Jon Liedtke joins 610 CKTB’s Gene Valaitis for his weekly segment, Liedtke Has a Take!
Jon Liedtke and Gene Valaitis discuss Liedtke’s latest KVETCH and RELEASE column, The Mob Boss, The Bureaucrat, & The Canadians: How the G7 Strongarmed FIFA. Liedtke contrasts US President Donald Trump’s blunt interventions regarding player red cards and UK PM Sir Keir Starmer’s weaponized bureaucratic diplomacy with Canada’s passive approach, which prioritizes strict regulatory compliance and polite non-interference over strong political pushback.
Transcript (Gemini Generated):
Gene Valaitis: Liedtke has a take. Good morning, Jon Liedtke.
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: Well, we’re going to talk about the Ferris wheel. Oh, no, I’m just kidding. No, I’ve had it with the Ferris wheel. Uh, we’re going to talk— Yeah, we’re going to talk a little bit more, uh, a little more about, uh, FIFA. Now, this is interesting. Uh, the World Cup is dominating the headlines. The three host countries—Canada, México, and the United States—are out of it, but, uh, you know, countries like England are in there, and the English just, uh, I mean, soccer isn’t a sport. It’s a—it’s a way of life. But, um, you’re claiming the G7 is hijacking FIFA. You’re looking at geopolitics. So, what’s the real sports being played here, Mr. Liedtke?
Jon Liedtke: Well, Gene, I can tell you it’s not soccer right now. It’s high-stakes geopolitical extortion, and nuclear powers are using FIFA right now like it’s a stress ball. For decades, FIFA has operated with the unearned confidence of an autocratic superpower. You know, they strut around. They’ve got a human rights record that is terrible. They’ve got more financial scandals than a post-Soviet asset liquidation. It seems like they’ve franchised white-collar sleaze. I guess you can catch my opinion about FIFA. They’ve built an entire empire on this delusion that the world is beholden—indebted to them, excuse me. But the illusion is dead now. Um, we have seen two nuclear-armed heads of state look the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, straight in the eye and say, “Nice billion-dollar tournament you got there. Be a shame if your Swiss bank accounts evaporated, though.”
Gene Valaitis: It’s like a—It’s like a mob boss says that.
Jon Liedtke: It is. I mean, we used to wonder who the referee was. Now we know that the actual thing is being refereed by diplomatic cables out of the Oval Office and Downing Street.
Gene Valaitis: Well, let’s take a little bit of a retrospective look here. Um, Belgium handed the US, uh, a victory, and—and it was massive. Uh, but let’s talk about FIFA bullying. Um, this US striker, Balogun, got a straight red card by the rulebook. However, Donald Trump called up the president of FIFA. The president of FIFA said Article 27, which allows FIFA to suspend a suspension for up to a year… Donald Trump gets on the phone. We knew—We know what happens next. Mind you, it doesn’t—I mean, it’s moot now because Belgium handed, uh, them their—the loss on their rear end. It was so big last night.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, you know, it turns out that you can, uh, strong-arm FIFA, but you can’t strong-arm your own defense. So, that’s—that’s the problem that happened right there. But yeah, Trump got on the phone with, uh, the president of FIFA, Infantino. Now remember, this is the same guy who previously handed Trump a completely fake FIFA World Peace Prize just to stop him from throwing a temper tantrum over not winning the actual Nobel Peace Prize. Um, and so Trump gets on the phone and says, “Look, I don’t like the rule,” and he’s told, “Okay, well, we’re reviewing it.” Then Trump goes into the Oval Office and says, “Yeah, I called him up on the phone. I said, ‘I don’t know what the rules are. I don’t like the rule, and I think the rule should be changed.’ It was hilarious.” And then the rule did get changed. Belgium appealed it frantically. That appeal was then dismissed, and the game went on. And as you said, uh, the US, they just got shellacked, 4-1, by Belgium. Um, so yeah, Trump corrupted international sports law for a guy who didn’t even score a point. And then there’s the added irony, of course, that that guy is someone who has birthright citizenship, which Trump is trying to get rid of. But yeah, we saw Trump here treating his fake FIFA World Peace Prize like it was a Monopoly prize, like a get-out-of-jail-free card or something with type powers. But the universe delivered a masterclass in irony.
Gene Valaitis: Now, here’s something I didn’t know, and you, uh, informed me of this yesterday. Um, the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, apparently tried to play a—a assistant coach. FIFA wanted to move the England versus Mexico kickoff time because of an incoming storm. England won that game, by the way. But Downing Street, you’re telling me, actually deployed actual British diplomats to block it?
Jon Liedtke: This was beautiful contrast here, Gene. So, Trump plays the cartoon mafia don, while UK PM Sir Keir Starmer played the world’s most aggressively stressed-out bureaucrat. Downing Street was terrified that moving the kickoff time would ruin England’s chances, uh, for altitude acclimatization. But Starmer didn’t threaten raids or anything hard like that. He unleashed something far more terrifying: weaponized British administrative exhaustion. He deployed literal diplomats to drown them in an ocean of legalese, sub-clauses, aggressively polite formatting. They didn’t have to punch them in the face. They subjected them to so much civil service paperwork that undoubtedly the highly-paid attorneys at FIFA probably just thought, “You know what? Just give it to them. I can’t read another 400 pages on barometric pressure.” They micromanaged mountain air, Gene. So Trump is wielding a baseball bat, and Starmer’s wielding a clipboard. FIFA cowered from both. But the Starmer version was boring, bureaucratic, and breathtakingly British.
Gene Valaitis: You know, the other thing I forgot to mention, in the US loss, uh, to Belgium last night, there are a lot of people in the United States complaining that the lights in the stadium were too bright for the American players, and I’m not making that up. Hey, hey, uh, Jon, um, you know, FIFA really loves to—to rule with an iron fist. You know, they act really, really tough. But you know what? Uh, what you’re telling me, what I’ve been seeing for about the last week or so, when the G7 calls, they turn into J-E-L-L-O.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, no kidding, right? I mean, it’s—it’s the ultimate textbook bully that we’ve seen FIFA being before. They’re so extraordinarily brave when they’re punching down, right? We know how they operate, um, but they act like supreme global leaders when they can bully smaller nations or threaten municipal stadiums over beer logos or allowing too many people in the free zones or not free zones, depending on what you want to look at them at. Uh, they think they get to run the world because nations beg to host the circus that they put on. But the second that they faced actual pushback from actual governments that controlled nuclear arsenals and global reserve currencies, yeah, they folded like a cheap lawn chair. They liquefied like Jell-O, as you said. They realized that their multi-billion dollar grift doesn’t work without what sovereign democratic nations provide: stadiums, municipal policing, corporate sponsors, audiences that are captive with money that they can spend. I mean, look, they’re a parasite that forgot that they need the host. Sovereign nations finally remembered that they hold the cards, and it turns out that FIFA’s iron fist is actually just a damp mitten at the end of the day when someone decides to step in and challenge them.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. Well, interestingly enough, while, uh, the US president is, uh, trying to fix red cards and the British Prime Minister is, uh, trying to take care of the atmosphere, here in Canada, Montreal said no, uh, to FIFA because they would have had to have canceled the F1 race in Montreal, which has a great tradition, and also the Montreal Jazz Festival. Uh, the stadiums in Canada and—and in all World Cup stadiums, they had to cover up, uh, their sponsors. That’s why nobody called it the BMO Stadium during FIFA, except me. You had to call it Toronto Stadium. So, I’m kind of looking back. Did Canada have any geopolitical opposition or strong points, or were we just Canada? Did we just sit back and say, “I’m sorry”?
Jon Liedtke: Gene, could you even imagine a Canadian prime minister interfering in a way like Starmer or, uh, Trump did? No, I mean, it violates our foundational programming. If a Canadian player got a red card, our government would probably issue a formal apology to the ref for the inconvenience that it caused. I mean, we’re—we’re the kind of people that if you step on our toes, we apologize to you. So while our closest allies are aggressively hijacking the tournament and rewriting bylaws over lunch, we’re just, you know, the kids sitting desperately quiet in the corner, hoping that the cool kids might notice us after we cleaned up the room. I mean, we’re at the high school party just happy to be there while not being included in what’s going on. But look, that’s the masterclass in passive-aggressiveness that Canada is. We can sit there quiet and double-check the rules and the regulatory compliance and make sure everything is going proper, happy to be there. But if we do truly get pushed to the brink, we might compose a highly diplomatic, fiercely polite letter to Zurich asking for permission to table an inquiry, Gene. God forbid we cause a scene.
Gene Valaitis: Another great take. Thank you.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you.
Gene Valaitis: Liedtke has a take. There he goes, Jon Liedtke. He’ll be back later on, uh, this week. I love his takes.
This aired on 610 CKTB
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