i'm sure will um feels like a different sphere of sports gossip yeah like it feels like for the most part when we talk about baseball it's because there is some kind of betting scandal these days which is what we're about to talk about yeah which is a bummer but you know we'll be on the lookout maybe we'll just keep a couple maybe i'll just go follow a bunch of baseball players and see like what's going on there see if any of them are crashing out on instagram like tom brady yeah yeah you never know who's to say the gift that keeps on giving yes so bryce harper star for the phillies is involved in a scandal a fan named terry thompson and another plaintiff are suing a bunch of sports books including fan duel basically claiming that they use um perks vip perks and services to get them to bet more um and this fan terry thompson uh allegedly lost 1.5 million dollars um and is in 1.5 million dollars in gambling debt which isn't great um so that's where we're starting yes the the delphian choir had an amazing um investigation into this and terry thompson you know like couldn't bring himself to tell his family considered taking his own life i mean like betting betting addictions are very real and horrific and i say this to as someone who i did work for draft kings because that was the only job i had an opportunity to take at the time a couple years ago and i guess i just want to say right now i feel really awful about that um and it's something in my career that like you know i think sports media is hard and betting obviously has entered into it and it felt like i had my back against the wall and i didn't have any money and i wish i had a different option and maybe i should have just not take it but you know these betting companies have embedded themselves in sports so completely fully that that bryce harper here anyway i just wanted to come clean about that but but bryce harper basically says i didn't even know what i was being asked to do was a horrific thing right so what happened was a woman named britney um apparently according to bryce harper he said that britney submitted an order on cameo which is that website where you can get videos um from comedians athletes you name it um you could like have them do a happy birthday video um and he was sent a cameo request and bryce harper posted on this his instrument story basically saying quote um i did not know that this video would be used for commercial purposes the request included a short script i read it in good faith fanduel then put its own logo on the video and use it as gambling promotion i did not know fanduel would do this i did not consent to it and fanduel had no right to do it um and then he went on to say that if he had known anything about terrier's situation um or anything about this partnership that he had basically like he wouldn't have done it if he had known the circumstances um the interesting thing though bryce harper did share what the script was and i have a couple questions so the script was um your host britney from FanDuel wanted to make sure your Thanksgiving was extra special. So I just wanted to hop on and wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving and then continue on to give a shout out to someone. So it had FanDuel in it. I can understand Bryce Harper being like, oh, it's just like a someone, your palate FanDuel. But I would also have questions if I got this request, if I was him. Yeah, I think when he in his statement, he says, contrary to the Enquirer's suggestion, I did not know the cameo video would be used. Right. I he says he has no affiliation with FanDuel. I can't help but think that if you get a video request from a company like from from how does that not ring alarm bells to you that this is a different situation than a standard cameo? Because Brittany, this, you know, one of the VIP coordinators at FanDuel was using this actually. As a way to keep Terry betting. Right. You know, saying like, look at this. Here's a video from Bryce Harper himself. He if I were Bryce Harper, I would have seen FanDuel and said, well, let's let's hold on a second here. Well, my thing also is I think it's even shadier on FanDuel's part that they didn't go through like his management or team to get this video, just a normal like iPhone video and get it texted. Clearly, they were being shady by doing putting it in as a cameo request because they probably knew if they went through his team, his team would have been like, we're not doing this, you know? Yeah. So but then again, I guess you could argue like is Bryce Harper the one who's going through the requests on cameo? Maybe he is. Or is there someone who's doing it for him? But it does feel weird that that it's like, oh, you went through you didn't go through official baseball PR channels. I'm sure no one has access to like email addresses of these top players. The most galaxy brain sort of conspiracy theory version of this is that everybody was in on it and they were like, let's go through cameo. So it seems less, you know, obvious that we had a deal where you paid me to send videos to high rollers, essentially. Right. Which I'm not saying is what happened. But I you know, that's a speculation. I think to the inquirer had a great interview with a sports lawyer who was who was saying like, basically, MLB needs to investigate whether this violates, you know, I don't think it violates the letter of the law in terms of players and and betting. But does it violate the spirit of the law? I mean, it's just it's an absolute mess. And I think that it is just further proof that the more leagues are in bed with these companies and the more sketchy situations, everybody's going to find themselves. And we see this over and over like there's so many across leagues. There are just so many situations where players are banned or and it's like that would be like saying don't go in the water. It's really hot. Instead of saying maybe the problem is that the water is hot. Do you know what I mean? I can't. Yes. Yeah. I just think that as Betty becomes more and more embedded in sports in the live broadcasts, the commercials, I feel like have increased every single year tenfold. It feels like that this is only a small potatoes in a in a much bigger system that's just set up for kind of everyone to fail. And yeah, it's not going to get any better, I fear. My question for you is, since we love talking about PR in this show, how do you think Bryce Harper handled the situation from strictly a PR standpoint? I mean, I think it's weird because he gives a lot of detail about the whole situation and then says, Russell, aka, you know, his lawyers, uh, has directed me not to comment any further at this time. I, I think because it is so unclear what happened here, I can't even really know how good or bad this PR response is. It's like, it, it, it feels very much to me like the lady doth protest too much. Um, but I also, if it's true that he didn't know what he was doing, even though FanDuel's in the script, I guess he's trying to say, I didn't, I, I, I don't know, Madeline, what do you think? This is a, this is a weird one. I think his, him getting a statement out quickly was smart. I think if we, if we are to believe his statement that he really had no idea what was going on, if we're just taking it at face value, I do think it's a good, it's not vague and word salad-y. Like it is, it's just pretty clear about exactly what happened and including the script and all of that. Um, so I do think from that standpoint, it was a smart PR move, but I do, I think, I don't know if it helps me as a sports fan. Like if I'm a fan of him reading this, like, do I believe him? Like just given the circumstances. So I don't know. It's like, I do think it was a good statement, given what we know, but I, it's hard to, um, not, it's hard to believe him, honestly. Yes. I agree. That's where I come down on it. It's like, I don't, I don't know if this makes me believe you. Right. Um, well, we will see if anything else comes from this story. I'd be curious to see how this plays out in a court of law, if they will settle or, you know, we'll ever get any more information out of this. And I guess it, the, it is worth noting, Bryce. Harper is not a defendant in the suit. He just is a, he got, he, he got wrapped up in this whole mess. I feel awful for, I feel awful for, for anybody who's has a gambling addiction or is going through this, or it's just like hideous. So I hope, I hope there's some justice here. Yeah. Me too. Anyway, world cup world cup world. We got a couple of world cup dates to quote Carla Wilder, uh, up first today, by the time, this episode comes out, the game will have probably already started, but France is playing Spain in the semifinal and tomorrow Argentina is playing England. Let's first get into France and Spain, France and Spain. Um, yes, this is what a lot of people are saying is like quote real world cup, which I don't agree with because I think you meet when you meet. Um, but France and Spain have for a long time been, um, like just the two powerhouses and the countries that produce the most stars. Um, some story that dominated the news cycle ahead of this game was that, uh, Spain's former prime minister said that, um, the France national team quote, does not have any French players, which is clearly a racist dog whistle because they have a lot of black players or a lot of players who, um, have African roots as well. Um, and this was a guy, he was a conservative former prime minister. And I think, I guess something that actually has been sort of nice coming out of this is the amount of people who have like condemned the remark. Um, because I think sometimes these things just get, people are too scared to even stand up to saying, Hey, you shouldn't say racist stuff. But a lot of the response has been no thanks. That's, I mean, it's really disappointing and unfortunately not surprising, but it is really still wild that in 2026 we're dealing with this. I'm like, I'm really, it's almost, I actually feel like people saying comments like that, as we know in America, it's only gotten worse as time has gone on, which is also horrifying. Yeah, no, it's not good. It's like the, the, the way that racism like this as a kind of talking point or as something that people know is going to get engagement, it's so gross and it's so completely tied to how algorithms work too. And so, in some ways when we were putting this rundown together, I was like, do we even put this in? But I, I think it's worth talking about because obviously it happened, but I do think because there have been some promising responses like, um, how Kubarsi who plays for Spain actually said he had a pretty forceful statement when asked about this, he said, they play for the French national team. Then at the end of the day, they're French, regardless of the color of their skin, have to be tolerant with everyone. Um, this guy, he plays for Barcelona, he's on the Spanish national team. And I just think it feels more and more rare to hear players like current players who are involved in a situation, um, that has elements of racism or their team or anyone connected to their team for, for him to give like such a concrete, like, yeah, we're not doing this. Yeah. That felt, that felt like, whoa, we haven't seen that in a minute. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do appreciate it. It feels like, so it feels like it goes against some media training that some players get now to just be quiet and not say anything. And so I do appreciate when current players are just speaking up about things that are happening right now, because it does affect, it affects them and it affects their fans. I mean, it affects like, well, the world, but, but, but I do think it's like, they do have a platform and I think that they are obligated to speak up about these things. Like it just, yeah, I think it's smart when they do. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. Also, you know, I, I say this as someone, we have a show where we do primarily talk about American sports. So maybe people are standing up against racism, um, in international sports more than I actually realize. um, but I guess this feels like it's on such a world stage that it was nice to see. And it's a low bar. Like it sucks that we're sitting here talking about this in terms of like, well, it was nice that someone said you shouldn't be racist. Um, but you know, as you said, that's where we are in 2026. So the bar is low. Yeah. The bar, she is underground. She is underground. Um, well, so France and Spain are playing each other for the third consecutive world cup in the semifinal. It's funny. I think, you know, the expanded bracket, uh, has been great. I think it's, it's made a lot of these games more exciting, but it's funny as we've narrowed it down to the semifinals. Like, Oh, well, it's just kind of the top teams. Norway was our, you know, our dark horse and sorry, Charlotte didn't quite work out in their favor, but it is funny that it's like, well, France and Spain, Argentina, England, like, I know. Well, okay. It's like, when you think of soccer, well, I guess that pretty much covers it. Yeah. Um, on the men's side, at least on the men's side. Um, I do think we'll, yeah, we'll get into the England Norway stuff because there had the, these games have not been without controversy. Um, and I think that the, the, the France Spain match is so interesting because these two teams, um, over the course of the 15 past tournaments, either France or Spain will have been in the final of a world. Cup in 1998, 2006, 2010, 2018, 2022, and 2026. They've also been in the last game of the European championships in 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2024. So I would just like to say for anyone who's like, why are us men so bad at soccer? Maybe we should just send a whole bunch of development people over to France and Spain, see what they're up to and then try it. Cause we have a lot of people in this country. Yes. Instead of sending your kids to the summer camp, like they do on the East coast for seven weeks, they sent him for seven weeks in the summer to France and Spain to do like a soccer bootcamp. Yeah. Ship them off. What are we doing? The answer's right here, everybody. I know. Um, but you know, there, there, there you have it. There you have it. Yeah. We will see. I mean, France's star killing Mbappe is very good, but they're playing against a young up and coming star for Spain. I do think again, this will have come out by the time, the game has started, but I think France is probably going to win. That's my prediction. Yeah, I do too. I do. I also just have to say Laminia mall's name has still been stuck in my head for just the entire tournament. Um, I saw a girl on Tik TOK be like Laminia mall. Like it's such a good name. It flows. It's a perfect, like I did someone who's like a, who's like a word person, you know, like a, um, you know, a word person, you know what I mean? Like a, um, a word person, you know, like a, oh my God, what are they called? They do. They study linguist, linguist, linguist, linguist, linguist, a linguist, linguine. I mean, I love linguine someone who's a linguine can tell us what's going on here. You know what? It reminds me of Madeline. What? It reminds me of unique New York. Yes. Laminia mall. Yes. Yes. That's what I'm saying. There's something satisfying about saying his name. I really love it. Yeah. Also, these are his two first names. I looked it up. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. He's two other last names. Oh, but he just goes by that. Well, yeah. And he just says Laminia mall and he was named after two people who helped his family out Laminia mall. And so he puts that on his Jersey. Yeah. Okay. That's amazing. Um, so yeah, we will see what happens with that. We sure, we sure will. Okay. So England, Argentina is a very interesting that surrounded both England and Argentina getting to where they are. And before, before we get into it, I think referee conspiracy theories, I do not think are ever founded. I really, I really, I really think, I mean, who knows? Like, I mean, I guess it's FIFA, like everything's corrupt, but I do feel like for the most part, these are people who are actually trying to call a fair game. Right. Um, so I just want to preface it with that. I'm not, I'm not a referee tinfoil hat person. Are you a referee tinfoil hat person? I think I have a little bit in me. I think, especially with the Argentina, Egypt match. Um, yes. Okay. Yeah. Well, nevermind. That was whack. I'm sorry. Maybe I have a tinfoil hat on too. I'm not saying that Argentina wouldn't have still won the game. Cause it did feel like, even though the, that, the stuff, we'll talk about it, but, um, I do. I think that that was a bit suspicious and I did see, again, we have to tinfoil had it again, reportedly one of Messi's favorite, like as in they're favorable to Messi's, uh, ref is reffing the England, Argentina match tomorrow. So, but that's just, I mean, that's soccer, soccer chatter. So I don't know, you know, again, might not be rooted necessarily in, um, concrete facts and maybe a little too tinfoil Hattie, but I think I got a little hint of it. More than you, perhaps we probably should have just done this part of the show. We should have made hats out of tinfoil. We should have. Oh, we should have just imagine we have little tinfoil hats on just to put them on. Um, all right, well, let's talk about the Egypt, the Egypt game that, um, happened before Argentina then faced Switzerland, which was also, um, controversial. The, the Egypt game, um, was controversial to the point that Egypt logic complaint, uh, against these refs, Madeline. Can you tell everybody what happened? Yeah. So Egypt was up one zero and then, um, the second goal was taken away by VAR because they argued that a player, I don't remember who it was, but on the other side of the pitch, like pulled someone down and that, that then caused them to be able to score, which is a bit like, okay, kind of jump into conclusions here. I don't know if that necessarily is what it led to Egypt scoring that second goal, but they would have been up to zero. So it was taken away. That was taken away. And I believe they, that second goal was scored later in the match. If I remember, I think it was at like the 58th minute. Yeah. So, and if, and, you know, obviously if you know anything about soccer, like being up to, Oh, is, you know, you have a pretty good cushion that you're, you may win. Um, and then, Oh, now it's just one Oh, and then, Oh, Oh, look, our, our G is just going to go on a run and they won. Well, people have said this before too. Oh, very different from one Oh sports with Charlotte. Um, yeah. Yeah. And then after that, they didn't review what was a possible infringement on Mo Sala, um, Egypt star. Um, and that was before Enzo Fernandez scored the added time winner for Argentina. So Egypt lodged a complaint, which brings us to Argentina, Switzerland. Um, this was very controversial because at the 72nd minute, uh, this was both are so, so real and Bolo and Leandro Paredes Paredes is on Argentina and Bolo's on Switzerland. They collided. Um, and a yellow card was called on Paredes and then it was reviewed and the referee determined that M Bolo actually was flopping. Um, which is what they call, I don't know what they call that. And what do they call that in soccer embellishment? No, there's like a, the technical term for simulation. What I've never heard that. Yeah. If you flop in soccer and you get called for it, which is a yellow card, it's called simulation. The more, you know, basically, so M Bolo was already on a yellow card. He, um, if he got one more, he would be kicked out of the game and then had would have to sit out the rest of the game, as we talked about with the, uh, flow ballagin corruption situation. Um, so because they called a yellow card on Paredes, and then it turned out that they deemed M Bolo to be the one who actually messed up by falling early, which I also think I have a hard time figuring out when someone's falling on purpose or pretend, or when they got knocked over, whatever. It was a case of mistaken identity. And if you give, a yellow card to someone, and then you realize that they actually didn't deserve that yellow card, you have to give the yellow card to the other guy who is involved in the situation, which seems insane because then M Bolo was sent off and, and Switzerland had to play the rest of the game with 10 guys instead of 11. Oh God. I just, again, that's why I'm putting that tinfoil hat back on. I just think there's something cooking with the refs, at least a little bit. You can't, I'm just saying a little bit. Um, I also think VAR, this is not, I don't even know if this is a hot tank. Maybe it is. I think VAR has just got to go. I don't want it all together. I don't need it. I don't need it. I think let's just do what we did before where sometimes matches would end and people would be mad. Like if we had time to review it, this would have happened X, Y, and Z. Now there's too much reviewing. There's too much, there's too much technology involved in soccer. There's too much. Those, the weird 3d or like the, like the, it looks like when you would go to a science museum and you would stand in front of a and you would have like your outline and colors, they do that with the offsides. I'm like, yes. enough, enough, you know, enough. Maybe, maybe we are such an anti-AI anti-robot podcast here at the sports gossip show that we say none of it. None of it. I don't want the eagle eye thing in tennis. I maybe, maybe I don't want it. Human, maybe human referee error is as much a part of sports as human athlete error. Yes, I think so. I think so. Let's get rid of it beyond soccer. I'm with you. No VAR end it. It's over. It's over because it also basketball. Oh, you, oh, you think someone did something wrong and you got to go watch it on TV for five minutes while we all sit there. Nope, no, no more enough. It also takes you out of the flow, especially with soccer because now we got the hydration breaks. So there's already these like hard pauses in between the Mac during the match, big thumbs down, thumbs down. So then how about double thumbs down? We got hydration breaks and VAR break. No, I don't want it. I don't need a guy to go look at a computer off a little laptop over off to the side. I don't need this. It's I don't want it. It's like how I don't want phones at Alamo draft house. If you know, they change the rules. If anyone goes to Alamo draft house, you now order on your phone during the movie kills me. What are we doing? Put the phone away. Paper card. Give me the paper card while I'm at it. Madeline, I don't want to do trivia on my phone. No, no, I would like that on a paper. I don't want to do trivia on my phone. I also want to bring back letters because we lose all correspondence. Yes. And no one can write with their hands and write with their hands. No one can write with their hands anymore. I just think we do not want laptops in sports. I don't think we need them. I don't need I don't need Wi-Fi and Ethernet hardwired to get the replay up. I'm like, oh, my. Could you imagine if American football had no video review? Oh, could you imagine? Don't take don't take us out of the flow state. We're in the flow. They're in the flow. Everybody. And OK. You know what else? What? They still make mistakes when they review stuff. So it's like, why don't we just take the original mistake instead of the reviewed mistake? Well, it's like exactly. You know what? I mean, to talk about the corruption. Yeah. Like the Balogun corruption. Yeah. We all know the Trump. We've already discussed that extensively. However, that they reviewed it and then they gave him the red card and said to him, if they didn't review it, maybe he would have still been in. There wouldn't have been this controversy. Yeah. And you know what I mean? You know, either way, either way, when it comes to sports, one team is going to be mad at the ref. So you might as well have it be the original team that was going to be mad when the ref made the call. Yes. Just bring back an analog experience. We should start a movement that's called get computers out of sports. Yes. It's instead of it's set of offsides. It's called offline offsides. I need an offline offsides. Offline offsides. This is like screen time for kids where parents aren't letting their kids sit in front of screens until they're like 18. Get them out. No screens for refs. No screens for refs. They need to brick the VAR laptops. Refs. Refs got it. Brick them. No screen time for refs. No screen time. No screen time. And they can't have parallel play screen time either when there are two of them looking at the screen. No, no, no. Stop it. Okay. Okay. I feel better. That felt good. I think I needed it. I think I needed to say all that. I did too. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, whatever. No. So there was another controversy in England, Norway that got England to the point where they are going to play Argentina. England scored after the ball hit a cable, hit a sky cam, one of those like flying cameras. And it wasn't reviewed. But you could like see it hit the cable. But then FIFA said, no, it didn't hit the cable after the game. And everyone's like, okay, pretty sure it hit the cable. Okay. So now we're just gaslighting people when we have the computers, which we don't want. Maybe they're like, we have the computers. The computers are getting in the way. The computer, we have the computers and they're not helping. They're not helping. I don't think things have gotten better for us as a society, as computers have been more integrated. No, they've gotten worse. And you know what else I don't want computers for? What? I don't want to have to use a computer to get into a building. Give me a key. Give me a key. Give me a key. Give me a key. Tap, tap a thing. No, I don't want to tap. No tapping. I don't want to tap to pay. I don't want to tap to enter. No, I want cold hard cash, baby. I saw someone today in front of me at a coffee shop pay with cash. And I actually really haven't seen cash just to like buy a coffee. And I was like, oh my God, analog cash. It's so romantic. It's amazing. Cash used to just get cash. Unbelievable. Is it crazy that when people use people, what? I don't know. I used to get paid in cash. Remember you would go, you would babysit, get paid in cash. You would take, or, or if you've been to a pool and you go to the little snack counter and you get like some Twizzlers and you'd pay, here's my dollar. You're wet. A couple of coins, a couple of coins. You know what I saw the other day? What I found in a drawer, I found two, $2 bills. Oh my God. That's good luck. I feel like that's good. And I thought, yeah, it is good luck. And I thought, you know what? Let's bring these back to bring them back. Oh my God. Oh, it's all a mess. I love it. Anyway. Um, England, England moved on. Uh, and I guess the, the interesting drama out of this was, um, Thomas Tuchel is the coach of the English team and things I think had seemed pretty good with the English team. Uh, Jude Bellingham is a star. He scored both of the goals for England in that game against Norway. He is also best friends with Norway star, uh, Erling Holland, who didn't play very well in that Norway game. He didn't. Um, but anyway, after the game, it was also the real feel in Miami where they played was 99 degrees. Just so everybody knows that's the, I can't walk in 99 degrees, let alone. And if you play a match, if you know anything about Norway and England, it's not typically 99 degrees there. So famously tropical famously tropical. Yeah. So after the match, um, the English coach after England one said the result is fantastic. We're in the last four. It's amazing, but I'm not happy with the performance. He also said we made life very, very difficult for ourselves that they played sloppy. So then Jude Bellingham, the star was interviewed by that same reporter afterwards. And he said, yeah, well, whatever. When he was asked about his comments, iconic. I love it. That's great. Well, whatever. But then he went on and he said, maybe that means he doesn't know what it's like to play in those kinds of conditions against Erling Holland, Odegaard, Noosa, Sorloth, who are Norway's best players. Um, and he said, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Um, he said that's not an easy team to play against. I think we've tried to create a positive environment. We should continue that going into the final four. So remains to be seen whether there actually is any drama between the two of them. But I think it's pretty cool when an employee speaks out against their employer who is being very negative saying, Hey buddy, no offense, but you're not the one out here doing this. Yeah. It's not okay. What do you mean? What do you mean? You think it was sloppy and bad, but we won anyway. Right. Yeah. I appreciate the honesty. I'd like to say you get your butt on the field. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree out there. I love, again, I think you really, I, this feel, I just don't think you see this much honesty as we were talking about earlier of just like the speaking up about, um, the racist remarks, different situation here. I mean, but just seeing players, current players speaking out about something they're asked about and they're just being honest. It's amazing. Okay. Here's a question. What? Since we talk about American sports the most. And we are, we were talking about how these guys who are, it's all European stuff. Yeah. European stuff. Yeah. Are Americans inherently too much company men and women? Oh, you know, I think they are. I think they are. I think, I think so much of being American is you work really hard capitalism success. That's the number one priority and you will do anything to stay employed. And make your employer happy. And I do feel like maybe in Europe they have better work-life balance and maybe they get those long holidays. I mean, soccer players don't get that much of a break, but still, but still energetically they take, they take all of August off. And I'm like, yeah, that's genius. It's amazing. Why can't you, we make the rules. Yeah. I, I think, I think that's what it is. I think that Americans are like, I'm going to put my employer first. And Europeans are like, I was born with skepticism about. Yeah. Everything. Also it's like Americans just expect things to like work and Europeans are like nothing ever works. Nothing ever works. Um, I wonder, I'd be curious to know this. Maybe someone from LinkedIn is listening. He works at LinkedIn. I want to know because Americans love posting on LinkedIn. I, they love writing long. Sorry. I don't want to make you cough. No, you're making me laugh. My follicle. No, keep going. American. Americans love LinkedIn. It's like a fun little act. It's like a hobby for people, right? And those little AI written paragraphs about KPIs and marketing decks. I wonder if Europeans feel the same way about LinkedIn as a social media platform as Americans do, because I would guess they don't feel the same way. I hope they don't, because they're like, why would I post my creative writing exercises on the app that I get hired for a job? I'm on vacation in August. I don't want to post. That's what I want to know. You know what LinkedIn is? What? LinkedIn is the VAR of the corporate world. Everybody's reviewing what they did, thinking other people care. It's like, I don't want you to look at your computer. Yes. Yes. Yes. I don't care about your computer. It is. It's that LinkedIn is the VAR. That is one of the funniest. Things you've ever said. We don't need it. We don't need it enough. Enough. We don't need LinkedIn. We don't need stop posting on LinkedIn. I don't please, please go be with your family. Stop posting on LinkedIn. See, see your children. You don't need to. Oh, I have 10,000 followers on LinkedIn. You have 10,000 followers on a site with your resume. You have 10,000 followers on VAR. Get out of here. That's like being like, oh, I sent, I have a bunch of followers on my, my chart with my doctors. Cause I write a lot of notes to them. You're like, cool. Okay. Oh, you have 10,000 followers on LinkedIn. You should see my, my chart and my epic profile. Stop. You should see my fricking portal. Everybody check out my port. Check out these test results. I got a lot of them. My thyroid is destroyed. Here's a question. Is my chart, the VAR, wait, my chart is the VAR healthcare world. Wow. Also, also, you know, LinkedIn recently LinkedIn's only ever ruined someone's life. Cause you know, the, the CEO of AMC theaters, I don't know him personally. See on LinkedIn. Oh, that guy thing on LinkedIn. And then to the point where tree pain called that man up and he deleted his whole LinkedIn altogether. He's wait. LinkedIn has only ever ruined people's relationships with Taylor Swift. It's yeah. It's not good. Get off LinkedIn. Everybody, everybody go smell some air. Just go outside. Stop sending these. And you're AC induced type B, a coma tree, touch a tree, get a little sweaty. Take your sweet green salad. Take it outside. Don't post your thoughts on LinkedIn, please. For everyone's family's sake. Just don't do it. You know, don't do it. If you have to do it, do it on Reddit. Yes. Yeah. Honestly. Yes. That's fine. That's fine. That's kind of fun. I can't explain it. It's fine. It's creative. It's anonymous. And it's a little kooky. It's Reddit. It's Reddit. Upvote it. Wow. Well, uh, I know we were talking about corruption. I don't even know what we were going to talk about. Oh, I do want to talk about, um, some Argentinian corruption that's, uh, been going on. Cause we didn't talk about this on, uh, last Thursday's episode, I don't think. Um, but the Argentine football association is currently under investigation by the FBI. Um, there's a really great article from the Miami Herald that I highly recommend everyone read. But according to sources who spoke to the Miami Herald, it's a really great article. It's a really great article. Um, the FBI reportedly opened up an investigation for potential fraud and money laundering upwards of tens of millions of dollars, um, basically involving the Federation's money going through different shell companies in South Florida. Um, so the FBI is currently trying to figure out where the money went, um, and whether it went to top executives within the Argentine football association, um, for personal use, never good. Don't use work funds for personal use. Um, bad, bad, bad. One of the more interesting tidbits, there's a, it's a really great article. I highly recommend everyone check it out. But one of the most interesting things was reportedly in July, 2021, someone created an LLC called tour prod enter, which I'm going to guess stands for tour production enterprises, which is the most LinkedIn word salad name of a fake LLC. I've ever heard in my life. You might as well call it. I'm laundering money, LLC. Like the most surprising part of tour prod enter. Is that they left any vowels in honestly, you know, it TP, you think it would be too. Yeah. Oh, or like tour prod enter the way that like tech companies don't use vowels anymore. Well, I honestly, when I looked at it quickly, I was like tree pain enterprises. Oh, that would, what if they called it that? I mean, that would be, that would really throw people off the scent. Um, cease and desist. Am I right? True. Uh, so this company was formed in 2021 and it was reportedly created to collect revenue for international deals. So everything from like broadcast deals to brand sponsorships, they were using this LLC reportedly to deposit money into a bunch of bank accounts in the U S between November, 2022 and August, 2025. Um, and then that money was supposed to obviously go into Argentina's football soccer system, you know, to like help the federation out. Um, but then the FBI was like, no, there's some interesting payments here, including. Nearly $30 million that went to six firms that all lists the same address in Miami gardens. That is really an address of virtual offices that you can reportedly rent for $80 a month. So no, not good. Um, and then they also sent another $6 million, this tour prod enterprise LLC to three other firms. So not great situation. I don't think it's great if we're being investigated by the FBI. I don't think it's great if you're being investigated by the FBI while you're playing in the world cup and you also are accused of corruption and shady things with the refs before it's like, this isn't helping your case. No, this is not it. This is an embezzlement situation. It seems they're doing right. And we didn't, we talked about embezzlement. What did you say when we did, we were just good. We were talking about when you do a little, yeah, a little light bezzling, light bezzling. This is, this is some heavy bezzling. This is, this is heavy bezzling. This is not $10,000. This is no, no, no, this is not good. And then apparently also the, um, Argentine football association's president and the soccer body's treasurer are also reportedly under investigation in Argentina around like surrounding separate allegation that they misused some of the AFA social security contributions. So there's a lot going on here. This is not good. Oh no. Also South Florida. Just, it's a little obvious, like do this through Wisconsin. Or something. Yes. Yes. It's like any business in Florida or Delaware. It's like, it's like you were probably bezzling if it's Florida or Delaware, you were bezzling. I don't know if you're bezzling in Wyoming. Yeah. Like, uh, Tennessee, North Carolina. I don't think people would North Carolina. Yeah. Right. New York. Yeah. Taxes are crazy. Nobody would think you're you. No one would think you're, but well, a lot of people bezel in New York famously famously. Sorry. Uh, this is just, I saw the wolf of wall street. I'm no, I'm no accountant, but listen, um, I'm no day trader. No. So, well, that's okay. So that's messy, messy, messy, messy, messy, messy, messy, messy, messy. Um, thank you for that rundown. You're so crazy. I mean, I also just think, you know, FBI being like, where'd the money go? It's like, we're all wondering that in general. We don't. We all like to know you look at your credit card statement and you think, where did the money go? You said, what's going on here? Um, what's good. You say, what's up with that? I don't remember trying to worry. Um, all right. Well, that is our show. I think that's it. Well, as always, as we said at the top, please rate review, like, and subscribe, do it as a gift to poor Charlotte over here. Make a huge difference. Um, you can follow us on Instagram at sports gossip, take talk at sports gossip show, and you can subscribe to our sub stack at sports gossip.com. You can buy merch linked in the description. And I think that's it. I think that's it. Okay. Bye.