Shadowing Practice: Why this World Cup is chaos - Learn English Speaking with Video

It's the day before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and FIFA's president Gianni Infantino has something he wants to say.

Today I feel gay.

Today I feel disabled.

He keeps going.

Today I feel a migrant worker. And going.

At school I was bullied because I had red hair.

For nearly an hour.

Plus I was Italian, so imagine.

The media called it a bizarre tirade, an unhinged speech, and a PR own goal that will be hard to beat.

It's the most famous of many PR own goals Infantino has made in his 10 years as FIFA president.

He once also said the World Cup can solve Europe's migrant crisis.

To give hope to Africans so that they don't need to cross the Mediterranean in order to find maybe better life,

but more probably death in the sea.

And he claimed the Rwandan genocide inspired his career.

And how this country came back up is inspiring.

So I certainly couldn't give up.

I continued to campaign.

I was elected FIFA president.

But what made seem like blunders are actually, in a strange way, part of Infantino's strategy.

A strategy that has made him one of the most powerful leaders in FIFA's history.

And to pull off this 2026 World Cup, he's had to crank his strategy up to 11.

The ILC opened an investigation into wearing that hat.

Infantino has defended awarding its inaugural Peace Prize to Donald Trump.

Infantino has taken every step imaginable and unimaginable to please and appease Donald Trump.

He is quite good at getting his way and quite a good political machinator, always talking out of different sides of his mouth depending who he's speaking to.

He's very skilled at that.

So how did Gianni Infantino become the most powerful man in football?

And how has he made this World Cup unlike any other?

The world's most popular sport has been plunged into turmoil.

Gianni Infantino's rise to the top began in 2015, right as FIFA hit rock bottom.

Several officials from FIFA were arrested today.

FIFA officials were charged with racketeering, bribery, wire fraud and money laundering.

Its president resigned in disgrace.

FIFA also lost $360 million after sponsors fled.

To many football fans and journalists, it was a long time coming.

If you were to say, what do you know FIFA for, it was a byword for corruption.

Adam Crafton writes for The Athletic.

Now Infantino's not involved in any of that stuff whatsoever, but he was one of the beneficiaries.

In 2016, FIFA's 209 member associations convened to elect a new president.

But they didn't choose one of the prominent candidates, like the head of the Asian Confederation or a former FIFA vice president.

Instead they chose the more obscure one.

He was a bit of a technocrat kind of figure.

Most football fans would have known him as the slightly kind of bumbling guy who would be on the stage

when they would do the draw for the UEFA Champions League.

Now you look over there to Giorgio, you can have a chat, because I'm going to shuffle this a little bit so that we are sure that you cannot see.

But it was a smart choice because it let FIFA put on a fresh face.

And Ventino promoted reforms, like limiting FIFA's presidency to three terms, and disclosing executive pay.

And he skipped FIFA's private jet for a budget airline on his first trip.

We have shown that we are listening to the fans, to the players, to football.

We are listening to football.

Infantino was able to lure sponsors back.

And at the next World Cup in Russia, FIFA made $4.6 billion, a record amount.

Infantino used that money to buy loyalty within FIFA.

He gave an extra $5 million to each member association who governed football on the national level.

The extra money was appreciated by the wealthy members in Europe and North America, but it made a huge difference for the less wealthy members, largely in Africa and Asia.

Cape Verde renovated this field.

Bhutan held more youth programs, and many countries invested more in women's football, something Infantino put extra emphasis on.

These members became Infantino's base of support.

And in 2019, they helped elect him to a second term.

At the next World Cup in Qatar, FIFA made more money and re-elected Infantino again.

Meanwhile, Infantino expanded FIFA's tournaments.

He led the effort to expand the Women's World Cup from 24 teams to 32, then a tournament for professional clubs from 7 clubs to 32,

and finally the Men's World Cup from 32 teams to 48, beginning in 2026.

More teams meant more games that FIFA could sell tickets and TV rights to.

It was also another way for Infantino to buy support.

Because more teams also meant more members could make money from the tournament and have him to thank for it.

They have a one-member, one-vote system.

So the more nations who believe they have access to tournaments that are going to bring them revenue,

the outcome is that that is better for Gianni Infantino when the next election cycle comes along.

But once Infantino bought enough loyalty within FIFA, he began rolling back those reforms.

He ousted FIFA's ethics officials, secured backing to extend his presidency past the three-term limit, and rebuilt the system that enabled FIFA's past corruption.

Infantino also started to make major decisions seemingly on his own, like expanding that Club World Cup.

There was no real explanation of where that came from, who was asking for this, why it happened the way it has, how the money was allocated.

FIFA has become a very centralized decision-making process.

Infantino was making money hand over fist for FIFA, but he was no longer acting like its humble servant.

He was acting like its king.

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Infantino wasn't president when FIFA awarded World Cups to Russia and Qatar.

But he seemed to love working closely with their leaders.

In the lead up to 2018, he made appearances with dictator Vladimir Putin, where they laughed, kicked a ball around, and said nice things to each other.

Russia is absolutely ready to celebrate a summer of festivities here in this beautiful country.

Infantino caught a lot of criticism for this.

But, to be fair, working with the host government is a necessary part of his job.

You have to have a relationship with the host government.

Whichever country you're in, there's certain things you need.

So, of course, they should be engaging.

I think the question is whether it's been an overindulgence and frankly over the top.

It started feeling over the top in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

100

As early as 2017, human rights groups reported that Qatar was abusing migrant workers building at stadiums.

101

And journalists wrote of workers dying of heat stress.

102

But Infantino stuck very close to the Qatari monarchy.

103

He used one of their private jets, moved to Qatar's capital, Doha.

104

And on the eve of the tournament, he gave an extraordinary speech.

105

Today I feel Qatari.

106

Today I feel Arab.

107

Today I feel African.

108

Today I feel a migrant worker.

109

I'm not really a migrant worker, but I feel like them because I know what it means to be discriminated.

110

Infantino was shifting the blame from Qatar to its critics.

111

You know what this is?

112

This is racism.

113

This is pure racism.

114

Many in the West found Infantino's speech absurd, but it wasn't really meant for them.

115

It played well with his audiences in the Middle East and potentially the global south as well.

116

I think there's a lot of parts of the world who don't really like the Europeans

117

and Americans lecturing them about human rights abuses about who's in the right and who's in the wrong.

118

Infantino was demonstrating to his base that he would do anything to back them.

119

And over the next few years, Infantino cultivated relationships with other world leaders, especially in Africa and Asia.

120

He formed a close alliance with Saudi Arabia's monarchy.

121

There is a double standard here, which I really don't understand.

122

And defended Putin after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

123

I hope that we can bring back as well Russia in the football landscape because this would mean that everything is solved.

124

These relationships helped Infantino secure support and helped FIFA raise more money.

125

But they didn't do anything to help Infantino or FIFA's reputation.

126

He provokes very, very strong feelings from a lot of football fans and not always good ones.

127

Now Infantino's grand strategy is culminating at the 2026 World Cup.

128

Of course, it's the biggest ever, spanning the US, Mexico and Canada, and including 48 teams — a few countries for the first time.

129

And it's no surprise it'll likely make FIFA more money than ever — possibly $11 billion.

130

And as usual, Infantino is going above and beyond to back the hosts, particularly this one.

131

Infantino began wooing Trump during Trump's first turn.

132

I am lucky enough in my life to come across some of the most talented athletes in soccer.

133

And President Trump is made of the same sort of fiber.

134

And as soon as Trump won his second term, Infantino was all over him.

135

He showed up at Mar-a-Lago at the inauguration, chuckling in the back row.

136

Infantino also met Trump in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, and by my count has visited the White House at least five times in the last year.

137

Infantino is even going to things that have nothing to do with sports, like a summit about peace in the Middle East.

138

And Trump's so-called Board of Peace, where he donned a Trump hat.

139

Most infamously, Infantino made up a new award just for Trump, the FIFA Peace Prize, something Adam says was news to the rest of FIFA.

140

It really does appear to have been one man deciding to do that.

141

On the one hand, who cares, right?

142

It's a prize.

143

The other side is, that is arguably one of the things now that FIFA is most known for, reputationally, in the United States.

144

And that's the first problem Infantino is running into.

145

The more he appears with Trump, the more Trump becomes the headline.

146

When Infantino tried to announce a visa program for World Cup ticket holders, Trump changed the subject.

147

Trendy, Aragua, the gang, they're worse than ever.

148

They're killers, they massacre people, they cut them up into pieces and they bury them.

149

Then threatened to relocate World Cup games in cities run by his opponents.

150

If we think there's going to be the sign of any trouble, I would ask Johnny to move that to a different city.

151

Yeah, I think safety and security is the number one priority.

152

And at another football event, Trump brought up transgender athletes.

153

Men playing in women's sports.

154

Could a woman make your team, fellas?

155

Tell me, you think?

156

From my perspective as someone who covers this, it's brilliant.

157

Every day there is something to write about, but there's also times where Infantino's in the Oval Office and kind of you're squirming for him.

158

And the second problem is that it's not really clear that this pandering has won Trump over.

159

Trump called Infantino a piece of work for refusing to kick Iran out of the tournament.

160

And as of April, Trump's yet to agree to halt ICE raids in host cities.

161

Now city governments are opting out of FIFA events and picking fights about costs.

162

Infantino turned to politics to supersize the FIFA World Cup.

163

But now it's politics that many say is bringing the World Cup down.

164

I think it is going to be a story across the country,

165

and particularly if Infantino keeps going out publicly and saying we're going to make $11 billion. But here's the thing.

166

At every World Cup I can remember, scandals dominate the headlines until the first game starts.

167

Then by the finale, everyone's forgotten and FIFA moves on to the next one.

168

Gianni Infantino knows that better than anyone.

169

Those fans who come to the stadium, they just want to spend 90 minutes without having to think about anything else.

170

And he can probably count on it happening again.

171

The next men's World Cup in 2030 will be hosted by six countries across three continents.

172

The 2031 Women's World Cup will be in four countries and include 48 teams for the first time.

173

Infantino also bent the rules to award the 2034 World Cup to one of his staunchest allies, Saudi Arabia.

174

And he intends to see these tournaments through.

175

He recently announced he's running for a fourth term as president.

176

At the moment there's no competitor for it, but if someone wants to come forward, he needs those federations to realize he's made them as much money as possible.

177

Infantino was elected to rebuild FIFA from ruin.

178

He made it bigger and richer than ever.

179

But whether he's improved FIFA's reputation is another story.

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of four FIFA World Cup videos.

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So look forward to more.

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We're gonna be publishing every two weeks.

183

We've also got the conversation going over on newpress.com.

184

That's a new platform started by Johnny, Kristoff, myself.

185

It's a place where you can ask me questions.

186

I can ask you questions.

187

You can help with my reporting and a lot more.

188

So head over to newpress.com to check that out today.

189

I'll see you in two weeks for another World Cup story.

190

See you then.

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159 zinnen

Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 190 zinnen en 2436 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 15:12. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 160 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. Slechts 81% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
migrant zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈmaɪɡɹənt/	migrant, migrante
worker zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈwɝ.kɚ/	arbeider, arbeidster
expand werkwoord	/ɪkˈspænd/	vergroten, uitbreiden
sponsor zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈspɒn.səː/	sponsor
defend werkwoord	/dɪˈfɪnd/	verdedigen
reputation zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/	faam, naam
solve werkwoord	/sɒlv/	oplossen
journalist zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈd͡ʒɝnəlɪst/	dagboekschrijver
racism zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈɹeɪsɪzm̩/	racisme
loyalty zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈlɔɪəlti/	trouw, loyaliteit
presidency zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈpɹɛzɪdənsi/	voorzitterschap
athlete zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈæθ.liːt/	atleet
elect werkwoord	/ɪˈlɛkt/	kiezen, uitkiezen
headline zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈhɛd.laɪn/	kop
rebuild werkwoord	/ɹiːˈbɪld/	heropbouwen, wederopbouwen

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Betekenis
bring up werkwoord	opvoeden
check out werkwoord	onderzoeken
come across werkwoord	overkomen
give up werkwoord	zich overgeven
go out werkwoord	naar buiten gaan
hand over werkwoord	overhandigen
look forward to werkwoord	uitkijken naar, zich verheugen op

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	has made · has defended · has taken
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	was bullied · was elected · has been plunged
Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding	guy who would · someone who covers

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 22 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, didn't, I'm. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, ethics /ˈɛθ.ɪks/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, corruption /kəˈɹʌpʃən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, presidency /ˈpɹɛzɪdənsi/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als migrant, worker, expand.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

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