Aston Villa’s new partnership with Visit Rwanda is the latest chapter in a much longer story about sport, image, power, and politics.

In this documentary-style episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg looks at how Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, has used global sport to reshape the country’s international image – from Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, and Atlético Madrid to the NBA, cycling, FIFA, and now Aston Villa.

The episode uses Aston Villa’s front-of-shirt deal with Visit Rwanda as a starting point to explore the political use of sport: how football shirts, elite clubs, international leagues, and major events can help promote tourism, investment, and national branding, while also raising questions about which stories are amplified and which are pushed aside.

You will hear from Carine Kanimba, the daughter of Paul Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the film Hotel Rwanda. Kanimba argues that Visit Rwanda is not only a tourism campaign, but a political branding project. Her testimony brings the discussion from sponsorship strategy into the lived reality of critics, political prisoners, and families who have challenged Kagame’s government.

This is a story about how sport can become part of a government’s international image – and why the meaning of a sponsorship is shaped not only by clubs and sponsors, but also by fans, critics, journalists, activists, and affected communities.

Host and narrator: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Voices by rexlambo & Lost in the ocean by Limujii

FIFA’s latest crisis has once again raised a fundamental question for international sport:

Who holds those in power to account when sport’s own systems fail?

In this episode of the Play the Game Podcast, you can hear a narrated version of the opinion piece “FIFA’s latest crisis shows why sport needs independent oversight”, written by Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game, and Jens Sejer Andersen, founder and senior advisor.

The piece responds to the recent crisis around Gianni Infantino’s plan to restructure FIFA’s commercial operations — a proposal that triggered protest, pressure, and internal criticism before it was withdrawn.

But the argument goes beyond FIFA and Infantino.

The episode looks at a recurring pattern in international sport: when sport’s own safeguards fail, it is often journalists, whistleblowers, survivors, lawyers, prosecutors, and public authorities who expose what the system did not confront.

From corruption and doping scandals to abuse, match manipulation, and other integrity breaches, Play the Game argues that internal reform is no longer enough.

The episode presents the case for permanent and genuinely independent oversight in international sport — and introduces ClearingSport, Play the Game’s proposal for an independent international entity able to counter crime, corruption, and other integrity breaches in sport.

Host and narrator: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Authors: Stanis Elsborg and Jens Sejer Andersen

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Voices by rexlambo & I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley

Online sports betting is often presented as entertainment – a fast-growing industry built around odds, apps, sponsorships, and fan engagement.

But behind parts of that industry lies a much darker story.

In this episode, you can hear investigative journalist Lindsey Kennedy expose how illegal online gambling networks in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines have developed into sprawling criminal empires built on human trafficking, forced labour, torture, corruption, and organised crime.

Thousands of people from around the world are lured by fake job offers and end up trapped in compounds where online gambling and scam operations thrive.

As these compounds expand, they have even become entangled in armed conflict – turning parts of the global betting industry into something far more dangerous than a question of gambling regulation.

The episode also connects the story to international sport.

According to Kennedy, companies linked to these criminal networks have been able to sponsor major European football clubs, using sport to clean their image, build legitimacy, and move closer to the mainstream.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Speaker: Lindsey Kennedy, investigative journalist and research director at the Eyewitness Project

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Voices by rexlambo

Ten years ago, Gianni Infantino was elected FIFA president with a promise of reform, transparency, accountability, and a “new FIFA”.

At the time, world football was still shaking from one of the biggest corruption scandals in sports history. Senior FIFA officials had been arrested, investigators were uncovering bribery and money laundering schemes, and journalists and whistleblowers had exposed a system built on loyalty, money, and power.

In this episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg looks back at Gianni Infantino’s first decade as FIFA president and asks a simple question:

What kind of FIFA did he actually build?

The episode traces FIFA’s journey from the corruption scandal of 2015 into the Infantino era - looking at reform promises, politics, weakened independent scrutiny, and FIFA’s growing proximity to political power.

It also explores Infantino’s relationships with Vladimir Putin, Qatar’s leadership, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Donald Trump - and asks what these relationships reveal about FIFA’s direction under his presidency.

Along the way, the episode revisits the role of investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and reform figures who challenged FIFA’s culture of impunity, including Andrew Jennings.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley & Cold Case by Riverside

In this episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg speaks with investigative journalist Karim Zidan about Donald Trump’s long and increasingly political relationship with sport.

For decades, Trump has used boxing, professional wrestling, golf, mixed martial arts, and football to build his brand, cultivate power, and place himself at the centre of the spectacle.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has attended major sporting events, signed executive orders on sport, created White House task forces for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and surrounded himself with a network of sports executives, athletes, influencers, and political operators.

Karim Zidan explains how sport has become part of Trump’s political infrastructure - a space where strength, masculinity, nationalism, loyalty, grievance, and entertainment are turned into political power.

The conversation looks at Trump’s relationship with combat sports, from boxing and professional wrestling to the UFC; the role of figures such as Dana White, Joe Rogan, Casey Wasserman, and others.

Karim Zidan is an investigative journalist who writes about the intersection of sport, politics, power, authoritarianism, and human rights. He is also the author of the forthcoming book The Ultimate Strongmen, which examines how mixed martial arts has become a powerful tool for political agendas, propaganda, and control.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Guest: Karim Zidan, investigative journalist and author

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Lost in the ocean by limujii & Cold Case by Riverside

This story is written by Monika Streule for Play the Game and narrated by Stanis Elsborg.

In this episode, urban anthropologist Monika Streule takes us to Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, where 2026 World Cup-related projects, infrastructure upgrades, and urban development are colliding with local struggles over water, land, housing, public space, and environmental protection.

In Mexico City, residents near the Azteca Stadium continue to resist projects they fear will increase water scarcity, displacement, and gentrification.

In Monterrey, the build-up to the World Cup has intersected with long-running conflicts over public land, air pollution, water access, and the protection of rivers.

And in Guadalajara, the Akron Stadium and its surroundings near La Primavera forest raise questions about urban expansion, wildfire risks, pressure on water resources, and the limits of sustainability branding.

The episode looks beyond the global spectacle and asks what happens locally when the world’s biggest football tournament arrives.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Author: Monika Streule, urban anthropologist and professor of social anthropology based in Mexico City

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Cold Case by Riverside

Jules Boykoff: Sportswashing, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, and the 2028 Olympic Games

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in North America, Jules Boykoff asks us to look beyond the spectacle.

For millions of fans, the tournament will bring football, drama, beauty, and emotion. But behind the spectacle lies another story – one about power, money, political prestige, and who gets to use sport, and for what purpose.

In this episode, you will hear Jules Boykoff speak about sportswashing, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Boykoff is a political scientist, author, former professional football player, and one of the most critical voices on the politics of sport and mega-events.

His analysis focuses on the concept of sportswashing: how political leaders, states, and powerful institutions use sport to build prestige, stoke nationalism, and deflect attention from chronic problems at home.

In the case of the 2026 World Cup, Boykoff turns his attention to FIFA, Donald Trump, and the political and commercial machinery surrounding the tournament.

But his argument does not stop with football. Two years after the World Cup, the Olympic Games will come to Los Angeles – raising many of the same questions about power, profit, public money, policing, displacement, and political image-making.

The episode also comes as Boykoff releases his new book, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Speaker: Jules Boykoff, political scientist, author, and former professional football player

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley.

This story is written by journalist Steve Menary for Play the Game and narrated by Stanis Elsborg.

Is FIFA moving into the betting industry faster than it can protect the integrity of the game?

Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, football’s global governing body is deepening its relationship with betting operators, prediction markets, data companies, and streaming rights - and, on June 9, FIFA announced Kraken as an official crypto exchange supporter of the tournament.

The result is a rapidly expanding commercial landscape where new betting opportunities are emerging not only around the World Cup itself, but also around low-level matches streamed on FIFA+.

Some of those matches involve amateur or poorly paid players in countries where online gambling is illegal. Yet they can still end up on global betting markets, raising questions about offshore operators, cryptocurrency, weak regulation, and match-fixing risks.

This episode looks at how FIFA’s commercial partnerships are bringing thousands of matches closer to betting markets, why sports integrity experts are concerned about prediction markets ahead of the 2026 World Cup, and whether football’s systems of protection and accountability can keep up.

This is a story about money, governance, betting, and the integrity of football – from the biggest World Cup ever staged to some of the smallest leagues in the game.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Author: Steve Menary, journalist

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Cold Case by Riverside