Insight from the 2022 FIFA World Cup - Anne Peter

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that next workout. Champion your recovery with core power. Learn more at corepower.com. The low five is not going to be staying on my head. If you don't have the imagination and the willingness to fail or not being afraid to fail, I don't think you can be truly great. Candace Parker. I have so much hope for this generation coming up that I've grown up with women in

sports, in leadership roles, on television, speaking about sports, speaking knowledgeably about sports. I've worked that I've done, I've looked at humanitarian work that I've done, has always given me great perspective. It's allowed me to keep my feet on the ground and has really put and reminded me what's truly important. Damien Miller. That was for Seattle. Just to name a few. Welcome to sports business radio. Now,

here's Brian Burger. Well, thanks for joining us on this edition of sports business radio. I hope you had a great holiday with your family. We've got a good guest this week. Annie Peterson, long time sports reporter for the associated press. She has covered many Olympics, many World cups. Just about any major sporting event that you can think of during her career. She's going to join us

from Qatar. I wanted a bird's eye view of what's going on there. Someone who's going to give us the straight to scoop. Annie's going to do that. It's not just what's going on with Budweiser. It's not just ticketing issues. It's the whole political landscape and the backdrop of having the World Cup in Qatar. I think you're going to be super enlightened by this conversation. I know

I was. Then even things like the accommodations. People are getting on flights from Dubai and flying 70 minutes to Qatar for World Cup because there's not enough accommodations in Qatar. You can't take pictures in certain places there in Qatar and you can have your phone confiscated or they'll tell you to delete the pictures. I mean, lots of things going on. But Annie Peterson gives us a

great inside view from Qatar and the World Cup. I'm joined by executive producer Brian Griggs. Griggs, how are you? I'm doing great. And yeah, fascinating stuff because I think in America, you watch it on Fox. It looks great and everything just looks like it's, you know, perfect. Normal, beautiful. Everything's working great. She gives it the inside of behind the scenes and on the ground there, which

is some great stories. And just like you said, no pictures. And there's a lot of drone activity for security. It's fascinating. And if you so she does a good job covering it. Well, and the other thing is this like, you know, if Qatar is interested in hosting the Olympics and the IOC talks to them. I don't know how after this, you could agree to have the

for the Olympics as well. And obviously for future world cups. The rights of athletes. I mean, you know, there's a lot of women don't have rights. You know, a lot of other people don't have rights over there. I just think this was done. This is a one time thing in our lifetime, at least. Set bladder who used to be with FIFA has already said probably not

a good idea that we allowed Qatar to host the world cup. So, you know, it's not just about these, this world cup. It's about the future. You know, what other events may come to the Middle East specifically to Qatar. I don't think Qatar is making a great showing for themselves here. And I think there's just too many political and other landmines that you've got to jump

through in order to host something of this magnitude there. And the Olympics, Greg's has formed more athletes than the world cup does. So that would make it even more complicated. Yeah. And I think, you know, when we talk about all the time with business in these big huge events, it's about sponsorship dollars and money and recognition and, you know, getting people engaged with their brand. And

when you can't drink over there and you can't sell booze and you can't do this and that everything else, it's just all that red tape is going to just like sponsors are going to be like, do I want to spend this money? Do I want to send a whole crew over here and do all this advertising and everything? Probably not. So it doesn't look too good

for future events over there. All right. Let's get to some headlines of the week before we get to the conversation with Annie and really zero in on World Cup. Griggs, a lot of people in the last week we're sitting in front of their TVs. We had some record sat in audiences. Let's start with that Cowboys Giants game on Thanksgiving. The most watch regular season NFL game

ever 42 million people tuned in to watch that game. So, you know, lots of people walking on. Thanksgiving overall the three games had a total audience of 138 million led by that 42 million with the Cowboys and Giants. So a record setting Thanksgiving for the NFL when it came to TV viewership. Yeah. You had some great games. I mean, all the teams were pretty, you know,

good winning record teams, good battles, conference battles. And I mean, anytime you have Cowboys Giants, two of the biggest brands in NFL is going to be a good one. And you have a captive audience. You have everybody sitting around. Family's together. We added on the whole day, you know, just tuning in and watching it. So it's I think all the games were fun and entertaining. And

that Cowboys game was really fun. I love the tributes throughout the day to John Madden as well. You know, who loved Thanksgiving football more than John Madden. Right. Nobody. And I just love seeing all the tributes that rolled in for him. So kudos to the NFL kudos to the networks. You know, all three of them showcased him. And it was really cool. All right, continuing with

big numbers. 17 million viewers tuned in for Michigan's dumping of Ohio State on Fox. That was the most watched, I guess, you know, noon college football game ever on Fox. So, you know, a huge number there for Ohio State. And Michigan, we thought it would be maybe we didn't think it was going to be that big, but you know, once again, big, big number. Yeah, it

was a fun game. And I think the key for that is when they put it on in that morning slot for West Coast and noon for the East. Everybody can watch it. You know, everybody's awake. Everybody's got something to do. I love that morning kickoff for being on the West Coast. Get up, grab the coffee and you got college football. And you got to the top

four teams. So I think it was a fun game to watch. And I can see why everybody was viewing in. And again, kind of part of that Thanksgiving weekend so they could market it around that and keep the football vibe going. All right, US versus England. A lot of people anticipated that World Cup match up. And it ended in a school is draw. But it got

15.3 million viewers. So that was the most watched men soccer match in the US ever. So again, another record. If you noticed, there's a trend here with the NFL with college football. And now with World Cup viewership in the United States. 15.3 million for US versus England. Yeah, lots of TV watching over the Thanksgiving holiday. And it's so fun because you got NFL peaking, you know,

getting that playoff push. You got college football coming to a close. And then you got World Cup. I mean, there's so many big big time events and big type games going on in that England USA match was really fun. And hey props to USA. I mean, they were the underdogs and that to keep it at a zero zero draw. I'm tall. I'll take that. All right,

more soccer. Cristiano Ronaldo will never wear a Manchester United kit. Again, Manchester United and Ronaldo have parted ways. You know, always lots of money involved when Ronaldo is involved because he's one of the highest paid athletes on the planet. But Greg's it'll be interesting to see what's next for Ronaldo. And then other news with Manchester United is the Glazer family is the Xploring putting them on

the market. They've said if they sell Manchester United, they want $7.25 billion, which would be the most expensive team sale in the history of team sport. So if they're going to sell it, they're going to get a premium for selling it. And $7.25 billion is the premium. Yeah, I mean, that's probably the most popular soccer team in the world. No, I mean, I mean, I mean,

I'm not sure if I'm going to get a premium for selling it. And $7.25 billion is the premium. Yeah. I mean, that's probably the most popular soccer team in the world. And then the other news has been for a long time has been. So I see the price tag. However, no, Ronaldo kind of dumbs it down a little bit because he's obviously the highest paid soccer

athlete in the world. But yeah, that is some big time money for a big franchise. It'll be interesting to see as the bidders start coming in what they can gather on that. And the terms have been disclosed, but they've said it would be the most amount of money that a player has ever been paid to play in Major League Soccer in the United States. You know,

Messi's doing well in the World Cup. He's a legend. We've seen this before with Beckham and others who have come at the end of their career Wayne Rooney. This would be another chance for American fans to see one of the legends of European soccer and, you know, that European soccer legend would come in at a premium and cash in at a very high level. Yeah. I

think he is obviously iconic. And I can guarantee the MLS teams and crews and, you know, owners and all that are salivating it, having him in the league because he is must watch TV when he's on. It's it's captive. And yeah, who else is good. My am I going to have their cap to probably, you know, get rid of pretty much everybody to get him in

there. But it'd be fun to see him on the US. So for sure. All right. Another headline. This was a shocker. So Bob Chapich, the CEO of Disney is out. Bob Iger, the long time chief executive for Disney is back in. So, uh, Chapich took over for Iger in February of 2020. And Disney has had a rough ride since then. So Chapich out Bob Iger in.

And I mean, Drix, this affects. Yeah. Yes. P N. It affects sports on ABC streaming. I mean, there's there's a plethora of things that are impacted by this. You've got the MBA rights coming up in the near future. And, you know, ABC has been a right folder for a while of the NBA games. So it's going to be interesting. Bob Iger and Chris Paul are really

good friends, by the way. Chris Paul. Obviously, place for the sons. But with the president of the place. There's association for many years. So you may look at this and go, ah, it just affects the theme parks and, you know, the movies and things like that. But this actually has a really big impact on sports. And it's going to be interesting to see what is Iger

doing the sports realm again with ESPN with future right steals like the NBA and so on and so forth. Yeah, I think it's a it's a good move for Disney just because he's so well known. And has such a history of Disney and what he's done with Disney because moving up to COVID, I mean, there was a lot of things that, you know, Disney was doing

well. And I think COVID kind of, you know, took a chop to Disney big time. Obviously. But, you know, I think they're rebounding and coming back. And like you mentioned, now you've got all the streaming and all these rights coming up. And I think it's a good move to have a guy like Iger back in just because he's everybody knows. And he's friends with so many

people and has done so much with Disney. I think it's good move. All right. The last headline. This was also kind of a surprise. David Shaw. The longtime head football coach at Stanford has parted ways with Stanford effective immediately. He had a 96 and 54 overall record at Stanford. Three packed 12 titles. Four time packed 12 coach of the year. You know, coach Andrew Luck. You

know, did a really great job while he was there. It'll be interesting to see if he moves on to something else. Maybe the NFL. Or does he just write off? And to the sunset and say, I made my money at Stanford. And, you know, that's good enough. It's interesting, Diggs. Oh, because Stanford. Yeah. It is hard to get athletes into that school. You've got to have

a certain GPA. You know, it's easier to recruit at all to say like an Arizona state or an Arizona. Then it is at Stanford. So, you know, there's a disadvantage going into it. You're going to get really smart players. But your pool of players is smaller because they've got to meet that GPA requirement. So it's not an easy place to coach. But I'm sure that's going

to be a sought after job for many people. You know, we saw over the weekend. There was a news report that Colorado offered Deon Sanders. The head coaching job. You know, the pack 12 is doing their media rights deal right now. So if you can get some personalities in your conference, like a Deon Sanders. And whoever. David Shaw at Stanford. It's going to help because I

mean, let's face it. Sports is like a TV show. Did you watch the PK Invitational? Yeah. It was in Portland. I'm not in Portland. But I watched on TV. So many empty seats. Yeah. I wouldn't believe it. I mean, Duke is playing North Carolina is playing and they're playing to maybe a quarter of the arena. Maybe. So my point is. He's sporting events. It's like a

TV show. First and foremost. And then, oh, if we get some people in attendance, I guess that's gravy. But, you know, they've got cheap labor in the college athletes. And they've got the venue and, you know, they televised. Even if there's hardly anyone in attendance. But I was shocked at how few people were in attendance at those games, especially, you know, the final games on Sunday.

Like there was nobody there. You don't usually turn on a dude. Or a North Carolina. I didn't see that many empty seats. Yeah. And there was some good matchups too. I mean, there was not only just those good teams, but the matchups were solid. I mean, some of those games were, we're close and competitive. And ones that maybe shouldn't be competitive. We're pretty competitive. So that

was shocking to me too. Some of those were like, is this game even live? It looked like there was like nobody even there and a couple of them. But, yeah, I think Shaw on back on the Shaw thing. I think he's one of the most well-respected coaches out there from whatever I've heard every athlete that's ever interviewed. They say the guy is incredible. A great coach.

A great guy. And you see his demeanor on the sideline. Do you know he's very calm and he just kind of holds the fort together. So, you know, be interesting to see who Stanford gets. And, you know, this is just the beginning. We talk about every time the revolving door of coaches that every year, there's like the whole new batch that comes in and that replaces

people. So he won't be the only one I'm sure that, you know, is leaving. But I think he'd be good in NFL and maybe some other college you know, but I think he's a good guy and a good coach overall. Yeah. I think if you're an NFL owner, you're going to put a call into his representation. And just, you know, feel out what that could look

like. Does he want to go to the NFL? What would that look like? You know, he's got some ties to the NFL. So we'll see. All right, Greg's. Katar spent $220 billion on World Cup to put that into perspective. Russia in 2018 spent $12 billion on World Cup. So Katar is spending more money by a mile. And anyone has ever spent on World Cup. What does

it look like? We're going to talk to Annie Peterson, who's joining us from Katar. She's covering many of the World Cup matches. Lots of politics in the backdrop of these games taking place. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back. When it comes to your health and longevity, you hold nothing back. You understand what it means to push harder, reach farther and go the

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for limited time. You can get 20% off the entire inside tracker store. Just go to inside tracker.com forward slash SBR. That's inside tracker.com forward slash SBR. Now, I'm going to talk to you about the inside tracker. Now back to sports business radio with Brian Berger. My guest is Annie Peterson. She's a long time sports reporter for the associated press. She's covered the Olympics World Cups and

just about any major sporting event that you can think of. She's a great follow on Twitter at Annie M Peterson. Annie, thanks for joining me on sports business radio. How are you? I'm very good. I'm in Katar. It's early in the morning here. And I understand it's late at night there. So the time difference gets so adjusting to, but it's an interesting city. It's very hot.

And there's a lot of soccer going on right now. Yeah, I wanted to have you want to really get your birds. I view of what's going on on the ground in Katar. And let's start with what's your general sense of the event when you landed. So Katar has spent 220 billion dollars on this. So to give our audience perspective, the next highest amount of money spent

on the World Cup is in 2018. Rafa spent $12 billion. So there's a difference between 220 billion and 12 billion. What is 220 billion look like there in Katar? You know, everything in Katar is new. The whole city is these brand new gleaming skyscrapers. There's a lot of things going on here. There's very little outward evidence of what was here before the Katar that we know

of today. You know, they built these beautiful stadiums and they are gorgeous. They are gorgeous. One of their stadiums is interesting because it was built out of shipping containers. Wow. And after the World Cup, it's going to be dismantled. And so the whole idea was to eliminate the idea of what we're going to do. White elephants at World Cups are stadiums that are built specifically for

World Cups or Olympic Games. And then afterward they serve no purpose. They're empty. They're falling apart. Katar wanted to kind of avoid that situation. And so it was an interesting. There was a really interesting arena that go to. Because like when you went to the World Cup, you had to go down the street. For example, when you went to the restroom, it was a shipping container.

When you went to pick up, you know, when you went to a concession stand, it was a shipping container. So that was fascinating. The thing about Katar is, you know, and I'm not criticizing the people who are building this at all because obviously it's the whole city is built on the backs of migrant workers. But it's all very shiny and on the surface. And then when

you start looking closer, it's like it was hastily constructed. It wasn't things are finished yet. You know, and we don't know if they ever will be. But there will be like a cobblestone path. And they'll be like for bricks missing. Or you know, things won't line up correctly. And like marble tiles on walls won't line up correctly. And you know, I went into a room and

shut the door and a piece of metal fell off the wall. Wow. You know, things are. It's just interesting. So everything looks really beautiful on the outside. But when you look closer, it's just, you know, it's a facade. That's that's kind of my feeling about. You know, about Katar or cutter, depending on how you pronounce it, how many different venues are there for the games? Oh,

jeez. I'm not sure I've been to four. Okay. I think there were seven. So I don't pay attention to them until I have to be there. Right. I was at the furthest one last night. I covered Iran versus Wales. And I was at the one that's furthest away. It's pretty cool. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. Right. I was at the furthest

one last night. I covered Iran versus Wales. And I was at the one that's furthest away. It's pretty cool. It's a beautiful stadium, but it was one of the stadiums that was already here that they just refurbished for the World Cup. But they actually have a local soccer club. The place in the stadium that I was at. You mentioned. It's really warm there. I can see

on TV. The for few sweating that's taking place. How hot is it there? I mean, is it above 100 degrees? No, it's not above 100. It's like in the 90s. Okay. It's it is winter here. Which is one of the reasons that they moved the World Cup to November. Normally, the World Cup is obviously a summer event. But here in Qatar, it's way too hot to

have a World Cup. It's just dangerous for the players. And we've seen this at other World Cup. What's the temperature? It's just it's hard to it's hard to play in that. And there's water breaks and all kinds of things that have to be rethought to accommodate the heat. It's in the 90s. So it's warm. And I don't know how to explain it. But when you're outside,

it feels like it's way brighter and sunscreen. You need sunscreen like right away. Otherwise, you're going to burn. You know, it's not. It doesn't feel like, you know, a 90 degree day in Portland, Oregon. It feels like the sun is really beating down on you. So that's there's no scientific kind of evidence. It's like, okay, my skin is burning. I've got to put sunscreen on. What

about ticketing issues? I've read that there's ticketing issues with people who have tickets on their phone. And they haven't worked. And they've had to refund people their tickets. And it's been a little bit of a nightmare. Have you seen that or observed that? They resolved most of those issues. But the first couple of days are going to be a big deal. So tell the AP has

us staying in a hotel downtown. And the ticketing resolution place was at a convention center nearby. And I was taking a run and walk by. And there were like underids of people in line. Yeah, I saw those pictures. Yeah, this was before Argentina's opener. And so they were all, I mean, it was almost all wall to wall. Argentina fans trying to figure out what how to

get their tickets. There were a lot of people who were very, very angry because they couldn't get their tickets. And they couldn't see messy. But I think they have resolved most of those issues. Now, the issues that they're facing really are kind of political in nature and have more to do with human right. So at my match last night, kind of. There were some disturbances outside

the stadium. Between pro-Iranian hardline government supporters and anti-Iranian, you know, specifically supporters of women and human rights. There are a couple of issues at play. First of all, there's the situation in Iran with the protests that are going on there over Masha Aminiz, Dath and the hijab and the compulsory dress code there in Iran. But there's also at the same time this movement of foot because

in Iran, women cannot go to soccer games. You can't buy a ticket and go see a soccer game. Women are not allowed. Wow. And it's been a contentious issue for soccer for, you know, many, many years because Iran, you know, host FIFA sanctioned events. And. FIFA, the governing body of soccer says you have to let everybody in. And Iran's kind of solution to letting everybody in

is to let in like 20 women. And they're all relatives of, you know, government officials and they're all in full burkas. And they're in a rope golf section away from the men. And that's how they say, but we are letting women into the stadium. And it's all a shame. So every time there's one of these big events where Iran is playing soccer or in the Olympics,

Iran used to be really good at volleyball. There's a certain kind of female fans who travel so that they can see their national team in person for the first. And many of these women are seeing their team play live for the first time. And so yesterday at the game. There was, there were rumors that Iran had brought hardline government supporters into the world cup to kind

of harass the people, you know, who are fighting for women's rights. That's a rumor. But there were a good. I don't know. I counted like myself. Five people who were trying to wear chisholids that said in three languages. Women. Life Liberty. And they were taken away. Those t-shirts were taken away by security because they were deemed as political. And those people had to leave and go

change or figure out different attire. And that was controversial. I mean, is that a political statement? And I ran. Yes. But to the rest of the world, women life Liberty are just three words. Right. So it's, controversy that's that's ongoing in the team. The Iranian team, you know, they have just been dogged by questions about what's going on at home. Just hunts it. And, you know,

they can't. They're not going to talk about it. This world cup is important to them. And well, every world cup is important to every team. But this world cup in particular is important, you know, to kind of show. I don't want to say that they want to show that they're good at soccer. They want to bring their country together because everything is so fraught in Iran

right now. And that's kind of what their goal is. They want to bring, you know, happiness to the people who are going through a really turbulent time back home. But as people watching them, we want them to say, you know, I support the protesters are, you know, we want to support the protesters. They want them to be more definitive in their answers and they're, they're not

doing that. And last night, it was really interesting to see the players. Just they won. They beat whales. Two to nothing on two stoppage time goals, which is like every sports writers complete and total nightmare. Because it's like, re right. All is on delete, delete, delete. But they were really thoughtful in their answers. And wanted to say thank you to the fans who came and cheered

for them. And. The coach just said, you know, we just want to bring some joy. And it was fascinating. It's fascinating to watch with. In terms of the geopolitical situation. Now it is just going to get more intense in the next couple of days because. The United States plays Iran. In the next group stage game. And it will. If I ran goes to the knockout round

for the first time ever. Or the United States. In the next two months, I really want to say thank you all for the answers. And given. Politically brought. Relationship between the two nations. Everything is going to be. Dial up to eleven. Really on this game. So. I'm writing about Iran today. And going to watch Argentina. Play Mexico Mexico is one of my teams here at the

world cup. So I get. I'm writing the Mexico sidebar. But I'm kind of geeked out because I've never seen. See play ever in person, which is like. I don't know how I got through my entire career without seeing. Good. See play in person. But here we go. And. So I'm. So I'm. I'm going to spend five minutes. In the stands going. Holy cow. I'm looking. I'm

watching that. See. Play. And then I'm going to have to focus on writing about Mexico. So. That's funny. I went to England in September. And went to my first premier league match. And it was incredible. And you know, I saw Arsenal. And. Just the level of play is incredible. And how synchronized everyone is. And you know, everything has a purpose. Every. Heter every pass. Everything is

is in concert. So it's really interesting to see it at the highest level. But I imagine when you see. You know, that's going to be next level. Talk to me about the security there. You know, the Olympics, the World Cup. They spend hundreds of millions. Sometimes billions of dollars. I mean, if they're spending 220 billion dollars in guitar, I'm batting at least a billion is going

to security. What a security look like there is it kind of you don't notice it. Or is it a heavy presence and you do notice security. I mean, you know, I'm going to do a little bit of this. I mean, I'm going to get. I'm going to get. I'm going to get. I'm going to get. I'm going to get. It's a heavy presence. Yeah. It's definitely

there above every stadium when you're going in. There are drones all over. And they are. There are cameras everywhere. You just, but you do not escape surveillance here. The security forces on the ground are hired by the local organizing committee. They're not hired by FIFA. Okay. So. The deal with, you know, security at the stadiums is that because they're local, because they're local, Atari hired folks,

they are still guided local, Atari traditions. So they are, they're, they weren't letting any rainbow flags. A Wales team has a supporter group called the Rainbow Wall, which is an LGBTQ supporter group. And they wear all the Wales fans wear these bucket hats. That's their tradition. And the Rainbow Wall had rainbow bucket hats made for the trip to Qatar. And they were not allowing them into

stadiums. Wow. And so the Dutch Federation reach out to FIFA and be looked sad. We are on the, you know, we have advised the security forces that they need to allow rainbow flags and rainbow. It's a rainbow symbols into the stadiums. But again, it's the local organizing committee that really fires these but these security people and that oversees them. And so it's unclear if the message

is trickling down to folks at the stadiums. But like yesterday, they were supposed to be allowed to let some of these symbols in. And we just really didn't see any sign of people trying to bring them in. So it was kind of mood. The controversy became over the women and women and men supporters. And so it was like, I mean, I was wearing the t-shirts in

a support of allowing women into stadiums and in support of women, you know, having not having to wear a hijab in Iran. So the local security say that any kind of political message is not allowed. So for example, if you wanted to wear a make America great into the world cup, you could not. But the security forces, you know, what their interpretation is of any of

this stuff just depends on the individual. So in Qatar, you can't just take photos of anything. Often you'll be taking a photo and a security person will come up to you and say, you have to delete that photo. Are you serious? Predator. Yeah. It's the thing, right? So I was taking photos of some fans the other day and a security guard says, you need to delete

that photo. And I'm like, no, I'm credentialed media. Talk to FIFA. But there are signs in certain areas that you go in the city that say, Hey, you're in a fan's own. So you have to consent to your photo being taken. So the fans, so the people, the local people who are here, if they enter that zone, they can consent to the photos. So, but yeah,

it's weird. There are like, I've been asked two or three times now. What, what, what was I photographing? What was I videotaped? And I need to delete it without even knowing what it was. That's crazy. It's based on the fact that the, the Qataris don't like their photos to be taken. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back after this. Hey, everyone, Brian burger

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are so booked that people are making the 70 minute flight to do why. And flocking for the games. Because there's more accommodations and do why is that true? Oh, yeah, absolutely. One is 100%. It's completely true. And they have these. I saw them. I was driving by. I was on a bus going to a stadium. They have these villages that are just basically like portables. And

you get a bed. And you have a community bathroom in there. I don't even know how expensive they are. But they're not. They're these villages set up for fans. And it's just like the minimum. They do have air conditioning, which is a good thing. But they're just like these little rooms. And you get a bed and you have air conditioning. And then you go to the

bathroom. And then there's concession stands in these villages. And that's where some fans are opting to stay. But yes, there are people flying in and out. And I think that's one of the things that I think is that people are staying in. But I think a lot of people who were who did not plan to get accommodations early enough to come to this event are stuck

on flying it. Wow. All right. Another big head. I think that's what I think is really important. The headlines, words business wise is Budweiser paid $75 million to be a part of World Cup. And they're now asking for a refund of $47.4 million because they're not able to serve their beer basically in the areas where it was agreed upon. I guess the royal family stepped in

and said, no, give us more detail on that story. Because that is story there. Are you seeing, you know, any Budweiser side of the world cup. Is there any kind of financial or anything along those lines? So there is Budweiser signage. And it is like you will see post game interviews where they have the banners behind the players that have all the sponsors. And Budweiser remains

there. What happened was outside of every stadium. There was supposed to be a fan zone. That was kind of. Area or fence staff area where fans could buy Budweiser beer. And that was agreed upon with Budweiser with PFA with the local organizing committee. That's how they would handle. But beer was never going to be allowed in the stadiums. It was always going to be non-alcoholic beer.

Unless you're in a luxury box. And if you're in a luxury box, you can get cocktails all game. It just depends on a ratio. What a paper. And the story kept shifting. Right. So the one race that people were complaining about that because it wasn't good for families in Qatar to see drinking. So they were going to move these kind of like drinking areas or these

fan areas to less noticeable places. And then they were going to charge $18 American for. free. It was all because their people were going to charge 25 million. So Miro is like, I am going to go talk more about, I'm not going to take it this way any other way. And since it was a trip for a number of wrestlers, I guess I would go over

there, explain about the food that you were walking around the area where there were more than you can. Like was there nice point to the world's track, probably shouldn't have ever had the world cup here if Budweiser is one of their main sponsors. But that's, you know, that's putting it very modestly. So after that, after they said, okay, we're going to move the fanzones away from

the, you know, away to less noticeable low area, paint, you know, have these exorbitant prices to limit people getting thrown, right? It's hard to get thrown when beers are 18 bucks a piece. They said, okay, no, we're just doing away with it. There will not be any beer. And, you know, Qatar is a, they don't, like our hotel is dry. So the Mariah has beers down

the street. I know a lot of my colleagues have gone to the Mariah. There are, there are bars kind of a nightclubs that only allow men. To their drinking establishments and certainly not local, Katari women, like you have to produce an ID that proves that you're a tourist to go into some of places. There are like the dark ages. Right. There are some concerts that are

going online. Here that are like musical, you know, kind of like different activations around the world cup to buy the Qatar government to say, hey, look, Qatar is great. And those events, there is beer in line for sale. But again, if you were a Qatar a woman and your ID is local, you are not allowed to drink. In those venues and they have this small fine

print, you know, when you're trying to obtain tickets that say, you must provide identification to gain entrance into the event. So the local goal, the local women, if you're a woman who is here in a Qatar a citizen, you cannot go to these events. So we are also a couple of buildings away from the building for the Qatar's Olympic big. But they, you know, they want

to bring the Olympics here. And I would say that after what happened to Budweiser that perhaps this isn't a good idea. I would say that the I would, I would not recommend that the IOC does this because the story kept shifting. I mean, that was part of the deal, you know, at the beginning when the World Cup was awarded to Qatar and they, you know, things

started ramping up. It was like, everything is going to be just the same for everybody attending the World Cup. You can attend the World Cup and things will be just the same as going to a World Cup in any other country. And then slowly the rules. Get, you know, kind of shifted and Budweiser was one of them. And, you know, then they weren't allowing pride flags.

You know, all of these things that started shifting away from what was promised in the beginning. And, you know, I, I wrote before the event on what women could wear. And what the dress codes were. And it's interesting. Because they've been, I haven't heard of anyone being disallowed anywhere because of what they were wearing. Although there are some spaces that you go. If you're wearing a

sleeveless top, for example, you get, you get some looks, right? You get some, some kind of angry looks. But they're allowing, you know, what is going to be interesting is, you know, the, the promises made when they do these Olympic bids. And I mean, because it is illegal in Qatar, the homosexuality is illegal. You can't be gay in Qatar. And also you, there's no public displays

of affection. You can't, you know, you can't make out with your boyfriend on the street in Qatar. Because sex outside of marriage is also illegal. So it, for example, if you get, if you were a woman and you get raped. In Qatar, there's the possibility that you will get charged with a crime for sex outside of marriage. So, yes. And in fact, it happened to a

woman who was helping organize some World Cup Mexican woman. Excuse me. Who is helping organize some World Cup activities a couple, like I think two years ago. And she. She was arrested because she said she was sexually assaulted. And the person who she claimed with, you know, who she said sexually assaulted her said, no, it was consensual. So they charged her with a crime. That's a

concerning thing. Especially when you have the Olympics and the number of athletes are multifold of what is that a World Cup. Right. And also you have LGBTQ athletes. There are no, I don't know. There are no other athletes that are out soccer players at the World Cup. There are very few out soccer professional soccer players in the world. There are very, very few. But Olympic athletes,

there's lots and lots of out Olympic athletes. And what kind of promises the Qatar government would be able to provide those athletes about their safety about being able to display their skills. They're pride. If I was the IOC, I would be very, very wary of any promises that are made. Because as we saw with Budweiser, they might get rolled back. They're going to tell you what

you want to hear. And then once you pay all the money, they're going to go, oh, guess what? We just came in the 11th hour. Yeah. In the 11th hour. Let me ask you this. When I was in England, I was pretty shocked to learn there's no alcohol consumption in the actual seating bowl. So you can have it, you know, in the pub before the match

or you can have it in the concoversary. But you can't go into the seating bowl with it. Is it the same way there? You're not allowed to drink alcohol in the seating bowl? Or can you drink alcohol in the seating bowl? Oh, no, you can't drink alcohol here at all. Okay. Right. Oh, yeah. The use of the sweet. Yeah. In the sweets, they're letting you drink.

Right. And I think tickets in those sweets are like $19,000. Oh, my God. I'm not 100% sure if that's a charge money or US money. It, you know, no matter how you slated, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. And those are corporate, right? Those are all corporate kind of arrangements and sponsors and other VIPs. But in Qatar, there are some restaurants and

bars that are licensed to sell alcohol. But in general at restaurants, there's no alcohol, right? And in our hotel, there's no alcohol. There's no bar. You can go get a beer after a game. It's just, it's against the law. It's not, not legal. Wow. I'm like, drinking this is illegal and is a crime here. So if you get drunk, I go after what you've told me

in this conversation, I'd be afraid to leave my hotel room for fear of getting arrested for how I dress, any expressions or drinking or anything. Um, well, you know, honey, I don't drink. Right. I don't. I don't have any problem with it. It's all good. But, you know, I'm, and I'm, I have to be here professionally and representing. And the AP and my job is to

cover the games and not to make any political statements. But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to wear like a rainbow t-shirt. Right. For example, down the street. Before I let you go, like I said at the top of this conversation, you have covered many world cups, many Olympics, you know, the biggest events in the world. What's the media accommodations like there? Would

you say it's. What's the quality and it's as good as it's been in other events? Or are you running into the same kind of, oh, I just close this door and something fell apart. Or we're not getting the access we need, as you said earlier, you know, no one who's running this is really going on the record with anything. So you're kind of, uh, you know,

relegated to interviewing the coaches and the players and that's about it. But how would you rate the media accommodations and access at this event? Well, okay. So you're kind of, you know, so my room is fabulous. It's massive. I have two rooms. I have a kitchen. I have laundry, which is like, a blessing at one of these events. Oh, yeah, you're there for what? I'm on

three weeks. You know, I'm not only here for the group stage. Okay. And then I'm heading back to the states, but, um, and, so I'm only here for about 17 days. I think, um, I'm not sure if you can do that. I think, but usually like, uh, for like for the women's world top, I'm usually gone about 35 days. So, um, it's, this is awesome. Not

to have to do my laundry listing. It's like, this is great. Um, there are rules. All of these events in terms of access. So if you are a rights holder like Fox, at the Olympics, I'm going to be you get greater access to players and coaches and that kind of thing. We can't, for example, we can't videotape interviews with athletes, uh, after the games and then

publish them because we don't, AP is not a rights folder. So the only place that we can videotape interviews with athletes and coaches is at their like hotel out on the screen. Street and oftentimes teams are good about arranging those kind of things. So like, if you want to, if you want to sit down and talk to a Christian fuel a seconds, it's best to go

get him at the team hotel. Then, uh, then, then at the and videotape that it's best to get him at the team hotel rather than at the game. But, uh, I mean, for example, I covered Lewandowski in Mexico in the, uh, I mean, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. So, um, first game that I was here, Poland versus Mexico, Guillermo

Ocho, a memo, memo, Ocho, a stepped up huge and stopped a Lewandowski penalty kick. Um, just his second penalty kick on the international Miss penalty kick on the international stage ever. Right. So it was a huge deal. And, uh, afterwards, you know, Lewandowski came through the mix underneath the stadium after the game and, uh, then didn't speak in English, said a couple of words in Polish

and then kept, you know, and then disappeared. So there's not a lot of it's up to the athletes and the teams that what kind of access they want to give people and what they want to talk to people about. I mean, I guess that's the best way to answer your question. Um, it's just like in the United States, when you go to an NBA game, say

I go cover the trailblazers. If for whatever reason and this never, ever happens, Damien Lullard, I didn't want to talk to us after the game. He, it's his prerogative. He doesn't have to answer questions. Right. So it's the same thing here. Interesting. Anything that I didn't ask you, like observation of, uh, something that stands out to you. I mean, we covered a lot. And this has

been super insightful. So I really appreciate it. You know, I would like to say, I've been done this as many years as I've done this. I mean, I think this is my fifth, 35th year with the Associated Press. Wow. So I've been a rich, I've been a rich, yeah, I'm old. You're an OD. Yeah, I'm old, but haven't done this for as long as I've done

this. You know, there is this kind of perception that sports riders are like, you know, especially older ones like me are like crusty and like jaded and it's like, this is, you know, this is the worst cut world cup ever. And back in 1953. We had to walk a mile and the snow to get the roll. It's hard to watch these games and not just fall

in love. Yeah. You, you watched this sport for as long as I've watched this sport. And I'm still. Get chills. Right. When I see. Players when I see goals. You know, I, I do have to focus on my. Job in my writing, but you know, there are some things where I just look up and go, oh my God. You know, and I'm so lucky. I am

so lucky to do what I do for a living. I mean, I know that a lot of people would give their right arm to have my job. And I try never to lose sight of that that I am seeing. I'm seeing mess. Right. I get to see. I'm seeing messy in person. And I try not to lose sight of the fact of how blessed I am

in my career to be able to see these. And right. It's sports. Right. I get it. But it's a dream come true. What I get to do is a dream come true. And I think that I think a lot of people look at sports riders and don't think that that's true. But I think that in their hearts, a lot of sports riders are just like me.

Now you, you've covered the biggest in the past for many, many years, the biggest events. Like I said, you were in San Francisco and Barry Bond was in his heyday. You have done it at a high level for a long time. Annie Peterson, long time sports rider for the associated press, follow her on Twitter at Annie M. Peterson. This was so insightful. I really appreciate the

perspective from all the ground there and guitar be safe. And. Thank you. So I look forward to seeing you when you return to the States. Thank you. And I do want to plug AP news.com. That's the associated press forward facing websites. And also the AP news app. Please download it and put it on your phone. And you can follow. We have a whole world cup section

there that includes all of our rule top work. And so it's an awesome. It's an awesome resource. If you want to follow what's going on. Going on over here. Excellent. Thank you, Annie. Again, you're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back. This episode of sports business radio has brought to you by Underdog Fantasy, the fastest growing fantasy app ever released and the official gaming

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