{"id":357279,"date":"2026-07-10T03:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/a-world-cup-of-politics-w-karim-zidan\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T03:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:30:28","slug":"a-world-cup-of-politics-w-karim-zidan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=357279","title":{"rendered":"A World Cup of Politics w\/ Karim Zidan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-418034\">\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<p>Award-winning journalist and author Karim Zidan joins CounterPunch to discuss his work at SportsPolitika, where he covers the intersection of politics and sports, money and power. Host Eric Draitser chats with Zidan about the dark side of the World Cup, from its fascist roots to its decades-long support for right-wing dictatorships. They also cover Zidan\u2019s early work covering the rise of MMA and the far-right fascist culture that has grown up around it. From UFC at the White House to Saudi money buying off Egyptian football clubs, Zidan helps shine a light on the real stories behind the sports and entertainment.<\/p>\n<p><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"A World Cup of Politics w\/ Karim Zidan\"\/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2026-07-09T13:26:27-04:00\"\/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\"\/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT1H07M01S\"\/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"Award-winning journalist and author Karim Zidan joins CounterPunch to discuss his work at SportsPolitika, where he covers the intersection of politics and sports, money and power. Host Eric Draitser chats with Zidan about the dark side of the World C...\"\/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/media.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/content.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/KarimZidanEP.mp3\"\/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"122.7\"\/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.blubrry.com\/?media_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.blubrry.com%2Fcounterpunch_radio%2Fmedia.blubrry.com%2Fcounterpunch_radio%2Fcontent.blubrry.com%2Fcounterpunch_radio%2FKarimZidanEP.mp3&amp;modern=1&amp;podcast_link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.counterpunch.org%2F2026%2F07%2F09%2Fa-world-cup-of-politics-w-karim-zidan%2F#mode-Light&amp;border-000000&amp;progress-000000\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"165\" frameborder=\"0\" id=\"blubrryplayer-1\" class=\"blubrryplayer\" title=\"Blubrry Podcast Player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/media.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/content.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/KarimZidanEP.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?powerpress_pinw=418034-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/media.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/content.blubrry.com\/counterpunch_radio\/KarimZidanEP.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"KarimZidanEP.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Award-winning journalist and author Karim Zidan joins CounterPunch to discuss his work at SportsPolitika, where he covers the intersection of politics and sports, money and power. Host Eric Draitser chats with Zidan about the dark side of the World Cup, from its fascist roots to its decades-long support for right-wing dictatorships. They also cover Zidan\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140818],"tags":[618,143069,6692,2379,178532],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-357279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-counterpunch-radio-podcasts","tag-cup","tag-karim","tag-politics","tag-world","tag-zidan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A World Cup of Politics w\/ Karim Zidan - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=357279\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A World Cup of Politics w\/ Karim Zidan - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Award-winning journalist and author Karim Zidan joins CounterPunch to discuss his work at SportsPolitika, where he covers the intersection of politics and sports, money and power. Host Eric Draitser chats with Zidan about the dark side of the World Cup, from its fascist roots to its decades-long support for right-wing dictatorships. 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