The Beautiful Game: How Soccer Can Elevate American Global Engagement

On the eve of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, panelists examine how soccer can influence America’s role in the world, shaping U.S. soft power and global engagement.

CHANG: Welcome, everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello. Welcome to the Council on Foreign Relations. My name is Ben Chang. I’m the vice president of global communications here, and I’m just so excited to see all of you. I’m so excited for the conversation we have coming up. I’m so excited for the World Cup. I’m so excited for these housekeeping announcements I’m about to make. (Cheers.)

So, on that note—yes, it’s just what we all live for. On that note, this meeting is on the record, and we have members joining both in person and virtually. For those attending virtually, to ask a question during the Q&A period, click on the “raise hand” icon on your Zoom window. When you are called on to speak, please accept the “unmute now” prompt, then proceed with your name and affiliation, followed by your question. Your video will remain off, but your microphone will be unmuted. For those attending in person, a reminder to silence your mobile devices. If you are called on during Q&A, please stand, make sure to speak into the microphone, and state your name and affiliation before asking your question.

So, just a quick word as we get started about how this came together. And so the first thing I want to do is thank the many people who helped make this rather special CFR event come together, starting with Carrie Bueche, our director of Washington Meetings, who’s just standing outside here to make sure things run well; and the entire Meetings team, led by Nancy Bodurtha. I want to thank the spectacular Events team and AV crew. And a special shout-out to CFR’s creative director, Lucky Benson, who designed our amazing retro throwback CFR soccer logo.

I want to acknowledge the wide range of attendees we have today, CFR members and friends of the Council, including representatives from the embassies of Australia, Germany, and Spain; from the Washington Spirit, our hometown NWSL championship team; the State Department Office of Sports Diplomacy; and, of course, the White House Task Force on the World Cup; Telemundo, the Spanish-language broadcast partner for the FIFA World Cup; Accelerate and the U.S. Soccer Foundation, an amazing nonprofit doing great work across the country. A special thank you to CFR member Vincent Indelicato, whose passion for the sport is infectious, and who helped make many of the connections that led to this conversation.

And this conversation is about sports and so much more. It’s about passion as a nation, community on a global scale, and engagement and impact now and into the future. So, on that note, let’s bring up our panelists. (Applause.)

I should note that our representatives are busy on Capitol Hill doing the work of congressional representatives, and so will be here just a little bit later.

CARTER: Their jobs. They’re doing their jobs. (Laughter.)

VEGA: That’s right. Thank you, Ben. Thank you for inviting us. And good evening, everybody. Welcome to this conversation, and welcome this evening to the Council on Foreign Relations meeting. It’s called “The Beautiful Game: How Soccer Can Elevate American Global Engagement.”

I’m Javier Vega. I’m a Washington-based correspondent for Telemundo network. I cover the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, and everything in between. So you might imagine I’ve been very busy lately, and this month even more because Telemundo is the exclusive home in the Spanish language for La Copa del Mundo, so I will be also covering several matches in Philadelphia and New Jersey. So it’s a very exciting time for us at Telemundo, and I’m also very, very happy to be with you this evening.

And as you know, we have a wonderful panel this evening with us: Haley Carter, president of soccer operations at the Washington Spirit; thank you, Haley. Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026. And we will be joined in just minutes by Congresswoman Kathy Castor, U.S. representative from Florida and cochair of the Congressional Soccer Caucus; also Congressman Darin LaHood, U.S. representative from Illinois and cochair of the Congressional Soccer Caucus, that will be joining us in just some minutes.

But let’s begin. Haley, I want to start with you. You’re probably the one among us that knows more about soccer. So I think this is a very general question, but an important one just to establish, you know, a starting point for our conversation: How important is soccer in the world? And how important is it in America today?

CARTER: Well, first, thank you to the Council for the invite to speak tonight. I really appreciate it.

I think that’s an excellent question. And just a little bit about my background, so I’m president of soccer operations for the Washington Spirit, but I played professionally in the NWSL. I moved into coaching. I coached collegiately and in the youth space in the Olympic Development Program, and then I moved to coaching internationally. And I coached with the Afghanistan women’s national team for multiple years, the Antigua and Barbuda women’s national team for multiple years, and then did some scouting and recruiting work for Fiji. So I have worked in countries, you know, between Central Asia, the Caribbean, Oceania, and I’ve seen the power of football to change lives. And I’m just going to tell you guys I will use “soccer” and “football” interchangeably. (Laughter.) Just depends on what market I’m talking about.

But what I—what I love about football is that I think it is the closest thing that we have to a common human language and it belongs to no one, which makes it a powerful tool that can impact and permit engagement in many ways that formal diplomacy often cannot. And I think work with Afghanistan, both as a coach and then, you know, in the years that followed when we were evacuating—and Kat is in the room; she was part of that effort as well—you know, you can see that firsthand, football as a vehicle for that level of engagement and the ability to accomplish things that don’t matter what flag is flying. It’s about finding community and solidarity on a global level.

And in America in particular, what I love is that the U.S. is participating in football and we’re engaging on a platform that we didn’t build. Football is a global game. And so, for America and the U.S. to reach a place of I would say maturity and reciprocity, where we are taking as much as we are giving in a particular context, is important and is exciting. And you know, having the World Cup here now, you know, when you think about the scale of it, is unprecedented, right? We’ve got forty-eight teams and a hundred and four matches; sixteen host cities, eleven of them being in the United States. You know, I was a kid. I went to matches in the ’94 World Cup in Dallas. That is nothing compared to the scale of the World Cup that’s happening in 2026. So very exciting time. And you know, to see global excellence locally here in the U.S. is going to be really exciting,

VEGA: But also, I think soccer is gaining ground in the United States. I was reading a YouGov poll the other day, and what they say is that especially young Americans are more and more interested. Twenty-two percent of them between 18- and 34-year-old, they say they actively follow soccer. So how do you explain this momentum that is driven by the new generations?

CARTER: You know, eighteen to thirty-four is even old, I think. I have a 14-year-old son, and you know, he’s grown up watching the world’s leagues on his phone. He’s got a favorite team in every league. He follows Galatasaray in Turkey, Juventus in Italy, Man City, Corinthians in Brazil. You know, he’s very, very serious, and he can tell you everything there ever is to know about any of those teams. And I’ve tried explaining to him you get one team—(laughter)—who is it going to be. But the point is, is that the younger generation, this concept that soccer is a foreign idea is dead. And you know, the technology and the influence that it’s had on young generations and the access that it’s given—you know, when I was growing up, I am a Chelsea fan. I am a Chelsea fan because Chelsea was one of the three clubs that you could watch on NBC on the weekends when Premier League was playing. And so I grew up a Chelsea fan. That is my one team, outside of the Washington Spirit or any team that I’m leading at any given time. But I think that technology, and the accessibility, and the impact that that’s having on the young generation is what’s driving the growth of the sport.

And the other thing, too, is that it’s highly accessible. Soccer in the United States is gender equitable. It’s rooted in immigrant communities. And so I think the growth that you’re seeing is because of the accessibility of it. Now, obviously, in the United States we still have a pay-to-play model, which is a problem. And I think that’s something that we could learn from the rest of the world, is how to provide more opportunities for young people to engage in football and what that looks like. But as far as following the game is concerned and having an awareness of the game, yeah, the concept that soccer is foreign is dead for sure.

VEGA: Yeah, and that’s a very important change.

Mr. Giuliani, let me go to you. I know you’re very busy, especially these days. Thank you for being here and thank you for your time.

GIULIANI: Of course.

VEGA: I interviewed you back in February in your office.

GIULIANI: Was that February this year? I mean, time is a time warp right now. It could have been five years ago or whatever it was. (Laughs.)

VEGA: I know. That happens—that happens to me too.

But we talked a lot about everything related to the preparations. So I think you will also be making news today, because we’re just so close to it.

GIULIANI: Yeah.

VEGA: So can you update us how preparations are going? Are we ready?

GIULIANI: Yeah, forty-eight hours until the kickoff. It’s pretty amazing that it’s here when you think about all the work that’s been put in over the last year-plus year of the White House Task Force of the federal government, of all the state and local governments that are involved in this, over 400 different law enforcement organizations around the United States of America alone, not to mention Canada and Mexico. It’s really, really been amazing.

You know, we talk about this as the largest event—sporting event ever. This really, really is when you actually look at it, when you compare it to our football and you think about 130 million people watch the Super Bowl and over 2 billion will watch this World Cup Final. It’s really, really amazing.

And I’ve got to point out one thing where I can really see the growth of it. I, too, went to—went to the 1994 World Cup, to a couple of games in New York. I actually saw Italy play both games, one game where they were—

(As an aside.) Oh, good to see you guys. What happened? Did the speaker keep you guys busy or something, you know?

CASTOR: Hi, everybody.

LAHOOD: Hi.

CARTER: The party has arrived. (Laughter.)

GIULIANI: But, yeah, I remember as a—as an 8-year-old going to the 1994 World Cup in New York and New Jersey, and seeing what that actually meant for both the Italian American and the Irish American community, how incredible it was. And now to think that it’s grown from twenty-four nations to forty-eight nations and we’re on the verge of this, it’s very, very exciting.

I mean, but from our perspective, I feel like the country is ready to go. I think the continent is ready to go. We’ve been talking on a daily basis with Canada and Mexico on all sorts of issues, like our health policy. Counter-UAS is another one. From an intelligence-sharing perspective, that’s been really, really key as well. From a visa entry perspective. Amazing that all players of the thirty-five countries—again, we still have about seven more to go of the forty that we need to get in. I’m sorry, we had thirty-three countries, seven more to go. Eight will start their World Cup outside of the United States, between Canada and Mexico. But all players have gotten in. All coaches have gotten in. There’s one referee that did not get in for very good reason. And we are doing everything that we can to make sure that we facilitate an incredible, welcoming World Cup, while also making sure bad actors don’t get in the country.

VEGA: That’s very important, I think, the security part of it. I remember when we talked back in February you said to me that you wanted the story of this World Cup to be about what happened on the field, right, and if that was the case that meant you have done your job well.

GIULIANI: (Laughs.) Yeah, that’s exactly right. If we’re talking about, you know, great play on the—on the pitch after the World Cup on July 20, then we’ve done our job. To use another American football reference, we’re like the long snappers out there. You never want to hear from the long snapper at the end of the game.

But the point there to highlight a little bit, going back to what we were talking about before in terms of the entry and really welcoming the world here while making sure that we’re doing everything from a security perspective, I think a couple of important stats that really tell the tale of the tape on this one. Of the nineteen ESTA countries that have qualified for the World Cup, again, nineteen of them qualified—think England, Scotland, Portugal, et cetera—over 5 million ESTAs have been processed by Custom and—Customs and Border just in the first half of this fiscal year. So from October 1 to March 31 over 5 million have been—have been processed from the nineteen World Cup-qualifying ESTA countries. Really an amazing job by CBP.

And then let me highlight Argentina and Brazil, because this is nothing short of Herculean. A couple years ago, Brazil had a B-1/B-2 interview wait time of over 700 days whether you’re going to Brasilia, and I think Rio de Janeiro was somewhere around 600 days. Those wait times today—you can go on the State Department Consular Affairs websites—they’re two weeks in Brazil, from 700 days to two weeks. We know how many Brazilian fans are already in Morristown, New Jersey, getting ready for their opening kickoff here in New Jersey—which, by the way, if the Knicks go to a game six in Madison Square Garden, think of this. This is, like, my nightmare, not because I’m a Knick fan, but you’re going to have Brazil and Morocco at six p.m. playing in the Meadowlands, the New York Knickerbockers and the San Antonio Spurs playing in Madison Square Garden at 8:30. That game will end up at eight and they’ll go to Penn Station, which is right below Madison Square Garden, which is unbelievable. But I digress. That’s in a couple days. We have a lifetime till then.

Let me just—let me just add the defending champions, Argentina. Buenos Aires, the wait time in 2023 was over 300 days to get your B-1/B-2 visa appointment. That’s now down to two days to get your B-1/B-2 visa appointment.

So I think it’s really been an incredible balance of making sure that, yes, bad actors do not get in the country that want to cause harm to the United States of America, but that we’re doing everything we can to really open up the gates to people that want to come here and enjoy this World Cup over our 250^th birthday.

VEGA: Yeah, amazing. It’s a—it’s a monumental challenge on many levels. And I want to thank the Representatives Castor and LaHood to be here. I want you—to bring you into the conversation. Congressman LaHood, about this bipartisan Congressional Soccer Caucus, some people are not familiar with it, so can you tell us a little bit more about its mission? And how are you helping to host this World Cup?

LAHOOD: Well, first of all, let me thank the Council on Foreign Relations for having us here today. I didn’t know there was wine, either, so I’m glad to—(laughter)—yeah, cheers, right? (Laughter.) And happy to be here with my colleague Kathy Castor, and Executive Director Giuliani, and the panel here today.

I also just want to remind people we played the congressional soccer game last Wednesday and Republicans won 7-5, right?

GIULIANI: Which was good because last year, if I remember, Democrats might have gotten the best of us. So it was a good—

CASTOR: The blue team prevailed last year.

LAHOOD: The blue team prevailed—

GIULIANI: It was a good comeback.

LAHOOD: But you asked about the Congressional Soccer Caucus. And I would just say very bipartisan, about fifty members from across the country, and different philosophical backgrounds also. But we’re really focused on a number of things.

One, promoting youth soccer across the country, particularly in disadvantaged areas. The money that’s raised at our congressional soccer game every year goes to pitches across the country, working with the U.S. Soccer Foundation on that.

Secondly, we worked very hard on the bid for the World Cup in 2027—I’m sorry, 2017, under the first Trump administration. So the Soccer Caucus collectively worked with the host cities on the bid and lots of other people to promote and highlight why it should be in America, and we were obviously successful in that.

Thirdly, we worked last summer on 625 million dollar appropriation to the eleven host cities. Collectively, we worked together in a bipartisan way on getting that money that would go to security, building out the perimeters, the needs and wants of those eleven host cities we were part of. I would argue that wouldn’t have happened but for working with the task force, but the Congressional Soccer Caucus. As a part of that bill also, 525 million (dollars) for anti-drone technology. This will be the safest, most secure World Cup because of that anti-drone technology, money that came from Congress with the help of the Soccer Caucus to, again, have that technology in those eleven host city stadiums here.

So those are a few things we’ve worked on. Obviously, working on the visa part of it from a congressional standpoint is a big part of that, too. And making sure that we have the safest, most secure World Cup in 2026.

VEGA: Yeah. Congressman, let me just dive into what I think is one of the main topics in this conversation, which is sports diplomacy. How can this World Cup help advance the U.S. interests and leadership globally?

LAHOOD: Well, I think bringing people to this country—this will be the largest sporting event in the history of the world. The World Cup expands this year from thirty-two to forty-eight teams. First time three countries have hosted. You’re going to get a lot of people for the first time are coming to America to see many of these eleven host cities, to see our culture, to engage in what America’s all about. I mean, you can’t put a price or quantify that. That’s what the World Cup is going to do. And watching their teams compete on the pitch is going to be a big part of that.

So, you know—and I also think that, you know, sports transcends politics. And you know, there’s been a lot of talk about politics and this policy and that policy, but I think once the games kick off people are going to be wanting to root for their team, want them to win and go on for later rounds. That’s what—part of what America offers. But I would also say I think we’ve worked on, collectively, a welcoming message from the United States, making sure people know they’re welcome and secure here for this World Cup.

And the last point that I will make on what I said earlier, if you think about the next eight to ten years in America and you think about sports diplomacy, Olympics, two years from now; men’s and women’s world rugby competition in the United States; the Women’s World Cup in 2031; Salt Lake Winter Olympics in 2032; I mean, all those things are going to—we’re going to—those are going to pay dividends by what we’re doing now to build out for the next eight to ten years.

VEGA: That’s very interesting. That’s another angle.

I just want, also, Representative Castor to expand on it. Do you think that if the World Cup is successful it can bring more and more sports mega events, not just these ones that were just mentioned by the congressman but also more events, in the next decades, perhaps?

CASTOR: Yes, and more travel and tourism to the United States. I mean, you can’t ignore that we’re kind of—we’re at a fraught moment. International travel generally has been on the decline. I come from the state of Florida, and a lot of our friends from Canada are not traveling to the U.S. But there is nothing like the ability of the average person who loves the beautiful game coming to the United States of America to a community, whether it’s the base camp community or coming in for a match, and interacting with Americans and people from all over the globe to lift their spirits and to get past some of the fraught politics and work people to people.

We really share the same values when you look around the globe. People want their families to do well. They want to thrive. They want to cheer on their teams. They’re very proud of their teams. But I think there’s simply no substitute for the—for the ability to travel to America, and interact, and see our—what this country has to offer, and be able to interact person to person.

And they—the fans of Miami—it’s good that we have that anti-drone technology, but the fans in Miami, here’s a warning: Behave. Behave. (Laughter.) No climbing over to get into the stadium. That’s not going to be allowed.

VEGA: You just mentioned Canada. And this World Cup is unique because it’s also hosted not only by the United States, but also by Mexico and Canada. Congresswoman, do you think that this World Cup can also help, like, build trust/cooperation with those very important allies and trade partners in moments in which maybe there are some differences in other areas?

CASTOR: Yes. We’re all interrelated. We share a continent. We trade with each other. We’re—oftentimes we share family members across these boundaries. And you know, politics come and go, and we’ve seen that over the years, but the ties that bind economically, socially, with religion, through sports, they abide over time.

VEGA: Thank you, Congresswoman.

Let me go back to Haley. Talking about sports diplomacy, sports success says a lot about a country to the world. Do you think that the excitement around this World Cup can help also, or it’s a good opportunity to detect, to develop top talent, maybe athletes that will end up representing the United States in the world?

CARTER: Yeah. I think absolutely. Any time you have a marquee event like the World Cup happening, you know, it has the potential—and we talked about this earlier—to inspire a generation. And you know, I think from a talent identification standpoint, you know, we live in a country the size of the European continent. And so, you know, there’s always gaps. And I think—to be quite frank, I think there’s many things that the U.S. can learn. I think we have much more to learn than we do to teach the rest of the world when it comes to talent identification and to development. You know, there’s certain aspects—again, accessibility of the game and what that looks like. So, you know, I think events like this have the ability to inspire a generation, but it’s the infrastructure that will keep that generation.

So as we think about the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, the 2028 Olympics, the 2031 Women’s World Cup, you know, on track to be announced, that building the infrastructure to identify the talent and to make sure that we are developing that talent, and that we’re giving young children in, you know, every community access to the game, is going to be really important. So it’s this high-level event, but the impact that it’s going to have is going to have—you know, happen at grassroots. And so, you know, as we think about that legacy, the legacy has to focus on developing at that level as well.

VEGA: Yeah.

On that note, I mean, this is a worldwide event, but it also has an impact at the community level. So let me—let me ask you, Mr. Giuliani—

GIULIANI: Please.

VEGA: —because the World Cup needs to reflect that global strength of American cities and regions, how important is that aspect for your relation with local organizers? And what do you think is going to be the impact in terms of the economy/tourism for those communities?

GIULIANI: Yeah. Well, first off, from a security standpoint, just because it piggybacks off what the congressman and congresswoman said here before, really in the Big Beautiful Bill the two pots of money—that $625 million and the $500-plus million on counter-UAS that Congress passed—has been so, so key in doing everything that we can to make sure this is a safe and secure World Cup.

Let me just get into the counter-drone stuff for a quick second here before—

VEGA: Sure.

GIULIANI: —we go into that part of it right there. So, an amazing statistic: Back in 2025, all the way back last year in 2025, there were five SEAR-level events—so think the Super Bowl, think the Boston/New York Marathon, the Indy 500—that were covered for counter-UAS mitigation. Five. Because of Congress passing that, because of the air sovereignty executive order that President Trump signed, because of the Safer Skies Act that Congress later passed in December in the NDAA, we’re happy to announce that all seventy-eight World Cup matches will be covered with counter-UAS drone mitigation technology. That’s just by the feds. Now you take one fan festival—so Bayfront Park in Miami, right, for example; or New York is bouncing all over the place, whether it’s in Rockefeller Center and the Tennis Center, all of that—one fan festival for the duration of the World Cup in every single city that hosts a World Cup match will have counter-UAS coverage throughout the entire World Cup, which is really, really amazing when you think that you had five last year. So it’s unbelievable.

We’re talking about sports diplomacy? What were we talking about there? Sorry.

VEGA: Yeah. We were talking about the communities involved.

GIULIANI: Yes.

VEGA: You know, the expanded list of cities that have the base camps, not just the host cities, the impact to those communities in terms of the economy.

GIULIANI: And that’s where I think this is really, really amazing. It’s not just the eleven host cities that are hosting World Cup matches, but you think about all the other states that are going to have World Cup-related events, all the other communities, right? Alexandria, Virginia, I was just seeing Croatian flags as I was driving into work today all over Alexandria, Virginia, with the Croatian team there. You know, the Iraqi team is in West Virginia not too far down the road over here, and all the other areas that will be hosting world cup teams.

CASTOR: And Tampa’s hosting Cape Verde.

VEGA: That’s right.

GIULIANI: There you go, Tampa with Cape Verde. I think—isn’t Portugal maybe in Boca or in—there are so many New Yorkers in Boca, you don’t want me talking about Boca. (Laughter.) That’d be a bad—that’d be a bad scenario. But, yeah, it really, really is. I mean, this is nationwide. It’s continent-wide. It’s worldwide.

And for us, the way that I look at this more than anything else and the discussions that I’ve had with the president, with different Cabinet secretaries, with many members of Congress, is we’re in the golden age of America. What an opportunity it is to have this World Cup to kick off that golden age of sports here in the United States of America, and to be able to show the world the truth about how great the United States of America is over our 250^th birthday, and that great hope and promise that the United States offers to the rest of the world over our next 250 years.

VEGA: Congresswoman, now that you mentioned Tampa, let me ask you about your district—not just because there’s a base camp there, because also you have a very diverse Hispanic population. I’m Mexican myself, so I know the importance of soccer to Hispanics. But can you help us explain for our audience how important is soccer for the Hispanic community and how it’s also, like, an element that can unite and energize that community?

CASTOR: Oh, there is nothing like going to a match in—whether it’s in Tampa, or Miami, or Orlando, around—and seeing the great national pride that the folks have in their—in their native lands. For example, I attended a friendly match, a men’s match, a couple of years ago in Tampa, U.S. versus Colombia, and the Colombian fans are just next level. That’s the most popular jersey, by the way, in the Tampa Bay area after the U.S. jersey, and that’s—it’s a good barometer. But there is, gosh, we need—we need distractions right now. We need fun. We need people that have pride in who they are and their countries. And there’s nothing like an international competition. And when you think about this is the largest World Cup ever in history, hosted by three countries at a time when, you know, people are feeling it in their wallets, they’re not going to—most people are not going to be able to go to a match, but they’re going to follow with great interest at a time when we need things that can bring us together and unite us.

VEGA: As I was telling you before, Telemundo is the exclusive home for the World Cup in the Spanish language, La Copa del Mundo. We’ll be having 700 hours of programming from this Thursday until July 19. That’s the most ever for a Spanish-language presentation in the United States.

GIULIANI: You need more coffee than I do.

VEGA: Yeah, certainly. (Laughter.) Including the 104, right—104 matches live.

Let me give you another fact. Our TikTok account, Noticias Telemundo, is number one on TikTok regardless of language compared to other American outlets or networks. That says a lot, I guess. And I think it’s a very good moment for Spanish in general in the United States.

Some people tell to me that, you know, I don’t speak—I don’t speak Spanish, but I like to watch my matches—soccer matches in Spanish—(laughter)—

CASTOR: Yes. True, true.

VEGA: —because of the passion of it, you know, the “goaaaaaal!” (Laughter.)

CASTOR: Yes.

GIULIANI: He’s going to get me kicked off a Fox over here. (Laughter.)

VEGA: So we’re confident also that we will be having record viewership this summer.

Let me just end up there, because there are—I think we’re already in the time for the Q&A and I’m sure your questions will be the most interesting questions this evening. So here our experts are ready, and if you have any questions just raise your hand. And—

CASTOR: If you have recommendations as I go to fill out my bracket—(laughter)—that would be helpful, too.

VEGA: Any questions? OK. The first one is always the bravest, so thank you so much.

Q: Someone has to break the ice here. I’m Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies here at the Council on Foreign Relations.

I don’t mean to be patronizing to you, Mr. Giuliani, or you, Haley. I do think it’s kind of adorable that your flexes is that you saw the 1994 World Cup—(laughter)—because I remember fifty summers ago this year watching Pelé play for the New York Cosmos, who beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies. You may remember the Tampa Bay Rowdies. So that was my eighth birthday party with all my soccer buddies.

VEGA: (Laughs.)

Q: So it really is ridiculous to think that soccer is not an American sport. I played all the way up until college when I discovered other things, unmentionable things. (Laughter.) But I’m a huge fan of—I’m a long-suffering Tottenham Hotspur fan.

CARTER (?): Oh, that’s rough.

Q: And a—and a Fenerbahçe fan.

CARTER (?): That’s rough. Congratulations on not getting relegated this year.

Q: Yeah, I know. (Laughter.) It was—

CARTER (?): Whew! It was close.

Q: Imagine, like, rooting—

CARTER (?): It was close.

Q: Like, trying to not to get relegated.

Anyway, just two questions. One, on this Cup to begin with, I have family in Massachusetts who have been telling me that small towns in Massachusetts have wanted to host watch parties and FIFA has given these towns a really, really hard time about strict licensing and fees along those lines. And I love all the happy talk about access, and lots of people are really excited about it, but what can anybody do about pushing FIFA to make it more accessible to more people? Not everybody lives in a place where there are going to be teams and where there are going to be big places to watch, and people really do want to watch. It is an American game, after all.

Speaking of an American game, maybe, Haley, you can—you can answer this question: How come the American men can never get over the hump? (Laughter.) Every World Cup I’m like, OK, this year they’re going to be good. They’re going to be great. And stupid me for believing the hype.

GIULIANI: Can I answer that last one? Talk to us in forty days on that one. I believe in miracles, so.

Q: Yeah, yeah, I saw that commercial too—(laughter)—OK, with Mike Eruzione. But still, the women are awesome, and how come the dudes just can’t do it? (Laughter.)

CASTOR: I’m actually not the one to answer that question. (Laughter.)

CARTER: I will be happy if they perform half as well as the women do. (Laughter.)

OK, on a—on a serious note, I think if you—I’m going to get really technical here. I think if you look at the way that the women’s game has grown, Title IX made a huge difference. The access of women’s soccer at the collegiate level made a massive difference. Women have been participating, girls have been participating in soccer. Historically, it has been one of the number-one sports for women and girls to participate in. And so if you think about development just from a pure numbers game, you know, it gave the opportunity to women—to the women in the United States to lead and excel faster than other countries did. Baseball, football, and basketball have primarily been getting our boys and men athletes. It has not been soccer, on the boys and men side.

So I think if you think about, from a developmental perspective, the number of girls that are participating—so, and a couple of things are happening now. Number one, you’re seeing other sports that are starting to come up that women and girls are participating in at equal numbers. Flag football is growing massively across the United States. It’s another game that is relatively cheap to participate in. It’s accessible. The NFL is pushing it. Anything that the NFL pushes is going to gain ground. But then the other thing is, is that we’re starting to see now other countries and markets are catching up to what the U.S. women are doing. So now, you know, the U.S. just lost to Brazil, 2-1, in Sao Paulo. They’re playing in Fortaleza tonight at 8:30. If anybody’s interested in watching it’ll be on TNT, HBO Max. (Laughter.)

But, you know, they went down to Brazil to participate in a match there, with an unfriendly crowd, with international travel, trying to get used to things, because that is—that is a mock test for what they’re going to see in the World Cup next summer. And the point is that we aren’t just dominating the world anymore. The rest of the world is catching up. So I think we’re just seeing the reverse on the men’s side. So now we’re starting to export talent on the men’s side to Europe, when historically we’ve wanted to bring talent in. You look at the American players that are now playing overseas and in Europe in multiple leagues, we’re starting to see that increase. So, you know, I think it just—it comes down, really, genuinely, to Title IX. Title IX made a massive difference for girls and women in this country. And the ability to participate in collegiate soccer put the United States on the map.

CASTOR: And when you’re talking about sports diplomacy, what an outstanding example the U.S. women’s national team was in their fight for—

CARTER: Equal pay.

CASTOR: Equal pay, but equal—the ability to play on a grass field, even, and to have travel covered in that. I was really proud that our bipartisan Congressional Soccer Caucus kind of stood up to U.S. Soccer a bit on the side of the women’s national team, and said their fight for equal pay means something. But it meant something not just to young girls and families across America, it really set an example for the rest of the world. And you saw that Spanish team from the last Women’s World Cup stood up to a coach—

CARTER: They did. And a president.

CASTOR: And a president.

CARTER: And a president.

CASTOR: Yeah. So that’s the kind of example I hope the United States can provide. Hat’s off to the women’s team.

GUILIANI: And I’m not a—I’m not a math major—I’m not a math major, but I’m going to ask a question. How many World Cups do the Women’s U.S. national team have? Four? OK, well, I can’t, in forty days, promise you that the U.S. men are going to get halfway there, but maybe we’ll get a quarter of the way there, right? One World Cup championship here coming up.

No, I think it’s such an unbelievable opportunity here for the team. And, again, look, I’m no technical expert. Don’t pretend to be one. But I do think that there are incredible moments in time, right? And you look back in sports history, and one of the things that unifies us, one of the reasons why we inspire our young boys and young girls—as a father of a young daughter it was so exciting to take her to a Washington Spirit game about a month and a half ago on a Friday night, to see the crowd packed. And what was everybody, regardless of their political differences, regardless of religiously, how they grew up, all their different background? They were all cheering on that same jersey, all united behind that same jersey.

That’s the moments that sports have to offer. When you add the 250^th birthday of this incredible nation on top of that, you think about what an unbelievable opportunity. When the U.S. gets through that group stage, when they win that round of thirty-two, and now we’re at that semiquincentennial celebration in the United States, at that point, emotion takes over. You throw out the game plan. And I say, let’s go play, boys, and let’s win.

VEGA: Would you like to weigh in on the accessibility part of the question?

LAHOOD: Let me mention, on—just you mentioned about FIFA, and the criticism of FIFA. And there’s plenty, I think, that we could nitpick at on FIFA, but I think it’s important to remember, ’94, FIFA didn’t run the World Cup, when we hosted. That was done by the different host cities. It wasn’t done by FIFA. When we put the bid in for FIFA, you know, FIFA now requires you to do so many different things. So when every one of those eleven host cities signed that contract with FIFA, it says in bold letters: We don’t pay for transportation. We don’t pay for this. We control everything. And it’s ironclad in what you do. And so FIFA wants to control it. That was what we signed up to do when we put the bid in on doing that. And so it is frustrating to now have, you know, what you just mentioned, smaller cities that want to host but they’re under the restrictions of those contractual obligations that they agreed to with FIFA on them controlling it. I mean, that was the—what’s that?

Q: (Off mic.) So access is not as great as everybody wants people to think it is?

LAHOOD: No, I—

Q: Because FIFA won’t give people licenses.

LAHOOD: I tend to agree with you on that, but, again, like, for instance, in New Jersey, the governor there, my former colleague Mikie Sherrill has been complaining about the transportation. But when Phil Murphy signed that contract with FIFA, I mean, it was literally ironclad on what you can do and what you can’t do. And so everybody knew. In some ways Rahm Emanuel, my mayor in Chicago, didn’t put the bond up for FIFA because he didn’t want to be on the hook and be obligated for the FIFA obligations. I mean, that’s a risk you take on doing it. Some people took it, others didn’t. But make no doubt about it, FIFA controls everything.

VEGA: All right. I think we have your question covered. And I would like to open the time for more questions. The gentleman here, please.

Q: Yeah. Rick Wade, senior vice president, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And I’m leading our sports engagement strategy.

In addition to sports diplomacy, can you just talk a second or two about the economic impact of World Cup? And particularly for America’s businesses, more specifically small businesses?

VEGA: Who would like to wade in? You guys, before you have to go, you want to jump on it?

CASTOR: Thank you, all. Thank you all.

LAHOOD: We have another—we have another vote. Go USA!

GIULIANI: Go USA! (Applause.)

VEGA: Thank you so much, Representatives Castor and LaHood, for being here.

So he was asking about the economic impact. I guess I also had to ask about that. So let’s just diving in.

GIULIANI: Yeah, absolutely. I think when you look—and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been focusing on so much at making sure that there is access available for fans coming into the country from all around the world, reduce visa wait times, all those ESTAs that we’ve processed, the incredible work by the State Department, Consular Affairs, and CBP, and USCIS at the Department of Homeland Security, so that way we could maximize some of those economic numbers.

I’ll point out one thing, because I know there’s been a narrative going around about how people don’t want to come to the U.S. for this World Cup. Well, again, politicians have metrics—have narratives. And the metrics basically can go and tell you whether those narratives are true or whether they’re false. The most tickets ever sold to a World Cup was three and a half million back in 1994, when—we dated ourselves—back in 1994. Every other World Cup since, they expanded to thirty-two teams, they never actually topped that number. Now, of course, we have forty-eighty teams, 104 games, so it’s more World Cup games to go from. But FIFA has already sold six million tickets. Six million tickets for this World Cup. Two and a half million more than the previous record.

You can see what kind of an impact that’s going to be. I know that the projections have been around 30 billion (dollars). I’ve more recently seen projections upwards of 50 billion (dollars) for this. I think that’s absolutely going to be the case. I think you’ll see it in some of these base camp cities, and Alexandria, Virginia, being a good example there of where people really can ultimately do this. And one of the things that, you know, as you were pointing out there, with kind of some of the watch parties and some of the issues that Congressman LaHood was mentioning with FIFA in particular, is that different businesses have gotten creative in terms of the way that they ultimately can maximize this. So that way they’re not necessarily actually having to give a cut to FIFA in doing that, while still also being able to utilize the World Cup coming up.

Now, maybe they’re calling it the beautiful game, or they’re calling it the summer of soccer, or whatever it actually is, but that’s the amazing thing about American business and American ingenuity is you actually figure out pathways to be able to maximize that. I know somebody who just opened the stadium in Greenville, South Carolina, I think, last week. And he’s been able to work to make sure he secured watch parties in that new stadium. So this is something that we’ve seen where people have had to work through it. Sometimes the hoops are a little larger or higher than we would like for them to potentially—to potentially have to jump through. But we’ve seen what I think is the country set up for great economic gains this summer.

Now, of course, the U.S. is different than other countries hosting the World Cup. You just have to look at the Qatar skyline back in 2007 and then look at it now, and you can see just how much Qatar was transformed by the World Cup. For us in the United States of America, this is fantastic to have. This will be a great legacy item for U.S. Soccer. Will it make or break the United States of America from an economic perspective? No. It won’t make or break it.

But I do think it is this great relaunch of the United States to the world to be able to invite people that want to enjoy the country here, not just for the World Cup but for the 2031 Women’s World Cup, the 2028 Olympics, the rugby men’s and women’s, obviously culminating in the—I’m not even going to say culminating, because I believe in so much more than that 2034 Winter Games. But I really think this is going to be—to steal it from ESPN. We’ve plugged now Telemundo, Fox, HBO Max, and I’m plugging ESPN right now, but this is going to be the sports century for the United States of America.

VEGA: Let me just remember those who are watching us online, our audience online. They can also ask questions. So if you have any questions, just drop it there and we’ll be able to hear you or know your question here in the room. We have any other questions here in the room? Yes, there in the second row.

Q: Hi. I’m Sherry Hakimi.

Going to accessibility and tickets, on that—in that vein. In 2023, I had the opportunity to go to the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. And tickets were capped at $30, and you couldn’t resell a ticket for more than 10 percent of the face value. That is an—that’s phenomenal, from an accessibility standpoint. Why couldn’t we do something like that for the U.S., so that more people could actually go enjoy the games?

VEGA: I guess you get asked this a lot, right?

GIULIANI: Yeah, absolutely. Well, first off, that would take—I wish the members were here, because that would take legislation in terms of potentially the argument of capping tickets. Right now, not to speak for FIFA here, but I think the way that they approached it was if they were to offer tickets at a certain cost, right, let’s say at $100 a ticket, and the market value for those tickets were $1,000, somebody else was going to make that $900 delta between where they originally sold it and where it ultimately was sold. We’ve seen this for Taylor Swift. We’ve seen this for other events, Super Bowls previously where people—you know, the league, let’s say, undervalued what that actual market is.

I can tell you some of the things that were done, I know it’s a limited amount of tickets but at least it’s something, I know that there were 1,000 tickets at each game sold at $60 a ticket. Most of those tickets now—not most—some of those tickets now are on secondary sites for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But that was at least one thing that was done with thousands of tickets. Secondly, the president announced last week with Bank of America and FIFA that 4,547 tickets would be available for military veterans, including 250 for each U.S. men’s national team. That way, America’s greatest heroes over our incredible birthday celebration would have an incredible opportunity to be able to do that.

With that being said, those in-demand games, and there are so many of them but let’s highlight Brazil-Morocco and then Colombia-Portugal, because those are the two, I think, most request group stage games, one in Miami on the twenty-seventh the other one I mentioned after, hopefully not, game six of the NBA finals. But those games are, you know, extremely high on the resale market, because everybody wants to go to those. There are still plenty of games that have tickets available for less than $250 right now, to be able to go to a World Cup match. I think it’s just part of the supply and demand issue that you end up having.

When you have so much demand to want to go to a World Cup, especially a World Cup here in North America, in the United States of America, it just drives the—drives prices high. So, you know, Congress can, you know, potentially think of that and, you know, see if that’s something they would want to address.

VEGA: We have another question here in the first row. But, first, let me ask you, Haley, how do we keep this momentum going for 2031, for the Women’s World Cup?

CARTER: Yeah, I think it’s like we discussed, right? It’s all about legacy. And I think in each of these host cities, right, every host city has an initiative, a legacy initiative, whether it’s mini pitches or engagement in the local community, girls and boys. You know that’s part of being a host city, right? You sign up for that legacy opportunity whenever you sign up for the bid. But I think, you know, as a country, you know, we’ve got the Olympics coming up in 2028, which is a much, much smaller version, right, of—it’s a U23 event on the men’s side, and it is a senior national team event still on the women’s side. And then we roll into, you know, for us women, right, we actually have a World Cup in 2027 in Brazil that we’re really excited about. It’s going to be the largest women’s World Cup in the history of the women’s side.

And I think, you know, for us, the number-one way—you talked about it earlier, from a—you know, sporting success is a hell of a drug. And I think that the U.S. continuing to sit at the top of the FIFA rankings and continue to push through and give us the chaos and the drama and the entertainment that we all love leading into the 2027 World Cup—to be clear, they have not yet qualified. They still have to qualify for the 2027 World Cup. That’s an important point to make. But should they qualify, then I think, you know, continuing to see sporting success here in the United States is going to be very important. And my heart does say the U.S. men, my head just can’t help the thing.

GIULIANI: (Laughs.) Don’t listen to your head. That’s—my staff tells me I never listen to my head. So I just listen to my heart.

CARTER: Like, the statistics are, like, running through my head. The probabilities are not great.

GIULIANI: My wife certainly tells me. (Laughs.)

CARTER: But, you’re right. I mean anything can happen, so.

GIULIANI: (Laughs.) There we go.

CARTER: But I think to keep the momentum we have to have the infrastructure. And we can—you know, we can—we can talk about access. And it sounds like a great story. But we have to do the work, and we have to create an infrastructure that is going to allow more children to play. We have to work with U.S. soccer to eliminate the pay-to-play model. You know, I’m not saying that the academy model in Europe is exactly one that we want to emulate, because I’m not convinced that that’s the best either, you know, but to—we have to make the game more accessible for boys and girls in order to keep any sort of momentum that comes out of this World Cup going.

GIULIANI: Can I just piggyback on one thing on there, because I think it’s a great point. I would also just point out where we were thirty-three years ago as a soccer nation, and where we are now. There was no men’s professional league. There wasn’t a women’s professional league. The 1994 World Cup, what that did, creating Major League Soccer. The 1999 Women’s World Cup, obviously the incredible success of the national women’s team. Now seeing the success of Major League Soccer with multiple billion-dollar franchises. The incredible success of the National Women’s Soccer League, seeing the growth. I think it’s the fastest growing league in the entire world. I mean, there has been major, major progress over the last thirty-plus years. And I think this World Cup and this Women’s World Cup can see that progress just gets supercharged. And it wouldn’t surprise me if soccer in the United States, let’s say, you know, after the 2031 Women’s World Cup, we’re talking in 2032, and you’re talking about the second most—second biggest sport here in the United States of America.

VEGA: Now that you’re talking about the future, what happens to the task force just after the World Cup?

GIULIANI: We turn into pumpkins. That’s it. Yeah. No. (Laughs.) No, nobody takes my calls after July 20. That’s why I call everybody right now, as a matter of fact. No, what ends up happening is we’ll end up writing an after-action report talking about what we got right, what we could have gotten better, what we got wrong. And we’ll look at a lot of the different cross-equities that we have with the Olympics. The president also created an Olympic task force. Congress passed over a billion dollars in funding for the Olympics alone. So I know that there’ll be a notice of funding opportunity to be written for that as well. So our task force will move into the Olympic task force. I will find a beach and I will find a beverage, and I will say hello to my wife again on July 20. That’s what will happen to me.

VEGA: OK, now let me go to you. You’ve been very patient. Thank you so much. She’s being very attentive during all the presentations. So, thank you so much. First, your name, where do you come from, and your question.

Q: Well, thank you guys so much. My name is Angele Griffin. I’m also here in Washington, D.C., and always love every CFR event.

And I feel like the affordability of the tickets was my question. And I feel like the panel did a wonderful job answering the majority of my question. But one thing I was also thinking of too is, you know, another reason why these tickets seem less accessible compared, you know, to others, when you think of other World Cup games, is the middleman. Which is, you know, the company such as Ticketmaster that just surcharges surprises. And it makes me happy understanding that you will also have an after-action report post the World Cup.

So I’m trying to understand, like, what work is the government doing, what are you doing in collaboration with Congress, to consider the conversations you’re having with private companies that want to, essentially, surcharge in every way possible to make a profit off of, you know, attending the games? Because, you know, like, it’s one thing, you know, having Americans want to watch the games, but, you know, the ticket prices are high. But also the—you know, people that are coming in from all over the world, that are paying thousands of dollars to watch the games in person, and after paying 200, 300, 400 (dollars), or even more in additional prices to watch the matches. Like, what are you incorporating that for the future Olympic Games, the future women’s—you know, future women’s games that will eventually, at some point, happen in the United States? That’s just all I wanted to ask.

GIULIANI: Yeah, well, you know, I wish that the representatives were here to talk about, you know, potential legislation that they may be considering, and what that would look like. You know, look, obviously from our standpoint we also want to be very, very careful to make sure that we are not setting any government price controls, right? I think that’s one thing that’s very, very important as, you know, somebody who believes in the free market, and the free market will work itself out, that that’s also key. While also wanting to make sure that our youth are able to have the opportunity to go to some of these games and be inspired.

I was actually looking at a ticket the other day from the semifinals of the World Cup that Roberto Baggio ended up signing for somebody else right there. I loved Baggio as a kid. And it was, like, $125 to go to the semifinals. You know, it’s amazing what that actual difference is. We’ll definitely be looking at that. I know that some state attorney generals have been more than looking into that recently. So I’m sure you’re going to see more and more news on this. And I think you’ll see more news on this not just in the World Cup and soccer space, but I think in the sports and major event space as well.

VEGA: We have time for one more question. Well, maybe two. Yeah, first you, and then Ben.

Q: Hi, there. My name is Rachel Shekell with Mastercard.

My question is for Haley Carter. With the women that are on the Washington Spirit team, so many of them are coming from all across the world. And I was wondering how they think about their role as community leaders and role models, and what they can kind of share about their experiences in America back home to their communities that they’re coming from.

CARTER: That’s a really great question. And not just here in Washington. So I have a bit of a reputation for signing internationals over signing U.S. women’s national team players. And I don’t know how I’ve developed this reputation, other than just being really good at knocking out EB-1s and green cards for internationals, which allow me to sign more internationals. I will admit that I have a bias in giving opportunities to athletes from communities, and countries, and markets that they rarely are given—they’re not even seen, right? And can we identify players in those markets. And not to be too dispassionate about it, but I have to navigate transfer economics, right, and what that looks like. So I want to find kids from markets that are not being looked at and that are being missed, and bring them to the U.S., and develop them, and then help them in their career and generate revenue off of it, right? That’s the professional part of working in sports.

But that being said, I absolutely love the athletes that I have brought into the NWSL, and have been fortunate enough to work with other people in senior level positions to bring in, for that exact reason. And the vast majority of athletes that we’ve brought in, especially from Africa, for instance, they send most of their salaries home. And they have built academies. They have built foundations. They have built schools. So, you know, you talk about the ability for women to change the lives in their communities because of the opportunity that they’re getting here in the United States, is just incredible. You know, they are making more money in a month than their parents were able to make in many, many, many years. And that is really, really exciting to me. I mean, that’s what gets me out of bed every day, and gets me excited to be on a pitch with them, is to see our internationals come in, and not only be role models within their communities, but also role models within our community.

And even within our team. You know, I’ve had conversations with several of our American athletes just about their development and their growth and their childhood and what they came up with. And the reality is we show up every day with a tremendous amount of privilege. And to have them engage with their teammates who are coming from—we have a young athlete, Claudia Martinez, who we signed from Paraguay. Claudia just learned how to speak Spanish about three years ago, speaks very, very little English. We signed her on her eighteenth birthday. I have a thing about signing minors. I’m not a fan of it. I also have a reputation for that. But she is a mentality monster. So we have this young athlete who’s come over, she barely speaks the language, she’s come over by herself. She’s settled in really, really well.

But she grew up in rural Paraguay. And her experience, compared to an experience of an athlete who grew up in the Bay Area and has come to D.C., is very, very different. And it’s very, very cool to see our athletes learn from each other and take this appreciation for the power of our game. Everything is not about winning and losing. When you’re a professional, it feels like it. When you’re in my position, it feels like it. Everything is about wins and losses. But the reality is so much happens in and around women’s football that, you know, that truly is, like, the most exciting part of what I do, is bringing women together from all over the world and allowing them to educate each other on what the power of women’s football really is, and looks like, and how it can change lives forever.

VEGA: Thank you, Haley. Last question, very, very, very briefly question.

Q: There’s a whole—there’s a whole chapter, I’m sure, about how you found that player from Paraguay for another session.

CARTER: Yeah.

Q: I actually have a PSA, because we’ve been talking about legacy and impact. There’s a fellow in the corner from the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Michael, but I misidentified him in the program. So afterwards, at your reception, talk about legacy and impact with Michael.

Rachel’s question was exactly what I was going to ask, but she probably did it better than I did. So I’m going to pivot, Javier. And ask that Haley talk about the story behind her Sambas. And I’m going to ask Andrew a very personal, sensitive question. Which is, was your heart racing faster towards the end of last night’s game with the Knicks, or in anticipation of the World Cup starting in forty-eight hours?

GIULIANI: Well, don’t you go first? I need time to think about that one. (Laughs.)

CARTER: So, my—I’ve gotten—I’m wearing my fancy Sambas. I broke my fancy sambas out for you guys. I’ve only worn them—this is the second time ever that I’ve worn them, because how many opportunities?

VEGA: It’s a special day.

CARTER: The only other time I wore them was when we announced the re-signing of Trinity Rodman in L.A. (Cheers, applause.) So the second time is for you guys. (Laughter.) I only bring them out for really special—really special occasions. But if I can’t wear gold Sambas to talk about the World Cup and legacy, then when can I really? Other than when you announce making Trinity Rodman the most expensive player in the world. (Laughter.)

GIULIANI: I think it was the end of the Knicks game, because I realized game six is coming and that means—that means it’s going to be a mess in New York come June 13. No, what a great—as a New Yorker, what a great time it is to be a New Yorker with the Knicks in the finals and, obviously, the World Cup final coming here. Reminds me of—and I’m dating myself again—but I’m going to go back to 1994. The last NBA final game that I was actually at was on June 12, 1994.

And if people remember either the day or remember the documentary that was later done on June 12, ’94, there were a lot of kind of incredible things that happened in the world of sports that day. The New York Rangers had their parade going down the Canyon of Hero to celebrate their only championship—Potvin sucks, I shouldn’t say that probably out loud, right there, there you go—in the last close to ninety years, basically. The New York Knicks played the Houston Rockets in game five of the NBA finals. Arnold Palmer played his last U.S. Open round outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a few miles from where he grew up.

The World Cup kicked off in the United States of America. President Clinton was there in Chicago. And a former football player by the name of O.J. Simpson was driving his white Bronco down the 405 freeway. And in that NBA finals game, if anybody watched the coverage on NBC, NBC decided to go picture and picture. And the small picture was the NBC—was the NBA finals, and the big picture was O.J. driving down the 405 freeway. So what I can tell you is it’s going to be far better than what happened that day, the day in New York that’s going to happen come June 13. So.

CARTER: Rudy Tomjanovich, Sam Cassell, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, those were my boys. (Laughter.)

GIULIANI: Oh, don’t remind me. Oh, you’re killing me over here. Oh, really? You’re a Rockets fan?

CARTER: I’m from Houston.

GIULIANI: Oh my goodness. This whole time.

CARTER: And that—yeah, that was—that was a quite a team.

GIULIANI: That was a great team. I mean, if I love John Starks. He’s my guy. But he went cold in game six. It hurt us. But that was a hell of a team.

CARTER: I’m sorry for your loss.

GIULIANI: We’re talking basketball now. Now we’re talking basketball. We have a World Cup coming up.

VEGA: I know. It has been a very interesting conversation.

GIULIANI: Forty-eight hours.

VEGA: But time is up.

CARTER: Yeah. And there’s wine.

VEGA: Haley says team USA. Your heart says team USA.

CARTER: My heart. My heart. My heart. I’m bound by honor. (Laughter.)

GIULIANI: Yeah. My heart. But I think—

VEGA: My heart says Mexico, obviously, but as you say, let’s believe in miracles. (Applause.) So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your time and your attention. And I hope you can join us for a cocktail reception just outside the room. Thank you so much. And have a great evening.

(END)

This is an uncorrected transcript.