The Global Story

In many countries around the world, football is the major obsession - but the same can't be said about the US. The NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL have a longer history and dominate the media coverage, the sponsorship deals and the national conversation.
But has this World Cup changed that - particularly now President Trump has got involved? The BBC's Lee James tells the story of how soccer has made big strides in the country since it first hosted the men's World Cup in 1994. The women's team is a dominant powerhouse, and Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami has boosted interest in the men's domestic league, the MLS.
Among the people we hear from are former head of US soccer Alan Rothenberg, the USA international footballers Eric Wynalda and Heather O'Reilly, MLS vice-president Dan Courtemanche, and South Korea captain Son Heung-Min, who made the move to the MLS from the English Premier League.
This is a bonus episode from More thna the you more than the men’s football World Cup - the new teams, standout stars, trends and fandoms shaping the tournament in ways the stats don’t show. With 48 teams competing across Mexico, the US and Canada, BBC World Service promises to take you deeper - from the group stages to the final. Search for More than the Score wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

The coffin of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s former supreme leader, killed by Israel in February, has been on a procession tour this week of holy sites in Iraq and Iran. Huge crowds gathered wherever it went, the coffin was passed over a sea of hands, and three of Khamenei’s sons wept over the coffin in Tehran.
Meanwhile, the US and Iran have launched new strikes throughout the week. The peace between the US and Iran is fragile, at best. At worst, it could be over. We speak to Parham Ghobadi, from the BBC’s Persian Service.
(Photo: Burial of Iran's late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Mashhad. Credit: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters)
Producers: Cat Farnsworth and Aron Keller
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins

Citizen Vigilante is a low-budget action thriller starring actor Armie Hammer as a vigilante who hunts down migrant criminals in Europe. The movie faced a muted reception - until Elon Musk posted it to his hundreds of millions of followers on X.com.
We speak to journalist Mike Wendling to understand why this film has become a lightning rod for political and cultural debate, and what its sudden rise reveals about the far-reaching influence of the world’s richest man.
Producers: Aron Keller and Hannah Moore
Executive producer: Bridget Harney
Photo: Elon Musk at the Viva Technology conference, June 16, 2023. Credit: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo.
Mix: Travis Evans
Video journalist: Matt Pintus
Senior news editor: China Collins

World leaders are gathering in Ankara, Turkey for a Nato summit, despite tensions between Donald Trump and Nato allies over financial contributions and the Iran war. The US president hasn’t hidden his consternation with European leaders, and has suggested he is only attending ‘out of respect to President Erdogan’.
Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under criticism for a crackdown on dissent in the country, which has led to over 200 arrests of activists, journalists and public figures in the lead up to the summit. So how has he taken on such a pivotal role within Nato?
We speak to BBC correspondent and presenter, Mark Lowen, who was based in Istanbul for five years, before he was detained and banned from the country while on a reporting trip last year.
Producers: Valerio Esposito and Sam Chantarasak
Executive producer: Bridget Harney
Mix: Travis Evans
Digital producer: Tom Bage
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: President Trump shakes hands with Turkish President Erdogan at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, July 7, 2026. Credit: Emrah Gurel/Pool via Reuters

Donald Trump has revealed that he personally called Gianni Infantino, the head of Fifa, to ask him to review the red card given to United States' star player Folarin Balogun. The striker had been given a one-match ban after a hard tackle against Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the punishment was suspended in time for the US to play their final 16 match against Belgium yesterday.
The decision has been widely condemned across the football world, with European footballing organisation UEFA, calling it, "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable", and former Fifa president Sepp Blatter writing on X, “Redcards are not overturned by political phone calls… Football must never become a playground for political power.”Infantino has insisted the decision was made independently by Fifa’s “independent judicial bodies”.
On today’s show, Tristan is joined by BBC football issues correspondent Dale Johnson and New Yorker staff writer Sam Knight, to explain the scandal, and how Infantino’s governance of Fifa has brought football and politics closer together.
Producers: Hannah Moore and Xandra Ellin
Mix: Travis Evans
Video journalist: Matt Pintus
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: Folarin Balogun of the U.S. looks dejected as he applauds fans after the match following their elimination from the World Cup, July 6, 2026. Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Blake Dahlin