Jules Boykoff is the author of Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine and Kicking, a memoir about his former life as a professional footballer and his current life as a critical academic of sport. He has also written six books on the politics of the Olympics, most recently, What Are the Olympics For?. He teaches political science at Pacific University.
Joining all the way from Helsinki, Finland, Jules talked all about how the World Cup is and has been used by authoritarian leaders for sportwashing and by FIFA, a supposed non-profit, for greed. We take a close look at everything going on around the 2026 World Cup and its parallels to previous editions as well as the Olympic Games.
Jules also spoke about his career as a professional soccer player in the US and how he transitioned to becoming a professor of political science.
Get the episode right here, thanks to Acast.
If you're interested in Jules' work please consider picking up a copy of one of his upcoming books at the links below:
Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine
You find all of Jules' work here and follow him on BlueSky.
You can follow Thomas on BlueSky.
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