- 2 days ago
BMitch and Steve Czaban talk about the FBI putting the Argentine Football Association under investigation for alleged fraud!
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00:00Let's get to the story about the title, A Major Off-Field Controversy Has Emerged That Could Create Unwanted Distractions
00:06Around One of Football's Most Powerful Federations.
00:10According to multiple reports, the Argentine Football Association, known as the AFA,
00:15is under investigation by the FBI and U.S. federal prosecutors over allegations involving possible money laundering
00:22and financial irregularities.
00:26This connected to its business operations in the United States.
00:31The investigation reportedly focused on how hundreds of millions of dollars flowed through the American financial system
00:36and whether any transactions may have violated U.S. law.
00:42My reaction is, okay, so what?
00:46We're going to get them on tax evasion like Al Capone?
00:50They're running some funny sort of switcheroo money-wise in the spreadsheets in the banking accounts?
00:55I'm not saying you should do that, but I'm not like super jacked up about it.
01:01For me, I'm like, would this have come out if they didn't have so much attention behind them right now?
01:11And then on top of that, the people that you're probably investigating aren't even in the country right now.
01:17The players aren't the ones doing it.
01:19No.
01:20It's the people running the whole thing.
01:21The Federation.
01:22They're probably still sitting over there in Argentina.
01:25Yeah.
01:26So it really seems like grandstanding to me.
01:30Yeah.
01:31I don't think it.
01:32And when they say a distraction, I got to believe that these Argentine football players,
01:37they have been through so much stuff.
01:40They've seen so much stuff.
01:42They're in a country that has a lot of things that don't happen the way they happen here in the
01:47States.
01:47This ain't going to bother them.
01:49They survived in two of the most amazing games back-to-back.
01:56The Cape Verde game was an absolute war that they were lucky to escape in an extra 30 minutes of
02:02play
02:03and extra time after that to avoid penalty kicks.
02:07And then they win this game against Egypt that they had no business winning.
02:10In fact, somebody ran the numbers on the likelihood of their comeback down 2-0 in the 79th minute.
02:20And basically it was 0.16% of 10,000 matches in World Cup history had a team come from
02:302-0 down
02:32in the final 11 minutes of regulation time.
02:36So it was an incredible comeback.
02:38It was.
02:38One of the headlines I'm reading here is, let's see, let me get this here.
02:43Egypt may have suffered injustice.
02:45It also choked.
02:47Yeah.
02:48Which it did.
02:50I was on this air watching it and I was like, listen, man, Egypt was playing with way more intensity.
02:57Oh, yeah.
02:57They were destroying them early.
03:00As that game went on, they didn't play as aggressive.
03:04Yeah.
03:04I mean, if aggression worked in the early stages, don't stop it now.
03:10Yeah.
03:10Or did they get tired?
03:11Yeah.
03:12Messi missed a goal kick or a penalty kick in the game.
03:15He was like, I can't believe I'm going to let my team down.
03:17It was an unbelievable save.
03:19But the strike to equalize it is the stuff of legend.
03:23Just an amazing stroke of genius.
03:26That's all he's known for, Messi.
03:27Mm-hmm.
03:28Is scoring goals in ways you go, oh my God, did you see that?
03:31Mm-hmm.
03:32An absolute rocket.
03:34Almost off his shin it looked like to me.
03:36That deflected off the goalkeeper's finger and then went just underneath the crossbar
03:42and in for an absolute eruption of fans down there in Atlanta.
03:46An eruption of fans on the streets of Argentina.
03:50Buenos Aires saw a video from some street security cam.
03:54Mm-hmm.
03:54Everything is dead quiet as the match is going on.
03:56It's like a ghost town, right?
03:58Yeah.
03:58Then the Messi goal to tie it.
04:00And you start hearing car horns honking.
04:04Fans start cheering.
04:05They're coming back.
04:06People come out on their porches saying, goal!
04:10The Andres Cantor highlight from Telemundo.
04:14Clary, see if you can find that one so we can play it.
04:17He loses his voice.
04:19It was like Gus Johnson with the amazement and the elation of that goal.
04:24And then Argentina caps it with a bonus time goal or whatever they call it, extra time goal,
04:31to win in regulation.
04:33And, of course, Egypt was super pissed.
04:35The game devolved after that final goal where the referee had not given out any cards all game
04:41and then gave out seven cards, like six yellows and a red.
04:46The Egyptian coach made this sign of an X for purported racist comments.
04:54Mm-hmm.
04:54And there's supposedly a protocol in place where when that happens, when somebody says, you stop the match.
05:01Yeah.
05:01And they go, okay, who said that?
05:03Soccer has had a really bad history of racism internationally.
05:10Well, in that moment, the referee's like, I don't see nothing.
05:13Oh, the Egyptian coach is saying that, you know, somebody said something racist.
05:17No, I'm not going to stop the match.
05:18Mm-hmm.
05:18Just like they weren't going to call penalties on Argentina.
05:22That could have been penalties.
05:24Could have been fouls like the one that VAR did.
05:27Now let's get to the VAR one.
05:29So if you miss this goal, Egypt had a goal taken off the board almost a minute after it happened
05:34because there was a foul almost 100 meters away on the complete other end of the pitch
05:40on an attack by Argentina in which the Egyptian defender did step on the Argentina player's foot,
05:50causing him to fall, took the ball from him.
05:53The referee said, play on.
05:55The guy makes an amazing run.
05:57Yes.
05:57A length of the field run.
05:58Oh, yeah.
05:59Weaving and zigging and zagging and dodging defenders
06:02and then passes it last minute to a teammate who rockets it into the goal.
06:08Egypt fans go nuts.
06:09It's an incredible moment.
06:10They're hugging and everything else.
06:12They're about to resume play and then they're like, oh, hold on a second.
06:16We got to look at this on video.
06:18And when they looked at it on video, they're like, well, that technically was a foul
06:22and it technically was the last thing that led to this goal.
06:27Even though somebody pointed out, B. Mitch, 18 touches,
06:30over 100 meters away, about six defensive actions later.
06:37This is not sports to me.
06:39It isn't.
06:40It's not as important to get it technically right that, okay, this was a foul.
06:45We got to call it.
06:46You don't have to call it.
06:47You ruined a great moment, tilted the outcome of a match,
06:50based on we've got to get it technically correct.
06:53Yeah.
06:55That goal right there, I watched it when it was happening.
06:58And?
06:58And the stuff he was doing with his feet was amazing.
07:02Oh, yes.
07:03He had one guy on the right, another guy on the left, and he was over here.
07:06He brought it back around, boom, went past both of them.
07:09Up the sideline, into the middle of the field.
07:11It's like breaking a punt return and you're on the right sideline
07:14and somebody on the back happened to just touch somebody on the back
07:17and they throw a flag on the left sideline.
07:18Yeah, he's 45 yards away from you.
07:21Yeah.
07:21Wasn't going to catch you anyway.
07:22Who wants to erase moments like that based on technicalities?
07:26Maybe that's why they're being investigated.
07:28Why would that ref go back and do that and not see the other stuff?
07:32So that may be what they think.
07:34Oh, it's got to be some level of corruption.
07:35Well, the story says money laundering.
07:38It didn't say bribery, but who knows what could be in the mix
07:41once they start digging.
07:43It's not impossible to think they've got some VAR refs in their pocket going,
07:49look.
07:49Money laundering, you throw it out there.
07:51It's a broad thing.
07:52All of a sudden you find out what's all under it.
07:54Yeah.
07:55It was the right call, though.
07:56It was.
07:57It was the right call.
07:58It was technically.
07:59Technically the right call.
08:00But the right call.
08:02But we all argued over a guy who basically, Flo Balligan,
08:07his foot stepped on the guy's leg just like, oh, this guy's foot stepped on the guy's foot.
08:12The only reason why.
08:14There's no difference.
08:14The only reason why that was a wrong call, because he didn't have a yellow at first.
08:19It wasn't.
08:20That wasn't a red card penalty.
08:22That penalty.
08:23I mean, that Goldberg called.
08:24It wasn't a penalty, though.
08:26Yes.
08:26It should have been a yellow card, but you don't just jump to the.
08:29It takes two yellow cards to get a red.
08:31Yeah.
08:31You can't just give a man a red card for that.
08:34But this case with the Argentina player, he was cooking them guys.
08:38If he didn't get his foot stepped on, he probably would have.
08:42He might have.
08:42He might have had a good shot on goal.
08:44I don't know if he would have scored, but he could have set something up.
08:49I know.
08:50There is, in Japanese culture, there is a saying, it's not enough to do the right thing.
08:54You have to do the right thing the right way.
08:57And they're very, you know, in Japan, they're very concerned about the way things look and etiquette.
09:03You know, it's not just enough to do the right thing.
09:05You have to do it the right way.
09:07And so, to me, Walker, it's not just about getting the right call.
09:11The call has to be right in the right sense of sporting proportion.
09:15That if you're going to make the right call, but it's going to be a minute later after the most
09:19amazing goal that weaves through an entire field of defenders, now we've got a bad thing in sports.
09:24It's better to have that wrong call just stand as a wrong call, because there's lots of wrong calls that
09:29still exist, even with VAR.
09:31They can't fix them all.
09:32In FIFA, they have play-on penalties, right, where if a penalty happens and a team still have the opportunity
09:39to score, they will handle it after the attack has finished.
09:42Correct.
09:43So, that's why they let it play on, because if it was a missed call, then, so I can't really
09:49mean that.
09:49I think they did it the right way.
09:51I know.
09:51By the way, look at the big FIFA energy on your boy back there.
09:54Did you know he was this big of a soccer guy?
09:56Yeah, he tries to be.
09:57You think it's all a front?
09:58You think he's faking?
09:59Hey, look, if you think it's a front, anybody that want that smoke in FIFA, we can scream in and
10:04I'll drop like six goals on it.
10:06Nah, when he starts playing it as him and not on a video game, then I don't really care what
10:12he's saying.
10:12Oh, okay.
10:13I don't care about video games.
10:14I can juggle a little bit.
10:15Is it true that you took Tunisia to the World Cup Final in FIFA 24?
10:19No.
10:22That sounds like, right, doesn't that sound like something Walker would do?
10:25Like, spend all weekend trying to get Tunisia to the World Cup Final.
10:29Rumor has it, he's going to do it someday.
10:31On Xbox.
10:32Someday.
10:33Take some downtrodden country that doesn't have a chance.
10:36I'm not going to lie.
10:37I am the highest scoring goal scorer on Team USA right now.
10:41Wow.
10:42Okay.
10:43All right.
10:44Playing midfield.
10:45Okay.
10:45Who else is on your line?
10:47Who do you got around you?
10:49It's the regular team.
10:49Oh, it is?
10:50Okay.
10:50Just my player in there.
10:51Oh, okay.
10:52All right.
10:52You're an avatar.
10:54I just, to me, like, it, it, it, cause it, there was a couple of plays in which theoretically
10:59they could have called a foul on Argentina and they didn't play ons and it's all, it's
11:07all subjective.
11:07In this case, yes, technically it was a foul.
11:09And yes, I understand VAR was instituted to correct these things.
11:14And in a low stakes Tuesday match between Burnham and Leicester city, fine.
11:21It's not a big deal on this stage.
11:23In this moment, it hits different.
11:26It plays different.
11:27It doesn't feel right.
11:29And then you add the fact that messy is the most popular player in the world.
11:33And Argentina creates a significant financial incentive and bonus for FIFA to stay in this
11:40tournament.
11:40Not Egypt, despite Mo Salah, who's a EuroLeague star.
11:45I'm like, that's the problem.
11:47The, the, the corruption, the perception of corruption, naked corruption, total finger
11:53on the scale, not just finger, two thumbs and a wrist and an elbow on the scale to try
11:57to tilt things makes me say, I can't with FIFA.
12:01I can't with the world cup.
12:02I'll watch it.
12:03I'll enjoy it.
12:04I can't get worked up about it because I don't feel it's on the up and up.
12:08Yeah.
12:08And it's like when you, you know, and you've heard all the stuff about FIFA being corrupt.
12:13When you see something and they do it in one instance, you can't say all the all over a
12:19board and then on the other one, you question it.
12:22Cause my thing is if they turn their back on other stuff, they could have turned their
12:26back on that.
12:27Oh yeah.
12:28But they didn't.
12:29Oh yeah.
12:29And they haven't throughout this whole thing.
12:31Oh, very certain people have gotten certain calls that they probably wouldn't ordinarily
12:35get.
12:36Yeah.
12:37Now, you know, what's brewing by the way, no matches today.
12:40I'm feeling a little bit of world cup withdrawal.
12:42Yeah.
12:43Yeah.
12:43Kind of enjoying the matches here.
12:45Um, the Morocco France match has apparently had five Argentinians assigned to the officiating
12:53crew.
12:54So the ref, the linesman and whoever the two extras are and right now shouldn't be doing
12:59it and, and people are like, Oh, a FIFA apparently has a grudge against France.
13:04They want them out.
13:05So this is another thing to keep your eye on.
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