Fin vs History

Snapshot · Fin vs History

Hanging Out The Blatter it | The History of The World Cup (Part 4/4)

Explore episode Jun 18, 2026

Where this was said

Chuck Blazer

At 28:38 · chapter starts 25:24

The 1998 expansion to 32 teams opens the door to a new era of corruption, and the hosts introduce their star character: Chuck Blazer, CONCACAF delegate, boisterous New Yorker, and a man so visually gluttonous that his physical excess perfectly mirrors his financial one. Horatio reads out the key biographical details — the $6,000/month Trump Tower cat apartment, the decade of unpaid IRS taxes, the hidden keychain recording device used at the 2012 London Olympics — with increasing delight. Fin traces the structural shift: earlier FIFA corruption had been facilitated by fascist regimes and military dictatorships, a 'gentleman's corruption' that benefited countries. The new era is about people personally lining their pockets in a globalised brotherhood of graft. Blazer is the emblem of that shift — a man so corrupt he eventually ended up accidentally doing the right thing by betraying the entire organisation, purely for personal gain.

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