# Kiriakou on soccer

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Kiriakou on soccer," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-on-soccer/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's public reversal on football, a sport he had dismissed since his teens on the strength of a Saturday Night Live joke about a match between Yemen and Saudi Arabia being decided early by an insurmountable one-nil lead. Watching the 2026 World Cup, he concluded he had been wrong.*

- **Original verdict:** "The most profoundly boring sport that has ever been invented"
- **Source of the prejudice:** A Weekend Update joke on Saturday Night Live, seen as a teenager
- **The joke:** Yemen took an insurmountable one-nil lead over Saudi Arabia
- **Revised verdict:** "I admit I was wrong"

**Kiriakou on soccer** is a reversal [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) announced on air in July 2026, having held the opposite view since he was a teenager.

## The original verdict

His starting position was categorical: *"I have never liked soccer. I have always found it to be the most profoundly boring sport that has ever been invented."*[1]

He traces it to a single joke. As a teenager he saw a fleeting reference on *Saturday Night Live*'s Weekend Update to a match between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, which the sketch said had been decided early when Yemen built an insurmountable one-nil lead.[2]

His reaction was that the joke had proved the case: a sport so boring that one-nil wins the game, in which the players merely kick the ball back and forth.[3]

## The reconsideration

What changed was a deliberate test. Kiriakou decided that with seven billion people loving the game and himself not, he must be missing something, and concluded that he was. *"Once you learn the strategy of it, okay, I admit I was wrong."*[3]

He watched the World Cup and found it exciting, supporting Germany, France and Brazil to lose on the grounds that they always win, and getting his wish when all three went out.[4]

## See also

- [The 2026 World Cup Final](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-2026-world-cup-final)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Acts of Service](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/acts-of-service)

## Sources

1. This is Why Iran's Missiles Will Keep Coming | Ep. 3 (2026-07-21), at 29:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkRAo0eDnK0&t=1750s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-21-john-kiriakou-this-is-why-iran-s-missiles-will/
2. This is Why Iran's Missiles Will Keep Coming | Ep. 3 (2026-07-21), at 29:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkRAo0eDnK0&t=1781s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-21-john-kiriakou-this-is-why-iran-s-missiles-will/
3. This is Why Iran's Missiles Will Keep Coming | Ep. 3 (2026-07-21), at 30:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkRAo0eDnK0&t=1812s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-21-john-kiriakou-this-is-why-iran-s-missiles-will/
4. This is Why Iran's Missiles Will Keep Coming | Ep. 3 (2026-07-21), at 30:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkRAo0eDnK0&t=1843s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-21-john-kiriakou-this-is-why-iran-s-missiles-will/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-on-soccer/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt