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Nov. 29, 2022 - Uncensored - Piers Morgan
47:01
20221129_piers-morgan-uncensored-nadia-nadim
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Fleeing Afghanistan to the World Cup 00:15:19
Tonight on Piers Morgan on Censor live in Qatar.
England thumped Wales and the Battle of Britain will get the reaction to the result and America beat Iran.
Bus superstar Danish striker and ITV football pundit Nadia Nadine on her extraordinary journey fleeing Afghanistan as a child refugee and reaching the very top of international football and commentating here at the World Cup only for tragedy to strike.
Live from Qatar, this is Piers Morgan uncensored at the World Cup.
Good evening from Qatar, the night where England beat Wales 3-0 to book their place in the World Cup last 16.
Two second half goals from Marcus Rashford.
One from Phil Foden secured the win.
Over the top for Rashford.
Wilson and Foden in the box.
Rashford.
Cracking wind for England and also any second now a cracking win it looks like for the US against Iran, which means they will progress also to the last 16.
So a big night for England, a big night for America.
Outside the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium is Talk TV's Holly Hudson, who's been there with England, had been frankly thrashing Wales.
Holly, a great night for England, a brilliant result.
Nine goals now in this World Cup for England and not a single one for Harry Kane.
Can you hear me, Holly?
I think Holly's waiting for me to talk, but unfortunately can't hear a word I'm saying.
So we'll come back to Holly when we can try and restore the connection.
I'm going to move on now to a quite extraordinary story.
And this was brought to my attention a week ago, last Tuesday, where Nadia Nadine, who played for Denmark over 100 times, one of the top female players in the world, was commentating for ITV in a game involving Denmark here at the World Cup.
When, incredibly sadly, she discovered the news that her mother had died back in Denmark in a terrible road accident where she was hit by another vehicle.
And it made me check in to her story.
And it really is a quite remarkable story of a young woman whose father was executed by the Taliban, who then fled with her mother and sisters as refugees to Denmark.
And when they got to Denmark, she then built a career as a footballer and became one of the best female players to ever play the game.
And as I'm speaking, you can hear that's the result in the US-Iran match.
It's official.
America has gone through to the last 16.
Congratulations to them.
And of course, I'll talk to Nadia about that.
Let's take a look first of all at a little package about Nadia's journey so far to get here to this World Cup.
Nadia Nadeem was born in Afghanistan.
At the age of 11, her father, a general in the Afghan National Army, was executed by the Taliban.
Her mother fed the country with her five daughters, selling their possessions to fund their escape.
On forged passports, they traveled by truck to Italy and then on to a refugee camp in Denmark.
And it was there that she discovered football after seeing a group of children playing it over a fence.
And despite not speaking any English or Danish, she gestured to the coach that she wanted to play and he let her join in.
Well, Nadia went on to play for the Danish national team over 100 times for her adopted homeland.
And last week, Nadia was on air covering the World Cup, but her joy at this career high as a broadcaster was sadly tarnished by the terrible news that her mother had been killed in a road accident.
Let's have a look how the table is after all that.
And I'm afraid Nadia's had to leave us at short notice.
Despite losing the person she called the most important in her life, Nadia returned to work and was back on air within dates.
And Nadia joins me.
Now, Nadia, thank you so much for joining me.
First, my deepest condolences to you on the loss of your mother.
It was an awful thing to hear about here at the World Cup.
We were all aware of what had happened and you had to leave very suddenly and then we found out why your mother had been killed in this accident.
But it also made me go away and research you and your life, because I didn't know much about you, if I'm honest.
And what I found was quite extraordinary.
And I wanted to get you on the show just to really talk about first what's happened to you in the last seven days, but also to talk about why your mother was so important to you and this extraordinary journey you went on with her from Afghanistan to get you to where you are today.
So thank you, first of all, and my deepest condolences, as I say, to you and all your family.
Thank you.
You were commentating last week, it was last Tuesday.
Yeah.
And you suddenly get told that your mother has died in this awful accident.
That, for you, must have been just, given all you'd been through together, a terrible moment.
Yeah, definitely.
You know, I think, as you said, Tunisia versus Denmark sitting there and I started receiving a lot of messages from family.
No one was really telling me what was happening.
Everyone was like, have you heard?
Are you on your way?
And finally, in the second half, I got a call from my cousin.
And he told me that my mom had passed away.
And for the first 10 minutes, I wasn't believing it.
I was like, that can't be.
My mom was a healthy woman and, you know, 57 years old.
Like, I couldn't really believe it, especially the way they told me.
It was like an accident.
And yeah, flew back home.
And yeah, it was the reality.
It's definitely heartbroken, unexpected, not only for me, but for the entire family.
And the really sad part of this was that she'd gone to the gym early so that she could get back in time to watch you commentating because that was what she was so proud of.
And that's just a twist of faith.
Yeah, definitely.
I think one thing that I know in life for sure is that nothing's 100% and everything happen right away.
And as I said, we did not expect it.
And her dying that way is hard because I was expecting to live and be with her for the next 20 years.
One of the closest persons in my life, I mean, the closest person, one of the strongest women I've ever encountered in my life.
Not just because she was my mom, but because the hardships she's been going through and how she raised us, you know, five kids alone actually took us from one continent to another.
And yeah, losing her life that way, it hurt me.
But on the other hand, it's, you know, I have her in me and her, you know, spirit, her fighting mentality, and I'm going to do everything in my hands to make her proud.
You know, the mere fact you come back to the World Cup says that.
I mean, that's exactly the kind of spirit that your mother had, that she would have wanted you to show.
And I want to take you back now to Afghanistan.
First of all, you're living there with your parents and your four sisters, I think you have.
And your father is in the Afghan military.
He's a general, I think, is that right?
And he was murdered by the Taliban when you were just 11 years old.
What are your memories of that awful time?
I mean, yeah, 11 years old, vivid memories.
I remember everything.
It was a very, until that point, you know, I think my life's been always very protective.
My dad was general and my mom was a school teacher lecturer later on.
And we've always been very protected.
But after the Taliban gained power, killed my dad because obviously he had a very high position in the army and everything after that it was just like chaos.
We were trying to survive for a very long time, trying to make it in the country, but it was hard, you know, five girls and a mom.
You went into hiding, I think, for quite a while.
And then you went to Pakistan, you got some stolen passports and you eventually find yourselves in Denmark.
I think you thought you were going to England at one stage.
Yeah.
I know, funny story, huh?
We had family in England, and at that point, obviously, we wanted to be reunited with our family.
But fate didn't want us to end up in England for some reason.
And honestly, I don't really care because we were together and we were in safety, and that's the point of the entire thing.
And there's an amazing moment.
You're in Denmark and you're in an asylum camp, a refugee camp.
And you look over a fence and you see some kids playing football.
And you've never played the game, I don't think, until that point.
You don't speak either English or Danish, but you're desperate to get involved.
And eventually the coach who's teaching these kids says, come on then, you can join in.
Yeah.
What was it about football that you were drawn to?
I mean, there's so many things I'm drawn to the game.
I remember one of the first time I saw a girls' team play.
The girls who were playing, they looked happy and they looked free.
And me coming from a country where I had to be in hiding and always felt unsafe, that was something that attracted me.
And you'd also been prevented from going to school.
Yes.
By the Taliban.
Yeah, correct.
So I don't know, it just the game was speaking to me and I wanted to be that person on the field.
And you know, it's one of those moments struck by lightning and my eyes were widened up and I was like, I want to be that kid.
And you know, I have this, I don't know, I always thought it was from my dad's side, this fire inside of me, but I for sure know now it's from my mom's side.
Probably both, right?
Yeah, I guess so.
It's a combination.
Yeah.
And it turns out you are unbelievably good at football.
In fact, you go on to play for Denmark over a hundred times.
You score in a European championship final.
You're a brilliant player.
You're one of the great female footballers there's ever been.
And yet it was all really just fortuitous.
The luck of the draw of life that took you from Afghanistan to Denmark and then this remarkable career.
Fate.
I do believe in fate.
And I think also that's one of the reasons I can sit here today after less than seven, well, six days, seven days my mom passed away because I'm an emotional person but I'm very also irrational thinking, you know.
I think what's meant to be is meant to be and I try to find a positive every situation I am in and I think football gave me a life and you know my background brought me to football and then football gave me the life I have today and yeah I want to I want to take it and I want to do as much as good possible.
Most people would say that's enough.
Drama, horror, challenges for one life but not you.
You've decided to become a doctor and you're now involved in surgery repairing bodies effectively, right?
Yeah, I actually graduated as a doctor this January, January 14.
I haven't finished becoming surgeon yet.
This is something I'm gonna qualify whenever I'm done.
But yeah, doctor is a big thing.
My mom, that was one of her wishes, one of her kids to be a doctor.
And now she has two doctors and two nurses in her family.
And you've been around reconstructive surgeons, I know.
Yeah.
And you talked about how some of the skills you need to be a very super confident football player actually are quite similar to the skills you need to be a top surgeon.
Yeah, definitely.
I think you have to be able to work on the pressure, the responsibility I really like, and also feels like the adrenaline that you have on the surgeries.
It's very similar to scores.
It's scarier, being in a surgical room with a real patient and trying to save their life or playing in a European Championship final?
I don't think none of them are scary, to be honest.
They're both equally exciting.
How many languages do you speak?
Quite a lot.
How many?
Fully around nine.
Which ones?
So I speak Danish, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Dadi, Urdu.
I understand obviously Swedish and Norwegian because they're quite similar to Sweden.
Is there anything you can't do?
There probably is quite a lot of things I don't know yet, but if I start focusing on them, I'm probably going to learn them.
I mean, it's a remarkable story.
And I'm again so sorry about the loss of your mother because it's now so apparent to me why she was such a pivotal person in your life.
You know, you made this journey with her from Afghanistan to Denmark.
Without her, I guess none of you would have made it.
You're 100% correct.
And I, you know, I really feel she gave us life twice.
Once when she gave birth to me and second time when she took me from Afghanistan to Denmark to have a better future, a brighter future.
And yeah, it's someone that I'm going to always remember and I want to remember the gifts, you know, the happy memories I had with her.
What kind of woman was she?
Her name was Hadima.
Amida.
What kind of woman was she?
My mom was a very stubborn woman.
If she wants to set her mind to something, she'll go for it.
And it didn't matter if the entire world was against her.
She's very intelligent and just like this little lady with so much energy in her, so much power and someone who people listen to and she touched so many people's lives.
And even to her funeral, it was a Friday, 9.30.
And we just announced the day before because I'm a Muslim and our religion you have to bury, you know, as soon as possible.
And there were like a thousand people there and it just showed what kind of human being she was, someone who touched people's hearts.
Do you feel like she's with you in spirit?
Yeah, definitely.
I think that's also the reason I'm so calm.
I said I believe in faith, I believe she's in a better place and what's meant to be is meant to be and for me to lay down and then you know cry my eyes out for months and months I don't think that's gonna fix anything.
She's not gonna come back.
If that was the case, trust me, I'll be the one doing that.
So I try to take that energy, those emotions and put it to something that will remember her, honor her and hopefully for me, bring me further life.
You're only 34 years old and yet you've experienced so much in your life.
What's next for you, do you think?
I hope less drama in that way is less tragedy.
I hope that I can grow into a person who can have an impact not only on my life, on people around me, but people who are in need.
Honoring a Life Cut Short 00:15:01
That's something that I'm passionate about.
That's something my mom was passionate about.
So yeah, and I work hard for it.
We're going to talk football tonight, obviously.
What do you make of the World Cup so far?
Who are your picks to perhaps win it?
Honestly, I've been enjoying the World Cup, watching the games at the stadium.
It's been a great atmosphere.
For me, there's a couple of teams who've been doing very well.
I think we can all agree on that Brazil looks very sharp.
The reason for me they're looking so good and probably one of my favorites to win this tournament because they're so balanced as a team.
They have great strikers, not one player.
They have like, you know, four or five that can decide games.
Great midfield, experienced back, and then two of the best Premier League keepers there is.
And France, before the World Cup, I was counting them a bit out because they're missing, you know, the engine in Pokba and Conte.
But actually with the two young midfielders, they've been doing very well.
You know what?
When you've got Killian Mbappe up front and he's playing like he is, you can win anything.
Yeah, that's a fact.
Well, let's see when the games are getting, you know, a bit harder if he's going to maintain.
A lot of very excited American fans.
I mean, it's a massive moment for Team US because they've beaten Iran.
Obviously a very highly charged fixture that historically.
A lot of tension building up to it, but America have gotten through to the last 16.
Who knows?
Maybe England, America in the final.
That's very optimistic.
I'm sorry to say so.
But you know what?
This World Cup has shown that everything can happen.
You know what?
If I'd said to you, will Saudi ever beat Argentina?
You'd have said, don't be ridiculous.
That's true.
Facts.
This is the World Cup where miracles are happening.
Stay with me.
Now we're going to take a short break.
When we come back, we're going to get a reaction to that England victory.
Could England go all the way?
How far can US go?
We're talking to experts on all sides of the pond.
Welcome back to Piers Morgan Uncensored.
If you're wondering where we're filming the show from, we're here at this remarkable Fox Sport complex here in Doha.
It's the Corniche part of Doha in Qatar.
And behind me, they're actually recording some shows for Fox soccer, Fox Sports over in the States.
I've been doing some punditry for them as well.
But it really is remarkable.
The three massive studios and a host of stars coming and going through the day and through the night.
A huge operation with a lot of brilliant staff.
We've also been very kindly putting our show together as well.
And we thank you, team, for everything you've been doing.
Thank you very much.
We're talking of teams.
Everyone I think by now probably knows that my team allegiance is Arsenal Football Club.
So I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by the man who transformed my club from the mediocre minnows of the Premier League to the all-conquering champions because he brought this strange guy in called Arsen Benga, who we'd never heard of.
And he'd been in Japan.
He's lost his mind, this guy.
But David Dean knew what he was talking about.
He was the vice chairman of Arsenal.
And the rest is history.
Won the league three times in eight years, a host of other trophies, and became the best team in the world, probably ever.
And David Dean is with me now.
David, great to see you.
And Nadia has kindly agreed to stay with us.
David, a lot of speculation.
Well, first of all, your reaction to the result tonight, Ingda, what did you think?
Very satisfied.
It was, we started off very slowly, it was a bit of a pedestrian first half, but certainly woke up in the second half.
And it was a very good, accomplished performance.
And I'm delighted for the team and for all the fans.
Who would have thought that we could score nine goals at a World Cup and Harry Kane wouldn't get any of them?
There you go.
It's a good problem for Southgate to have.
Everyone's banging in goals apart from the guy who normally does.
That's right.
But you're only as good as your last game.
You've got to keep winning.
What does Southgate do now with this team?
Because now there's a lot of competition for places.
He brought Phil Foden back in, I think after he read my column in the sun, I'm not sure, demanding Foden's start, but he was great tonight.
Marcus Rashford was on fire tonight.
I don't see how he can drop Rashford, but he can't play Rashford, Sterling, Saka, Foden and Kane, and Mount and Grealish.
Yes.
Piers, we're all frustrated managers, aren't we?
Who would you put?
And I can see.
Senegal in the next round we've got, right?
On Sunday evening, I think.
Who would you put in that front five?
I'm very pleased I'm not the manager because he's got to stand up to be counted and he'll be judged on his performance, the team's performance.
Now, then what do you think?
Who would you put now?
If you were Garrett Southgate, obviously Kane starts, so who'd you put around Kane?
That's hard.
That's a matter of fact.
Who do you drop?
Who do you ruin their World Cup?
I don't know.
I think Rashford's been doing very well, so I'll choose him.
And then also Saka, because I'm also Arsenal fans.
I think you've got to play Saka on the right.
Foden in behind Kane.
Rashford, I mean, well, one of them's got to go on the left.
And they can't both, can they?
It's a pleasant problem to have.
Yeah.
Luxus.
It's a good problem.
Let's turn to the World Cup more generally, because David, you've been one of the top football executives for many decades now.
You know how it all works.
Let's start first of all with all the noise around FIFA as an organisation.
You've dealt with them over the years.
How much of the criticism is justified?
Well, I think perhaps initially, certainly when the bid process went on, it was definitely flawed.
There's no question about that.
However, that was 12 years ago.
We have to move on.
We've decided to put a team into the World Cup.
We've qualified and we've got to give it the best support we possibly can.
And I really feel sorry for people who haven't come out here because they're missing a lot.
They're missing a phenomenal tournament.
I have personally seen 15 out of the last 16 World Cups.
My first World Cup was 96.
How many have you seen?
15 out of 16 since 16.
Four a day, you'd be gay.
No, no, I'm talking about World Cups override the games.
How many games have you been going to?
Four a day.
I've been to heaven.
I've been obviously going around with Arsenal.
We've been seeing four games a day.
Out of all the games, we've only missed two out of 100.
I just want to interrupt you because there's a man chanting, Piers Morgan is a legend, and I wouldn't like to think the cameras haven't picked that up.
So I just want to make sure we got that on camera.
Are you sure he didn't say leg end?
How many World Cups have you been to?
World Cups, I've been, the first one was 1966 at Wembley when we won it.
I was one.
Yes.
So you went to that one?
I've been to 15 since then, missing out one in 1982 in Spain.
Otherwise, 15 World Cups.
And Piers, out of all of them, this has to rank right at the top.
This is as good, if not better, than any other.
Funny enough, I saw Graham Sunas this morning.
He said the same thing.
Best team.
It's been phenomenal.
The whole organisation of it.
You know, people are quick to criticise and slow to praise.
Qatar deserve a lot of praise for the way they've put it on.
Last night we went to the game at Lusale Stadium.
It finished at 5 to 12.
I was back in the hotel at quarter past 12.
Couldn't do that at Winterbourne.
Did politics ever get involved with sport?
I don't think so, because where does it end?
Sport is a sport.
Football is a sport and we've got to treat it as such.
And once you start introducing politics, we're in trouble because we could have 32 countries here with different political messages.
Where does it end?
All of which have their own problems.
And you know, FIFA do deserve some credit.
And I think Gianni Infantino, particularly the president, obviously, everybody gets...
It's easy to criticise somebody, but it's been a magnificent World Cup.
You can't ever, I mean, the accommodation's been great.
The transport has been great.
I mean, look, I think the problem he felt to me was that press conference he gave, where he slightly over egged the souffle.
He went on a bit too passionately.
And when he began telling everybody, I'm gay, I'm Arabic, and I'm everything else, I was like, where's this going to finish?
He's like, he seemed to be everything.
But don't forget, he has been a bit, he's been a bit hammered by certain members of the press.
Sure.
I don't think you're amongst that bot, are you?
Please.
What did you make of it, Nadia?
It's a hard job running FIFA, but I knew what he was trying to say.
He was trying to say, look, there's a lot of hypocrisy, which I think there is.
I've been on this myself.
But he probably slightly overdid it.
Yeah, definitely.
I think, you know, I don't think he knows how it feels to truly be in someone else's shoes that way.
He always explained it.
But I think his message was kind of that we should be a bit more tolerant, you know, and football is the beautiful game that can unite.
And it's for everyone.
And this region deserves also to experience World Cup.
And I think it's going to do great things for the region, not only for Qatar.
You've had a bit of criticism back home.
Yeah.
Everybody who seems to come here, I got criticized for coming.
I was like, I don't care whether you think I should not.
I've been in the Middle East a lot in my life.
I like the Middle East.
I like the people here.
I think they deserve a bit more respect for what they're doing here.
And that doesn't mean you ignore the areas where they could certainly be improving.
But I don't think England's in any great shape to extol their moral virtue on other countries.
What do you think of this argument about the morality of it all?
Honestly, as you said, to be honest, I don't really understand it.
For me, this was the decision that was taken 12 years ago.
And now that we're here, we should try to make the best out of it.
I think there's problems everywhere.
And trying to highlight one thing extremely for so long, I think is a bit too much.
What I see in the way is that football is a great tool to bring change, to educate, to improve.
Just the fact that we're sitting here talking about what could be better, that's a change.
You can spin any of these numbers.
I mean, there are so many millions of migrants, two and a half million migrants here.
How many countries would allow 90-odd percent of their population to be migrants, right?
And they come here to earn more money than they could from the countries they come from in almost every case.
Yes, there have been a number of deaths.
Yes, those should be investigated.
Yes, the conditions have had to be improved.
So therefore, that's an admission.
Things weren't as good as they should be.
But I was speaking to some women yesterday, Qatari women.
Everyone in Qatar gets free education, for example.
I didn't know that.
They said there's gender pay equality throughout all official bodies, including the government.
And so on and so on.
It's not quite how people maybe in Denmark or England think it is here.
No, I don't think that's correct exactly.
You know, I think some of the Western media has been taking one thing and kind of spinning it.
And a lot of people that come here, they say, well, I was imagining something totally differently.
And to be very frank, you know, it's not because I'm trying to build your, like, you know, paint your picture, does not, but I'm just whether it deserves credit, you should give it.
And for me, this World Cup so far has been brilliant.
David, putting on a World Cup is an unbelievably difficult thing.
And I think we can all agree that so far it's run very, very well.
No traffic problems.
The stadiums are out of this world.
If you want a drink, you can get one very easily in restaurants and bars all over the town, hotels.
There's no real problem with that.
I personally rather like the fact the fans can't all get drunk inside the stadiums because I was at the Wembley Euros final last year and frankly it was a complete disgrace.
I agree with you.
And they're running now at 97% capacity.
So virtually every stadium is full every day.
Well that atmosphere tonight, America, Iran was probably the best atmosphere so far.
There you go.
Well I thought Argentina-Mexico was really rich.
I mean that was wonderful.
That were nearly 90,000 people and a lot of the Argentinian fans, the Mexican fans were side by side.
You know and I mean that for FIFA this has been a phenomenal success.
It really has what about what about the allegations which have swirled around FIFA for decades of corruption?
You know all these people.
We know that a lot of them have been caught with their fingers in the tilt.
So the corruption has clearly been real and clearly been going on.
Should FIFA go through a wholesale reformation, do you think?
Well, no, but I think in fairness, when Johnny infant, don't forget, he inherited that mess.
And to his great credit, I think he's actually cleaned up the shop.
So I think he deserves something for that, for the way FIFA is currently being run.
Of course, everybody's going to be critical.
He's got 211 mouths to feed.
Not everybody's going to be satisfied.
That goes with the territories.
I mean, there's huge money in a World Cup.
And where there's huge money, there's always corruption.
Yeah, we can't be as we can be cynical.
But meanwhile, this tournament will gross something like $7 billion.
Right?
You've got to say that is a huge success.
It's wonderful.
And it all gets recycled back into football around the world.
I certainly think, Nadim, you're walking around Qatar.
I know you've had to sadly leave to be at your mother's funeral, but I've been here for five days now, just walking around and milling around with regular fans of all around the world.
A, you get a sense of the scale of a World Cup.
The sheer volume of country supporters walking around with flags and everything.
Secondly, a lot of happiness, no real incidents, no fighting, no vomiting in the street.
I mean, it's been a very, feels like a very safe and happy event to me.
Yeah, definitely.
I've been enjoying it.
As you said, you know, the atmosphere of the vibe is very, very nice, pleasant, safe.
The fans are enjoying themselves.
The fan zones are full.
I've been a couple of times at a fan festival.
What's it been like to be a woman in Qatar for you?
I mean, for me, it's been the same as it is everywhere.
I felt safe like in the US and Europe.
As I said, it's very hard to point fingers if you haven't really experienced yourself.
And this is a way for us to educate.
I think football has that power to educate, see, because you read something or you heard something without actually being able to...
Also for you coming from Afghanistan where you were deprived in education by the Taliban and now millions of young girls in Afghanistan are once again being deprived in education by the Taliban.
To come to a country like Qatar, which is a small country, but where education is free for all, including all girls, I mean, that's not a thing to turn our noses up at.
No, I think that's amazing.
I think that's a great example to set.
That should be a norm anywhere, you know, free education.
But unfortunately, that's not the case.
Who is going to win the World Cup?
Come on, you know your football.
Well, I think Nadia wasn't far wrong when she...
Education Freedom in Qatar 00:13:00
I think you went for Brazil.
Brazil, they're my friends.
I think France won't be too far away.
I don't think Portugal will be far away.
They won't be.
They look good.
And I have to tell you, yesterday was one.
I mean, we are seeing, I mean, obviously I'm going around a lot with Arsene.
We're seeing four games a day.
And yesterday, after the Ghana game, where they were playing Korean, it was a wonderful game of football.
We were coming to Lusale for the final, the fourth game.
I said to him, Arsene, are you ready for another game?
He said, I'm ready for two.
This will be unique.
You will not see another World Cup with four games.
Can England win it?
Put your neck out.
If we win all the next games, we can win it.
Wow.
I think we can beat Senegal.
Then we're in the quarterfinals, right?
And who knows?
Anything can happen in a World Cup.
You've been there.
You've been in the European final.
Yeah.
Anything can happen.
That's football, you know?
Yeah.
Listen, thank you, particularly for coming back to the World Cup.
That takes a lot of guts.
And I send my very best to you and all your family as well.
And I can see the spirit of both your father and your mother in you.
Without ever having met them but knowing what they did, I can see it in you.
So thank you very much.
Thank you for that.
And David, great to see you.
As always.
I bet you better get your beggar because you presume you're off to another full game tomorrow.
Well, only two, I'm afraid.
We can't do four.
But we'll be.
Final question for you.
Arsenal, five points clear of the Premier League.
Is it coming back?
Are we going to win the league this season?
I think we have a decent chance because everybody can beat everybody this year.
Do we need to buy a top striker in?
I think they have to be bowled in the transfer market in January.
The big checks.
Would be my advice.
What about Cristiano Ronaldo?
I'm not going to comment on that.
Put him up front with Jesus.
Then you'd have God and Jesus.
It's a good combination.
That's a good one.
We shouldn't have thought of that.
Thank you both very much.
David, great to see you.
Nadia, thank you very much indeed.
Well, next tonight, more reaction to night's result from Team USA.
I'll talk to Kobe Jones, the most capped U.S. player in history.
There he is.
Welcome back to Piers Morgan Uncensored, which is live from Doha and Qatar, scene, of course, of the World Cup.
I'm joined now by the most capped U.S. international football player.
Refuse to use the word soccer on this set.
Kobe Jones.
Kobe, welcome to you.
Thank you for joining me from the Fox.
They call it Fox soccer.
It's Fox football.
We know that, right?
No, no, I appreciate you having me here, but I do want you to understand, since we did play better in the England game, is it soccer now?
That's one of the most irritating things.
Do you know the worst statistic in world football is that England have never beaten America in a competitive game of football?
Amazing, isn't it?
It's never happened.
I know.
Trust me, I know.
The only thing I'm hoping for is that we get to the final against you and just destroy you.
Well, it's good to want.
It's good to hope, you know.
But when you have those realities right now, I think everybody around the world thinks that the U.S. is a better team based off of that performance, where the U.S. play very well on every separate team.
Only you lot could celebrate a nil-nil draw.
We're not celebrating.
As if you've somehow reinvented the civil war or something.
It's not happening.
Let me ask you about America as a, well, let's call it soccer because in America, you call it soccer.
How big is the sport now?
I mean, it's always been a sport, it seems to me, that people, boys would play until they were 16, 17 and then gravitate to other sport.
Bigger for young girls and young women.
But now it seems to me it's on the cusp potentially of breaking through.
The ratings for Fox have been huge.
This World Cup record numbers.
The team looks as good as it's ever been.
What do you feel?
I feel that it's here.
It's here to stay.
It's established itself as a major sport and it's only continuing to grow.
I think moments like this, when you talk about the World Cup, this is when you see the exponential growth because it's been a steady growth.
And then every World Cup, it grows, it has these leaps and bounds.
And that was a big problem of when we did not qualify in the last World Cup.
But now, I mean, from everything that I've seen and everything that I'm hearing back in the States, it's taking off to another level once again.
You played 164 games in the U.S. You must be exhausted, aren't you?
That was only in about 13, 14 years.
Yeah, it wasn't a lot of time.
It was all squeezed in and packed in.
And I understand the fan that really doesn't know a lot about that or what a cap is as far as representing your country.
It might not seem like a lot, but that's quite a bit, you know, because the norm, it's like celebrated if you get 100 caps.
And I feel that I was honored to represent myself.
No, I've always had a bugbear that American sport, you tend to call yourselves world champions in sports that only Americans are allowed to play.
You're now in a tournament which actually genuinely does have the rest of the world allowed to compete against you.
Would it be the pinnacle of American sport to actually win a World Cup that's genuinely a world event?
Well, look, first off, for all the other sports, everyone's invited.
Feel free.
Feel free to participate if you like.
I'm going to bring the British baseball team.
There we go.
Go for it.
But look, if we win the World Cup, I think that would set a mark like no other because we are looked upon within the soccer world as they're just starting out.
They don't know.
So if we do get to a point where we even get to a final, that's going to really have a profound impact, I think, on the game itself.
It seems to me, looking at the team, young, hungry, dynamic.
I think the average age was 24 tonight in the game against a much older, more experienced Iran, and they came through it.
The one thing you're lacking as a team is a top striker.
Would that be fair?
I would say that's fair.
How can you have 320 million people and not have a strike?
We're still looking.
We're still developing.
We've only got 60 million.
We've got buckets of them.
Yeah, but you've been playing the sport for hundreds of years.
So you want to look better at it.
I've lured you into my trap.
You've just been playing longer, that's all.
But we're getting there.
In a short amount of time, we're getting there.
And it's not an issue only for the U.S. There's a lot of teams that, even at this World Cup, that have a history that are still trying to figure out who their striker is going to be.
Foxes, I think, rather cleverly, Fox Sport, have kept out of all the politics that's been swirling around the tournament, which seems to me to be massively overblown.
You've played a lot of football at international level.
What do you think just generally about politics and sport?
I mean, it seems to me in recent years, a lot of sportsmen from Colin Kaepernick to LeBron James, an American, we've had the same in England with a lot of Marcus Rashford and others, wanting to get involved in social justice issues, racial justice, all that kind of thing.
Does that blur the line between politics and sport or not?
Or should sportsmen, do you think, use their brands and their success to wider messages?
Well, I think within the various events themselves, me personally, I would like to see it stick to sport, but I do think the athletes should use their platform that they have to speak to the issues that are important to them.
So it is a little bit of a combination of both.
But for me, I love sport with a passion because of what it brings for people and everything that you can learn about it.
And it breaks down barriers and allows people from different cultures to play.
I'm talking to Nadia Nadeem earlier about her extraordinary story, which I didn't know much about.
But to go from Afghanistan as a refugee to Denmark with your four sisters and your mum, your dad's been killed by the Taliban, and you end up in Denmark and you see kids playing football across a fence and you beg to play and then you become Denmark's most capped female player and an iconic figure in female football.
Quite amazing.
It is.
But that's what football can do, right?
Yeah, that's what football can do.
That's what sport can do.
That's why it's so important that everyone has the opportunity to play because that sport really does bring everyone together.
It's the common language.
And the World Cup in particular, I think.
You've played in three World Cups, I think?
Three World Cups, yes.
A lot of people are saying this is the best World Cup they've been to in terms of organization.
What do you think?
I think it's a great World Cup.
I think one of the big things that we see here, it's a smaller area, so you have that opportunity, especially for the fan, to go to various games.
Why don't people have walked around all day and watched four games?
Yeah, they've walked 12 miles, right?
That's amazing, that you can go see a game in the morning and see a game in the evening.
I don't think we'll have another World Cup where you'll be able to do that.
The next one is coming to America along with Canada and Mexico.
What will you be calling it when FIFA brings the Football World Cup to America?
The greatest soccer event ever.
Damn you.
Cody, great to see you.
Pleasure.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate you coming on.
Well, next to like more reaction and World Cup predictions.
Don't go away.
Welcome back to Piers Morgan Uncensored, live here in Doha, Qatar, which of course is the venue this year for the World Cup.
I'm joined now by a friend of Piers Morgan Uncensored, aviation expert Alex Vicheris, who's lived between Doha and London.
Alex, great to see you.
Good to see you.
We normally talk to you about aviation, which has been a big story, of course, the last few years.
But I've also been aware that you often join us from Doha, from your Skype, from your home here, which you come and go to.
You've lived for a long time, on and off.
I suppose the obvious question is, are we being sold a bit of a mythological view of Qatar?
Has it all been created to make us feel this way about Qatar while the World Cup's?
I think what you have experienced on this trip and what I know you've been doing since you've been here, I think you have actually got to know Qatar for what it is.
And I think that's been the consensus among fans who have traveled here, experienced what people are calling one of the best World Cups ever.
Going to multiple matches a day.
The other day I was at three matches.
You know, the unique nature of this tournament combined with the hospitality that Qataris are famous for, that the Middle East is famous for, and the way that this place has developed since they got the bidding.
How has it changed in the time you've been here?
It's changed physically.
The skyline behind us has changed.
It's changed in terms of infrastructure.
It's changed in the fact that now you can have over a million people arriving to the airport, clear immigration in five minutes, almost a million riding the metro every day, going between games.
But also society has been ready for this World Cup.
You know, is the place perfect?
Where is, as you've been saying?
But I think this has been an important project that they've been focused on, that they have been able to make great reforms as a result, and it's been a chance for the whole world to gather here and experience.
And a lack of human cost.
I want to play a clip from last night, my interview with Hassan Al-Tawadi.
He's really Mr. World Cup here, in which he made a concession about the number of migrant workers who've died.
Just play this.
Do you know how many migrant workers have died as a result of any construction since the announcement of the bid?
We decided to capture and we made a decision in terms of obviously work-related deaths as defined under the industry standard, but also capturing what we consider to be non-work-related deaths.
And this is only purely in relation to the stadiums and the projects that we're responsible for.
And what are those totals?
And that's three work-related deaths and 37 non-work-related deaths.
What is the honest, realistic total, do you think, of migrant workers who've died from, as a result of work they're doing for the World Cup in totality?
The estimate is around 400.
Between 400 and 500.
I don't have the exact number.
An interesting admission.
It's made a lot of news actually around the world, that admission, because everyone has taken a figure from The Guardian of 6,500, which people quickly worked out was not accurate.
That was the total number of migrant workers who've died of anything in the last 12 years, and that's natural causes included.
But to say that 400 to 500 migrant workers have died over probably a 10-year period here in all construction around the entire city, it's not a small amount of people.
It's not, and of course, no one is going to diminish the travesties of that.
But I think what's important is that, you know, Hassan Thawadias has come forward to ultimately speak up about it.
When you're asking him the questions, I think a lot of the time they find in this place that they're never given the chance to provide those answers or they're running with, as you say, guardian articles.
And there are reforms in place.
I mean, I'm sure you know over the years.
Well, they've definitely made labor law reforms, and that is a significant part of the legacy from this World Cup, along with other things.
Meeting Fans Who Want Money 00:03:39
Now, I want to show you scenes of Americans celebrating earlier their win tonight over Iran.
Big game, obviously.
A lot of history.
Let's watch a little...
Oh, we haven't got it.
What we have got is an annoying American.
Does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the God.
America!
Yes!
Can you sit down, please?
I mean, imagine what they're like if they actually win a quarterfinal.
Unbelievable.
Oh, it's coming home, man.
It's coming home to America, baby.
It can't actually come home if it's never, A, been created here and you've never won it before.
You're understanding.
We're taking it.
We are taking it.
Oh, big night.
Big night.
Congratulations to your team.
You know what?
Let's just agree.
It's my last night for now until we get to the final, obviously, in Qatar.
We've had a few little squabbles along the way, but tonight, united in celebration of two good victories.
This is coming together of two great nations, two great soccering nations that have come together in victory and moving on to bigger and better things.
And who knows, maybe in the future we will meet again.
How are you doing, man?
Good to meet you.
I mean, I'm seeing evidence of special relationships.
There's two Alexis here, really, in a way.
You're outnumbered.
A lot of people saying it's the best World Cup they've been to.
What do you feel?
I love it.
I mean, there's this brigadoon-ish type of experience that we have here, this magic that is here.
Everybody's obviously in the same place.
There's no traveling.
I think it's been wonderful.
I mean, discovering the land, discovering the people.
Well, the people have been wonderful here.
We've had some great soccer.
Do you know what I've had?
I was going to ask you, Alex.
I've had probably a dozen now local Qatari people who've come up to me.
Actually, most wanted to talk about the Ronaldo interview, which they watched and have a chat.
But then all offering me the chance to go back to their homes and have a meal.
They all want to give me money.
This is it.
This is the unique nature of this World Cup.
I've never had that anywhere.
We had people, we had Qatari families outside of stadiums putting on a whole spread for free for fans who are going to try local Qatari food whilst walking into the games.
Probably their second or third game of the day.
I mean, it's a good thing.
One guy, I said to him, look, it's very kind, but unfortunately, I haven't got time.
I'm going back.
And he said, okay, no problem.
Love you to meet.
Went off.
I went to pay my bill in the restaurant like an hour later.
He paid it.
But that is my experience of local Qatari people.
Very thrilled to have people.
That's the Hisborg and affected.
Have you had any offers of meals?
Nobody's paid myself.
Has your reputation gone before?
Yeah, nobody's paid.
No, they've been wonderful, wonderful food, wonderful just hospitality.
And to your point, we are guests here.
We are guests in this incredible country with this incredible history.
And they want to make sure that we have a good time and obviously take the message back to everybody.
Does Team US have to play better than you just sang?
Oh, my God.
To make the final start.
I would hope so.
I would hope that they played.
How far can they go, do you think?
Well, we've got the Dutch next.
Yeah.
Come on.
No problem.
Dutch.
I thought you'd be taking some stuff in Holland, man.
Don't you worry.
On the old Amsterdam Trail.
If you think you're going to beat the Dutch.
Oh, my God.
You're leaving now?
You're out of here?
I'm going tomorrow morning, but I may come back if England gets to the final.
If?
Well, when?
When?
You should come back and watch the US.
I would say I'll miss you.
I'm not sure I go that far, but I've liked our bonding this week.
It's been wonderful.
Thank you very much for coming on the show.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Alex, great to see you.
We've had some fun too.
That's it from me.
I'll be back at usual time in London tomorrow night, live at 8 o'clock, whatever you're up to.
Keep it uncensored.
That's me saying goodnight from Doha in Qatar.
Been a fantastic few
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