Power over sports is power over people, power over passion. Worldwide, there is no stronger sports phenomenon than football. So when you see your team, your favourite player, sporting a brand name on their uniform, particularly a brand associated with a world power (such as Arsenal and Real Madrid united by partnerships with Emirates), or with addictive products like gambling, that’s not neutral marketing. You're seeing an outright soft power flex.

Vass Bednar is joined by Joey D’Urso in this timely Policy Prompt episode where they discuss the reality of active geopolitics in the beautiful game. Joey is a journalist with a career focus on football (soccer) and politics, and he’s the author of More Than A Shirt: How Football Shirts Explain Global Politics, Money and Power (Seven Dials, 2025).

Mentioned:

• Ronald Reagan’s Proclamation 5606, National Women in Sports Day: Reagan Library
  Title IX, Richard Nixon’s amendment against the discrimination on the basis of sex in sport: Time
• Real Madrid’s long-standing partnership with Emirates: Real Madrid
• Arsenal’s partnership with Emirates: Arsenal
• Sportswashing: Wikipedia
• Premier League clubs banning sports gambling logos from uniforms in 2026–27: The Guardian
• Gambling companies circumventing advertising ban: BBC
• Saudi Arabia’s 80% stake purchase of Newcastle United F.C. in 2021: Wikipedia
• US sanctions Colombia soccer club for crime ties: Insight Crime
• Aston Villa supports Acorns, children’s hospice: Acorns
• Football teams owned by Red Bull: Wikipedia

Further Reading:

• More Than A Shirt: How Football Shirts Explain Global Politics, Finance and Power (Seven Dials, 2025): Goodreads
• Joey D’Urso bio: North Bank Talent

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @cigionline

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

AI governance is not a one-note issue. It spans geopolitics, science, philosophy, sociology, and as it grows and impacts more aspects of human governance and decision making, so does its span. Unlike the Space Race, there’s little reason for international actors to limit collaboration, given the intangible nature of this progress and its broad reach into so many aspects of our lives across the globe. What stags are we missing by limiting ourselves to hunting rabbits?

Paul and Vass are joined by Boris Babic and Brian Wong of the University of Hong Kong to discuss the intersection of governance, philosophy, physics and more to tackle today’s beast of AI. Touching on both responsibilities and freedoms of governments and private actors, they open a window to a world in which AI advancements are shared and grown, not kept under lock and key to wither without sunlight.

Mentioned:

• Supranational organizations: archive.unescwa.org/supranational-organizations
• “Raising the lobster”: sinicapodcast.com/p/raising-the-lobster-phrase-of-the
• Iris Marion Young: cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-habermas-lexicon/iris-marion-young
• OpenClaw AI: openclaw.ai/
• The Space Race: wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race
• NeurIPS: neurips.cc/
• NeurIPS US-sanctioned contributors ban (and reversal): reuters.com/world/china/china-boycotts-top-ai-conference-after-ban-papers-us-sanctioned-entities-2026-03-27/
• Stag Hunt in game theory: wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt
• Nash equilibrium: wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium
• Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum: youtube.com/watch?v=sFBkNX1-cbg
• Brussels strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in energy: data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/WK-16692-2025-INIT/en/pdf
• Kenya Artificial Intelligence Strategy: ict.go.ke/sites/default/files/2025-03/Kenya
• The Three-Body Problem, novel by Liu Cixin: wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)

Further Reading:

• Boris Babic: borisbabic.com/
• Brian Wong: cccw.hku.hk/team/brian-wong/

Credits:

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @cigionline

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION