Why Everyone Wants You to Believe the World Cup is a Scam

[00:00:02]By now, you've probably seen a dozens of these videos on the World Cup. Something insidious is happening inside of FIFA.

[00:00:08]>> The group behind it all might be one of the most corrupt organizations in the world.

[00:00:12]>> RESPECTING MY SEAT RIGHT in the middle of the >> I need a sugar mommy for this World Cup.

[00:00:17]>> Everyone's complaining that it's a scam, but what they've all missed is what's truly behind it all.

[00:00:31]And I don't blame him because this World Cup has felt different than any other.

[00:00:35]Prices that move while you watch, seats that disappear and then just magically come back and everyone is like, "What?

[00:00:41]What the hell, FIFA?" But if you think about it, that's the part that they're fine with you seeing because what's not as obvious is how you're already paying for this World Cup, whether you could afford a ticket or not. So the easy word is to just call it a scam. But I think it's something that we did to ourselves.

[00:00:57]Because yes, one part of the story is FIFA, but who handed them the keys? And why were we the perfect country to want to make this happen? It'll only be obvious once no one's paying attention anymore, just like what happened the last few times. But look, if you just think I'm rage baiting and just going against the grain for the sake of it, look, your boy has more ball knowledge than most creators. I played football my whole life, went D1, and also just just look at this jersey. Which is exactly why I'm not here to tell you that the World Cup is simply a scam. I'm here to show you why everyone wants you to think it is. Because yes, the prices are insane, and yes, the people running the beautiful game are the dirtiest, but that's exactly what they want you yelling about. So, let me show you the whole machine and how you're already paying for it. because once you see who's really hiding behind the word scam, you'll realize that it was never a scam at all.

[00:01:53]So, to understand why everyone wants you to believe this World Cup is a scam, the best way is to start with a pretty valid reason, and that starts with the tickets. Because yes, everyone already knows how expensive it is, but what nobody's really shown you is how the machine behind those prices actually works. So, let me show you right here on my desk. And let's just say I'm the head of FIFA, but definitely no one in particular. And once you see this, you'll begin to understand that this is just a small part of what they want you to see. Cuz whether you want to call it a scam or not, what's clear is that there's something wrong with the price.

[00:02:26]Even adjusting for inflation, FIFA's ticket prices are 2x the last World Cup in Qatar and even 4x the last time the US hosted it in 1994. And it's because of a couple of firsts. For the first time in World Cup history, the price doesn't hold still. As in, it's not static. Huh?

[00:02:46]What I mean is FIFA brought in dynamic pricing. The same algorithm model that every airline and now concert tickets use where the number moves with demand.

[00:02:55]What's interesting is that FIFA insists on calling it variable pricing. But the only difference is that they're changing prices manually after each sales round instead of through a secondby-second algorithm. So that's their defense, but as you'll see in a bit, that just opens the door for better manipulation. The thing is, the price moving is just the easy thing to be mad about. But frankly, as Americans, we're used to it at this point. But here's an aspect that's new that might become the norm across every type of entertainment. For the first time, FIFA is now the original seller and scalper. So they now have their own authorized resale platform that takes a 30% cut on every sale. 15% from the seller and 15% from the buyer on the same ticket. And FIFA has strongly encouraged everyone to use this whether to buy or sell. It's publicly warned fans that buying on the other sites like StubHub or SeatGeek is unauthorized and that those tickets can be cancelled and that it's going to be cracking down on this. Remember this. So, at least on the surface, FIFA is now competing with platforms like SeatGeek and StubHub in the resale game. So, now every ticket that's flipped, the more FIFA makes, which tells you a few things. One, FIFA actually wants this volatility. Two, the more your ticket bounces around the table, the more the house collects on every bounce. But like I said, even though the European mind can't really comprehend this, for the Americans, none of this is still that crazy. And every video on this topic has already talked about it. But after really looking into it, what I found is that it's actually a lot worse. Because with the games underway right now, what you might notice is that tickets might be part of a larger shell game. But even after I show you this, FIFA is still not the real problem here and why this is not the scam that you're expecting. But first, just so we're on the same page about basic economics, when enough people want and supply is limited, price equals high. But what if I told you that FIFA may be messing with this to manufacture the scarcity? So price always equals high. All credits go to Florian Ederer. Apologies if I butchered your name who found this, but look at the SeatGeek map for this upcoming game against Saudi Arabia versus Cape Very.

[00:05:01]What you'll find is that the circled areas are not random single resale tickets, but large groups of seats. And before you say that's just random, but who cares? Shut up. It's a pattern. The blue circles appeared weeks ago. Then the purple blocks suddenly showed up a day or two ago and the red blocks seem to have appeared recently too. But the reason why this is important is that it's not normal behavior like an ordinary fan who bought it but then ended up not being able to go anymore or what a professional reseller would even do. Usually in those instances those tickets are scattered and sold in pairs and fours. But what these circles shows is more like a big inventory dump. But what makes this even more interesting is that these tickets are priced way below FIFA's official site. Okay, so what what this could allegedly potentially mean is that FIFA is refusing to lower prices on its own site because official price cuts could trigger refund demands or consumer protection headaches from fans who have already bought the same tickets at much higher prices. So FIFA is choosing to keep official prices high by making it so nobody can see how many tickets are actually available. And instead of pushing unsold tickets through thirdparty resale platforms like SeatGeek, they're allegedly letting these seats stay empty rather than luring it to reflect the market demand, which by the way is the same argument FIFA themselves have used to defend against their sky high ticket prices.

[00:06:32]When we put these tickets on sale, they go on the secondary market, which is absolutely legal here. This certainly show that the prices were accurate.

[00:06:43]Since then, the attorney general of New York and New Jersey opened an investigation and subpoenaed FIFA, describing the system as a maze of confusion, artificial scarcity, and exorbitant prices, and saying that the World Cup is not an invitation to exploit residents and visitors. Now, whether anything will actually come about it is another question, especially with the games already underway. But what's clear is that when the price is high, not because of real scarcity, but because people can't see the real inventory or price, the real genius behind the system is that confusion is the asset. An asset that allows FIFA to win every transaction and make them $2 billion more from tickets alone. But if confusion is the asset here, doesn't this getting found out seem just a little too easy to just call this simply a scam? Well, to answer that, I need to tell you about what FIFA is doing to the parts you can't obviously see. And just like automated workflows, the real value is happening in places where you can't see. And that's where today's sponsor, Zapier, comes in. This year alone, developers paying for GBT 5 had requests quietly routed to cheaper models and cloud users watch tools degrading with no notice. So if your business only works because one company decides that it does, that's not infrastructure but a liability. Xavier SDK is built around the opposite idea that your data tools and your models are your rules and it handles authorizations across 9,000 plus apps so you're not writing anything by hand. Adds approval flows and audit trails so an agent can't go rogue. And through JP or MCP, the same agent runs on Claw, GPT or Gemini. Swapping between the models takes about a minute. So instead of betting on one provider, you're building on a layer that stays yours no matter what any vendor decides next quarter. So try for free at the link in my description or scan the QR code and build your first agent now. So even though what's happening with the tickets is crazy, we can agree that if it's part of this larger scam, it's the small and almost too obviously and easily caught one. Because while you were fighting the checkout screen, FIFA was rewriting the city around you. And the bill for that doesn't just go to the fan who bought a seat. It goes to you.

[00:08:43]whether you ever watch a single match or not.

[00:08:49]Everyone forgets this, but FIFA is legally a nonprofit. And it's something that I forget myself. And one reason is that they made getting rich while staying charitable into an art form.

[00:08:59]They use that taxfree status to do things that no for-profit could ever get away with, like sitting on previously reported reserve amounts of $4 billion, enough to run the entire organizations, two World Cups included, for 2 years, on zero income. But hold on, I thought a nonprofit has to spend on its mission.

[00:09:17]So, how does it just sit on its money?

[00:09:19]Well, because FIFA isn't a charity in the way that you picture it. It's registered in Switzerland as an association and the only mission that it has to serve is developing football, a mission it gets to divine itself. So besides reinvesting into the obvious like competitions and development and education, paying its presidents millions, who I definitely was not impersonating earlier, buying loyalty around the world, stockpiling billions, all of that still counts as the mission because no regulator gets to really decide what developing football means.

[00:09:48]Only FIFA does. And by controlling the world's most beautiful game, FIFA is about to make around $13 billion more from this tournament. Almost double a Qatar. But genuinely, how are they making so much? Well, by making you pay not just for the tickets, but for hosting the damn thing. FIFA keeps everything from broadcast, sponsorship tickets, and concession, and even car parking revenue, while the host city covers everything from public transport, safety, security, medical services, fire protection, police, and VIP protection.

[00:10:19]And again, you're paying for it. Roughly $625 million in federal security grants alone is flowing to the US host cities, but the biggest way you pay is through terms that makes it feel like you're getting violated. FIFA's contracts carve out clean zones, which are rings around each stadium where only FIFA's partners can advertise or sell. The terms are so restrictive that cities can't even cut deals with local convenience store chains because selling food cuts across primary partners like McDonald's. And those clean zones include the air too where airspace above the stadium is clear of any non-FIFA advertising. And remember, confusion is the asset. FIFA also keeps the right to amend the agreements at any time and refuses indeinity clauses that would shield host cities and taxpayers from financial risk. It's exactly why Chicago refused to be a host city since FIFA wanted the right to demand a dome to be built over their open air soldier field, which could have cost a potential $50 to hund00 million. that city taxpayers would have to pay. But it wasn't always like this. In 1994, host cities received a share of concession revenue, and the model was a win-win, which it generated surpluses for the cities that host it.

[00:11:30]So, Chicago was smart. 12 of the last 14 World Cups have lost money for the host countries, with the last three averaging a negative 31% on their return. So, at this point, you might be thinking, doesn't everything that I just said point to a scam? from the tickets to even if you didn't pay for a ticket, how you're already paying for it if you live in a host city or country. Which leaves one question if it truly is a scam can't answer. If the contracts are this lopsided and one city just proved that you can say no, why did everyone else say yes? Because here's the thing, a scam works once on someone who didn't see it coming. But can we call it a scam when America saw every part of it coming? In fact, we had leverage more than any host in its history. The answer starts with looking at both sides.

[00:12:16]Because the reason why everyone wants you to think this World Cup is a scam is because it's a match made in heaven.

[00:12:26]Because the best way to understand FIFA isn't a nonprofit or a sports organization, but one thing, it's a monopoly. And a monopoly looking for a host couldn't have picked a better mark than the monopoly capital of the world.

[00:12:39]I mean, where else is ruthless business practices celebrated as long as it's successful than America? So, when you start viewing it in that frame, is it any surprise that FIFA were allowed to do everything they wanted in the US?

[00:12:52]Because the one force that could have made FIFA soften its terms is our government. But what's clear is that the Trump Infentino alliance meant that this wasn't happening. Trump received a self-invented FIFA Peace Prize at the Kennedy Center, even though months later we got in another new war. But nonetheless, Trump gets PR in association of hosting the world's most watched event. Infantino and FIFA then gets hosted at the Trump Tower. He wears a MAGA hat, and Infantino gets political cover in a compliant host government.

[00:13:22]Even FIFA's former president Sep Blatter, who was removed for one of the biggest corruption scandals, by the way, blasted Infantino for seeking Trump's approval that he relies on the US and on Saudi Arabia, which financed the Club World Cup last summer in the US to the tune of a billion dollars. And so, even though Seb could just be salty, what he's not wrong about is that the relationship is transactional. At the end of the day, the FIFA World Cup is the most marketable, most valuable sports property in the world. In the US is FIFA's single most valuable market.

[00:13:54]There is no $1 13 billion tournament without American broadcast, advertiser, stadiums in the biggest consumer base with the most purchasing power in the planet. Both sides were begging for it, but the US sure as hell went out of its way to make sure that you ended up paying for it. When FIFA's terms demanded that venues be secured, the DHS rushed out a quarter of a billion dollars in security grants and it moved your tax money faster than it has ever moved for any actual disasters like Katrina. But the unfortunate truth behind all of this, even with all that said, is that you're going to forget because ever since FIFA's controlled the world's most beautiful game, the people running it has been the dirtiest. Qatar in 2022 had accusations of bribery and forced labor. Russia landed the World Cup in 2018 in what would become the biggest corruption scandal in sports history. And if we want to keep going back to 2010 in South Africa with kickbacks disguised as developmental aid, the point I'm leading you to is that has any of this ever stopped you from watching. Cuz if I'm going to be real, it sure as hell hasn't for me. And if they handed me a ticket now, hell yeah, I'm going. And guess what? So are you. And it's because if confusion was the asset all along, FIFA understands this better than anyone that you might get mad for a little bit, but just as quickly you'll also forget. So the question this leads back to is can you call that a scam? A scam is again illegal, has a victim, and ends when you catch it. All of this was agreed to legally. The victim competed for the role and when it already ran a test last summer with the Club World Cup and it's running now, it's not ending anytime soon. Which is exactly why calling it a scam is the comfortable lie. A scam means someone tricked us, but the truth is nobody had to. We built the country that says yes, we celebrate the monopolies that ask and we forget it all by the next tournament. Because there's truth behind the saying, give them bread and circuses and they won't revolt. But if the circus starts to suck, maybe that's when people will finally start asking the right questions. But like I straight up with you, I am excited for this World Cup. I filmed this right after USB Paragry and now my other country, Japan, is about to play the Netherlands. So, I'm also curious to hear your guys' predictions of who's going to win. But I have also already did a deep dive on this topic in my free newsletter in the video description. So, join the 4,100 of you who have already.

[00:16:16]But if you didn't see the latest video on how gambling is funding manufacturer verality, you'll also want to watch this one