Human rights group launches podcast exposing how regimes manipulate sport

The Human Rights Foundation has launched ‘Power Plays’, an investigative series tracking how authoritarian regimes from Mussolini to Saudi Arabia use global football for sportswashing.

NEW YORK: Ahead of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has launched ‘Power Plays’, a new five-part investigative podcast series exposing how authoritarian regimes manipulate sport to launder reputations, expand influence, and tighten their grip on power.

Season one traces the autocratic history of the tournament, spanning Benito Mussolini’s Italy in 1934 and Argentina’s military junta in 1978, through to Russia (2018), Qatar (2022), and the upcoming tournaments in Morocco (2030) and Saudi Arabia (2034).

The first episode, titled The Fascist World Cup, was released yesterday. Subsequent episodes will be broadcast on Thursdays leading up to the World Cup kickoff on June 11, 2026.

In a statement to Twentytwo13, the Human Rights Foundation said the series blends narrative storytelling with exclusive interviews featuring leading football historians and high-profile dissidents, including:

The premier episode focuses on the 1934 World Cup in Italy. As the host nation lifted the trophy, Mussolini used the tournament to manufacture nationalism and reshape international perceptions of his regime.

Mussolini understood that 20th-century power was no longer won by military might alone; it was secured through imagery, emotion, and collective experience.

“The World Cup offered precisely that… It was not just a sporting competition. It was political strategy,” historian Paul Baxa said on the programme.

The series is hosted by Karim Zidan, an award-winning investigative journalist specialising in the intersection of sport and politics.

His work has featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy, as well as in documentaries for HBO and CNN. He is also the founder of Sports Politika and the author of an upcoming book with Simon & Schuster, due for release in 2027.

Click here to listen to the podcast.