Up next in 10
Donald Trump has hailed a decision by FIFA’s disciplinary committee to allow United States striker Folarin Balogun to take part in the World Cup co-hosts’ last-16 clash against Belgium. The White House reportedly called FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who is a friend of Mr Trump's, to review Balogun’s red card, sports commentator Ben Jacobs reported on Sunday. At the same time, fresh allegations against Nigel Farage have caused a stir amongst the UK electorate, and Reform's base. Emily Maitlis and Shelagh Fogarty discuss the news. #shelaghfogarty #emilymaitlis #donaldtrump #worldcup #usa #uspolitics #lbc
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello there, good afternoon to you
0:01
Emily Maitlis is with me in the studio, co-host of Global's podcast, The News Agents
0:05
I've given her a list of things I want to talk about. We're not yawning, are we? We're not yawning, no, even though both of us
0:11
were wide awake at two in the morning till approximately 4.30 in the morning. You might get a question about you listening to the game
0:16
Why don't we start there, actually? Because this stuff about Trump and red cards and yellow cards
0:22
and I was delighted just there in the news bulletin to hear Tuchel going at it and saying
0:26
well, if they're all up for grabs, let's have a chat about all of those cards. He's wonderfully sanguine, isn't he? He was asked about the Balogun red card decision, which has been miraculously overturned by FIFA
0:37
Wonder why? After that phone call that came from Donald Trump after the USA game with Bosnia on Thursday night
0:45
I mean, four days later, FIFA suddenly found an article, number 27, in their disciplinary code, which says it's absolutely fine to rescind a red card or to suspend a red card
0:58
to allow him to play in the match with Belgium tonight. I just think this makes the whole World Cup so dirty now
1:09
And what's ironic is that, you know, up till this point, we'd managed to sort of put aside all the kind of like
1:16
is this going to be the most corrupt World Cup ever? Whether it was the overpricing, whether it was the banning of certain races
1:21
whether it was that sense, that sort of uneasy stench that America was on the make
1:25
And Trump had stayed out of it. and suddenly with that one phone call which wasn't just him it was howard lucknick it was
1:31
the commerce secretary we understand according to reporting in the new york times and other places
1:35
that piled the pressure on infantino he didn't have to cave in now and that's the point that
1:42
tuchel's making that if you now realize that all it takes is a head of state or a particular head
1:47
of state to get a disciplinary ban overturned and where does it end does the king of belgium
1:53
team sheet literally to control the team that's exactly what it is isn't it and you're right about
1:58
how the feel of the of the tournament so far had been great hadn't it and every british and every
2:04
english and scottish fan uh was saying the atmosphere is amazing so welcoming it had been
2:10
about the football you know we'd all kind of forgotten the ridiculous pricing of the you know
2:14
the train rides or whatever it was and sort of thought oh this is what always happens you know
2:19
you get on with the football and the game is what matters And now this intervention I think has left genuinely I think it left A bad test Everyone in a bad place because I don know what Balogun teammates do now
2:32
I don't know how it feels to be part of the USA squad, who feels that they've been..
2:37
And what about the refs? The refs as well? What do they do? What do they do? And the line's been, what's the point of me handing out one of these to control the game
2:43
I mean, I have to say, when Seth Blatter is stepping in to accuse them of sort of political corruption
2:48
you're like, oh, sorry. Can we just read that one again with a straight face
2:52
Exactly. Well, we'll see where that goes. And I was delighted to see the England manager saying that he's
2:58
I don't know whether he was saying it sarcastically or not, as you say, very sanguine, but we'll see whether he does try and get anything overturned
3:05
We've been talking about Najib Farage as well this hour. Sorry to give you a shopping list, but while I've got you
3:12
I mean, it's interesting to hear some reform callers calling in, quite indignant at the fact that at him having questions put to him at all of transparency but
3:23
he's he's got to he and they surely have to expect that given the given reform in the polls
3:30
him being spoken about as prime minister it's bound to come isn't it we've just been speaking
3:35
to gabriel pogran the sunday times investigative reporter who's part of that um the george
3:40
sorry the posh george story which has at its heart this question of the relationship between farage
3:47
and a young man a man who's who seemed to be his fixer his doer who sort of did everything for him
3:53
but also paid him also gave him money that farage didn't declare and as always with these stories
4:00
you're trying to get to the nub of what is actually illegal you know what is what has actually been
4:05
done wrong is it a is it a smell of corruption or a smell of sort of cover-up rather than the
4:11
thing itself because he did declare some of the one he declared one he declared one element but
4:15
not the rest and he was um according to the sunny times reporting being funded in the lead-up to his
4:21
election in clackton two two years ago this week um for about 12 months so i i think the trouble is
4:29
that it is cumulative, isn't it? You've got the Christopher Harbourn £5 million donation
4:34
and the fact that when he's asked about it, Farage doesn't know the answer
4:39
He doesn't know whether to talk about it being money for security, money as a reward for Brexit
4:44
money that he could spend on Ferraris if he wanted. I mean these are all the answers genuinely that he has given And in many cases he just told the interviewer to shut up and stop asking personal questions It not a great look if you want to go into the most senior political job in the country to say stop asking me questions and it an
5:03
establishment stitch up. And it's interesting that you say, oh, there are a lot in his party
5:08
that are pushing back over these questions to Farage, because I'm also sensing that there are
5:13
other people around Farage now or at least in reform more widely who say I don't really want
5:18
to be answering questions on this I don't I don't think we have got answers for it I mean
5:24
we had Robert Jenrick on the Sunday round yesterday doing his kind of best to say there
5:28
is no story here there's nothing improper but I think behind the scenes we're also getting a sense
5:34
that there are people who are kind of saying oh I just kind of want to move on from this I don't
5:38
want to be talking about the Farage and again if voters and even his own colleagues maybe who knows
5:45
start to think of life beyond Nigel Farage I mean I don't think we're there yet but
5:49
but if they do I mean the big question is is it a is it a viable political machine without him
5:55
it's the big question isn't it six months ago I think we would have said no right three months
6:00
ago I think we would have said no I mean in fact the charge that's always been leveled at reform
6:05
is that it was a head with no real body. Yeah, it was a one-man band
6:09
and that without Farage, the whole thing would collapse. And I don't think we know the answer, honestly, Sheila
6:16
as to whether that's true. I think there will most likely be people
6:20
pulling in different directions now. Some people saying, we don't actually need him
6:24
You know, Zeef is a sort of credible alternative, and he's sort of, you know, young and punchy
6:29
and clearly financially solvent enough to presumably not be at the behest
6:33
of all these donations. But other people say, well, actually, he's really hardline
6:40
on a lot of the policies that Farage has tried to sort of smooth over
6:44
So is there an alternative in the leadership stakes? Is it Richard Tice? Doesn't feel like it's Richard Tice
6:51
Genric. Is it Genric? I mean, what do you get from putting somebody
6:57
who was in charge of the whole immigration debacle for the government
7:02
at the top of a party again. I don't know. Particularly when immigration is coming down
7:08
Well, immigration is coming down without him in the job. Without him in the job. Exactly
7:13
And there are many in reform who sort of think well we shouldn be a party that just takes sort of conservative sloppy seconds No I mean we not there yet I don think but we see
7:24
We'll see what happens there. Before you go as well, Peter Express holding an inquiry
7:27
into Andrew's working claim in the interview you did with him, Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor, then Prince Andrew
7:35
They found that he was neither recorded there nor not there. They couldn't say definitively one way or another, it seems
7:43
Yeah, I do remember that moment very clearly because it seemed like an extraordinary thing to tie yourself to
7:52
You know, something, an alibi that was so easily provable or disprovable
7:57
You know, there was a date, there was a location, there was a time, there were other people present
8:02
It was meant to have been a birthday party that his daughter attended and apparently he'd gone to collect her
8:08
And, I mean, it's taken quite a while to hear about this from Pizza Express
8:12
I don't know whether they did it at the time and now we're just getting the reports of it, but they don't seem to have clarified anything
8:19
And I don't know whether it's just that, you know, they wanted to sort of be seen to be trying
8:23
or whether it's a sort of quite commercially sensible thing to be talking about during a World Cup
8:31
Even at the time of your interview, I was thinking, well, surely, like you said, surely that's an easy thing to establish
8:36
but I guess I assumed that you would for security reasons at least that the place would know who was
8:45
coming but maybe not if you just rocked up to pick them up it's funny I mean I do remember
8:49
saying why do you remember that so specifically and his line is it was a very unusual thing for
8:55
me to do yes yeah well it remained in his mind in some shape or form and everybody else's yeah
9:01
as well. Thank you very much indeed, Emily, host of the News Agents, co-host of the News Agents
9:06
Oh, actually, before we go, John Sopel was having a great time, wasn't he, in that game
9:11
Yeah. Was he part of the team today for the podcast? Oh, very much so. Yes, he's been telling us about his altitude sickness and about how he got covered
9:19
in, but every time England scored, the Mexican fans above them and behind them just poured beer
9:24
onto them. Yeah, so I said, can you put your England shirt on if we're going to do this um this episode together he's like don't make me put that on it's disgusting because it's full of
9:33
beer i saw a couple of instagram shots of him and his son at this time i mean it was an extra what
9:37
a great thing to be able to see what a great thing what i look forward to hearing it thanks
9:41
emily emily mate let's co-host of the newsagents podcast which drops at the usual time
#news