The Half & Half Scarf Football Podcast - Episode 25

Despite us hanging FIFA out to dry with our take on the disgraceful ticketing and other issues around the World Cup in 2026 on our recent Episode 16, here we are, 9 episodes later and we cannot ignore another scandal and another blatant attempt to take the piss out of fans in favour of a desire to MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY. And this was recorded BEFORE Donald Trump "won" the completely fictitious "FIFA Peace Award", which I am certain we would have caned in this episode had we recorded after the World Cup Draw debacle. We hate the World Governing Body of the game we love and think that every other fan will have the same opinion. Welcome to Episode 25 of The Half & Half Scarf Football Podcast with Nick & Dom. We do however start with a celebration of: Scotland Northern Ireland Wales The Republic of Ireland Norway (Dark Horses to Win The World Cup)? Curacao Cape Verde & Haiti We look at the demise of Italian football at international level and why the FIFA qualification process makes it harder to qualify from Europe than most other regions - and why FIFA seem to love this? Thanks to Pellegrino Riccardi & Mark Mortimer on Linkedin for sharing the following link on this: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pellegrino-riccardi-24425a9_italys-football-collapse-a-leadership-activity-7396152496743661569-HuAF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAGZUtIB7fehCgVOGNaPEGmSPZrP2n-4paI Why attracting 48 teams to the tournament is a great idea for FIFA but why they also don't want ANY of the minnows to progress beyond the initial group stages. Finally, we also consider final 4 seeding - which is an utter sham and a fix and why CR7 Cristiano Ronaldo is the ONLY player in world football to warrant the execution of a never before used Article 27 of the Governing Body Rules - setting him on probation for a recent red card for violent conduct rather than taking his ban, whereas the bans seem to be remaining in place with a case to answer for two other players in EXACTLY the same situation. Is this also MONEY related, or just a case of "who you know"? Whatever, it is, it is yet another disgrace! We think proper football fans will enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. The podcast is available on all major podcast platforms - just search: "The Half & Half Scarf Football Podcast with Nick & Dom" on whichever platform you normally listen to your podcasts on and we will be there. Don't forget to give us a nice 5 star rating and a like, and please subscribe and share from your favourite podcast platform too - to help us to grow our audience and also to automatically get your fix of The Half & Half Scarf Football Podcast every week as we progress through the 2025/26 season, and hopefully beyond. We also have an open Group on LinkedIn - just search "The Half & Half Scarf Football Podcast" on LinkedIn Groups and join for additional content and background information. Thanks for your support with our YouTube channel too.