A World Cup of Spies

London, 2010. Petrodollars are flowing into Britain as Russian billionaires are buying luxury homes. Chelsea has just won the Premier League, thanks to its generous oligarch owner. Scotland Yard is investigating the polonium assassination of a Russian spy turned MI6 informant.

England and Russia are neck and neck favourites in the fierce race to become the host of the football World Cup in 2018. They will stop at nothing to win, and huge bribes are involved. In FIFA’s own assessment, Russia is not the optimal host, but in the end, England is humiliated with only two votes.

In a new documentary, journalists Niels Holm and Jon Adelsten enter the murky world of private intelligence agencies with a simple question: how did Russia win its World Cup?

We follow the enormous sums of money that have flown from extravagant stadium and infrastructure projects into the hands of Putin’s tight-knit circle of trusted oligarchs.