Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Andrew Giuliani | Executive Director of the Task Force for the World Cup Celebrates a Big Win

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Andrew Giuliani | Executive Director of the Task Force for the World Cup Celebrates a Big Win · Sid & Friends In The Morning

0:00
Speaker 1: Brian kill mead, him and Julianni the faces of this
0:03
Speaker 1: amazing World Cup Soccer tournament. Look, Brian very simply, Spain
0:08
Speaker 1: was the best and bop eight nothing, Messi nothing shut
0:12
Speaker 1: out both of those two high powered offensive teams in
0:16
Speaker 1: France and Argentina, so clearly they were the best team.
0:20
Speaker 1: What were your thoughts though on yesterday's final game?
0:23
Speaker 2: They still Argentine was everything you said is correct, and
0:25
Speaker 2: still Argentina had a shot at the end, two of them,
0:28
Speaker 2: you know, and they still had a shot to tie
0:30
Speaker 2: it up now down a man. So I think that
0:33
Speaker 2: it was an exciting game. If you just said, well
0:35
Speaker 2: zero zero was boring, you didn't watch it really wasn't.
0:38
Speaker 2: I mean, you saw physical play, you saw great opportunities
0:43
Speaker 2: and chances created. You didn't see anything from Messi. He
0:46
Speaker 2: tried to move to the outside when there was nothing
0:48
Speaker 2: in the middle, and then they couldn't get him the
0:50
Speaker 2: ball outside because their midfield was dominated by Spain's midfield.
0:54
Speaker 2: Midfield are the guys that set you up, so you
0:57
Speaker 2: need that ball placed in a spot that's gonna allow
1:01
Speaker 2: you to build in the offensive third. So he wasn't
1:05
Speaker 2: getting the ball, so we moved out wide, got additional space,
1:08
Speaker 2: and they just shut him down because I think that
1:11
Speaker 2: everyone talks about the back line of the Spain, but
1:14
Speaker 2: their midfield is actually better. And when you control the
1:17
Speaker 2: ball at midfield, your back line doesn't even have to
1:19
Speaker 2: be as good. So together they did listen to this
1:22
Speaker 2: sid you got a no dominance. They won the under
1:24
Speaker 2: twenty threes. Their favored to win the Olympics. That's what
1:28
Speaker 2: the under twenty three team is. That's the only difference
1:29
Speaker 2: in the Olympics. In World Cup, you gotta be under
1:31
Speaker 2: twenty three with I think three exemptions for overage players.
1:35
Speaker 2: So they won that, They won the European Championship, they
1:38
Speaker 2: won the World Cup, and now the women are the
1:42
Speaker 2: reigning World Cup champions. So if successfu leaves clues, let's
1:45
Speaker 2: find out what they're doing. We now got this great
1:47
Speaker 2: facility in Atlanta, cutting edge, as good as any in
1:50
Speaker 2: the world. Now of Arthur Blank rote a check, Ken
1:53
Speaker 2: Griffin wrote a check. Us soccer raised a ton of money.
1:56
Speaker 2: Now there's gonna be kids of all ages training residencies.
2:00
Speaker 2: It's going to be as good as anywhere. So Spain
2:04
Speaker 2: settled in in twenty ten. They said we're going to
2:06
Speaker 2: restructure our program, and it resulted in huge progress. And
2:10
Speaker 2: look at where we're at right now. We have the
2:12
Speaker 2: athletes we could do it.
2:13
Speaker 1: What about my friend Andrew Giuliani, He was on Would
2:16
Speaker 1: Kill Me yesterday morning on Box News. He was great
2:19
Speaker 1: Life from Giant Stadium. What an unbelievable job Giuliani did.
2:25
Speaker 1: And this was no small effort. I mean, getting all
2:28
Speaker 1: these venues, getting all the games there, getting the fans
2:31
Speaker 1: in all the terrorist issues he had to deal with
2:35
Speaker 1: security and all that, and this thing went off flying colors.
2:40
Speaker 1: You know, I know that Klay Travis said it last
2:42
Speaker 1: week and President Trump has already said it yesterday. We
2:45
Speaker 1: ought to have this event in America every time. And
2:48
Speaker 1: the guy that should be in charge because he proved it,
2:51
Speaker 1: is my friend Andrew Giuliani, who joined me from the
2:54
Speaker 1: airport this morning. Andrew, take a bow, buddy, What an
2:57
Speaker 1: amazing job. Congratulations.
3:00
Speaker 3: Well thank you, Sid. You know, and I have the
3:02
Speaker 3: opportunity to address my team last night, and I told
3:05
Speaker 3: him that, you know, Spain obviously was the best team
3:08
Speaker 3: at this World Cup, lifting the trophy, as you said,
3:11
Speaker 3: beating Mambape, beating MESSI. But even Spain. The team that
3:15
Speaker 3: won the World Cup let in a goal. The US
3:18
Speaker 3: government of the last forty days did not let in
3:20
Speaker 3: one goal. And that's what made this World Cup shine.
3:23
Speaker 3: All the work, all the dedication done by all these
3:26
Speaker 3: federal employees over the last forty days really more than
3:30
Speaker 3: that last year and a half, really, since President Trump
3:33
Speaker 3: came back into office, since his vision that he you know,
3:37
Speaker 3: set out for in twenty eighteen to land this World Cup,
3:40
Speaker 3: it's been able to be executed through two different government
3:43
Speaker 3: shutdowns to be able to go and put on an
3:46
Speaker 3: event like this where the world could see truly American
3:50
Speaker 3: exceptionalism over these last forty days. You know, and I
3:54
Speaker 3: got the job President's Trump and interviewed with him the
3:57
Speaker 3: very first time on it. You know, President's and he's
4:00
Speaker 3: a man who's very busy. So you better have a
4:02
Speaker 3: really good elevator pitch ready to go when you walk
4:04
Speaker 3: into that Oval office. You better be ready to go,
4:07
Speaker 3: because you know what, when he sees me, he wants
4:08
Speaker 3: to talk about sid Rosenberg, or he's got a deal
4:12
Speaker 3: with Putin on something or something like that. So I said,
4:14
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm going to get about fifteen seconds
4:16
Speaker 3: to talk about soccer. What's my pitch to President Trump?
4:20
Speaker 3: And the pitch was simply this, sir, you're not going
4:23
Speaker 3: to have a larger platform than the World Cup to
4:26
Speaker 3: be able to show off American exceptionalism over our first
4:29
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty years and the hope and promise
4:33
Speaker 3: our freedom's offer over the next two hundred and fifty years,
4:36
Speaker 3: not just to the United States of America, not just
4:38
Speaker 3: to our citizens, but to all those freedom loving people
4:42
Speaker 3: around the world. And he was interested. He liked it.
4:45
Speaker 3: And then and then he asked me, well, what about
4:47
Speaker 3: your friend sid how's you doing it? Said, he's the
4:49
Speaker 3: best radios in the world. And that's what actually landed
4:51
Speaker 3: me the job.
4:51
Speaker 1: So did you play coup with Trump in that ring
4:55
Speaker 1: storm at bedmns you're supposed to one Saturday morning? Did
4:58
Speaker 1: you guys end up playing?
5:00
Speaker 3: We didn't. We ended up hanging out for a couple hours,
5:02
Speaker 3: which was which is just as good because we could
5:04
Speaker 3: talk through kind of a bunch of the things that
5:06
Speaker 3: happened throughout the course of this World Cup, give him
5:08
Speaker 3: a little context for the next day, and obviously him
5:13
Speaker 3: being in the box there with Shinebaum and the King
5:15
Speaker 3: and Queen of Spain and the Arnie and what it
5:19
Speaker 3: was going to look like and walk him through that,
5:21
Speaker 3: and it was you know, it was really really wonderful
5:25
Speaker 3: to be able to discuss kind of what the vision
5:27
Speaker 3: was going back to twenty eighteen, how he landed it
5:30
Speaker 3: navigating through the politics of soccer, which actually I got
5:33
Speaker 3: to tell you, as you know, Sid, I've spent you know,
5:35
Speaker 3: most of my life really almost out of the womb
5:38
Speaker 3: in politics. There's as much politics in soccer as there
5:40
Speaker 3: isn't almost anything else. And he now navigated it really,
5:44
Speaker 3: really incredibly well. And he allowed us, right, I mean,
5:48
Speaker 3: when you work for the president, there's a certain way
5:54
Speaker 3: that you can ultimately utilize your leverage, but you need
5:56
Speaker 3: to ultimately know where the president stands if you're going
5:59
Speaker 3: to be able to do that to accomplish things. And
6:01
Speaker 3: I got to tell you, his leadership, his intelligence on
6:05
Speaker 3: this stuff, he allowed us to do so many great things.
6:07
Speaker 3: It's going to really be helpful for the legacy of
6:09
Speaker 3: America going forward. Just think I was talking to Bobcraft
6:13
Speaker 3: a couple days ago. He was talking about the New
6:15
Speaker 3: England Patriots, already discussing with Scotland playing Patriot games over
6:19
Speaker 3: in Scotland, the Norwegians, their love for the United States
6:24
Speaker 3: where they're going to row to next. The legacy just
6:27
Speaker 3: really starts right now of this twenty twenty six World Cup.
6:31
Speaker 3: It starts with tourism. It starts with the renewed love
6:34
Speaker 3: of the United States of America, seeing how great our
6:37
Speaker 3: country truly is cutting through the media said you could
6:41
Speaker 3: say it. I'm a government employee now, but it begins
6:43
Speaker 3: with B and ends with.
6:44
Speaker 1: Syah the bullshit, And you're right, and I think you
6:47
Speaker 1: said it on this show and with Kill Mead and
6:50
Speaker 1: many many times that Americans fell in love with the
6:54
Speaker 1: World Cup and the world fell in love with America.
6:58
Speaker 3: God, I love that. It's it's true. I mean really,
7:02
Speaker 3: it's true. And you saw it in all the stories, right.
7:04
Speaker 3: You saw it with the Norwegians, you saw it with
7:08
Speaker 3: you saw with the Japanese, the respect cleaning up the stadiums.
7:12
Speaker 3: You just kept seeing it. And even though and I
7:14
Speaker 3: gotta tell you, the British press might be the worst
7:16
Speaker 3: group of press that I've ever seen and makes MSNBC
7:19
Speaker 3: look like they're right of sid Rosenberg, and even they
7:24
Speaker 3: the Foreign Press Center briefing on Friday even they couldn't
7:28
Speaker 3: find things to criticize the United States about over this period.
7:31
Speaker 3: And I think you're right, right, I mean the World
7:34
Speaker 3: Cup and if FIFA's gonna look at the numbers that
7:36
Speaker 3: they made, we're gonna look at the numbers that we made.
7:38
Speaker 3: We'll get back together in September talk about some debriefs
7:42
Speaker 3: what this looked like. But you know, they're projected to
7:45
Speaker 3: make about four and a half to five times the
7:47
Speaker 3: amount of revenue off of this World Cup as they
7:51
Speaker 3: made off the previous World Cup. That's an incredible number.
7:54
Speaker 3: Generally you look for about a thirty or forty percent
7:57
Speaker 3: growth perspective, maybe over a four year period, that numbers
8:00
Speaker 3: a little over fifty percent. You're talking about three to
8:03
Speaker 3: four hundred percent. Unbelievable when you look at it, And
8:06
Speaker 3: that really is because of how great our country is.
8:11
Speaker 1: It really is true, and that's why I forgave you
8:14
Speaker 1: for sticking me up. On Saturday night. There I was
8:17
Speaker 1: with Joe piscopol and Scott Lebato and Frank Morano and
8:20
Speaker 1: beed misson going where the hell is Andrew Giuliani Now
8:23
Speaker 1: worked out okay because President and Trump singled me out
8:25
Speaker 1: and made a big deal about me to your point, Andrew,
8:28
Speaker 1: but I did miss you one Saturday night, but it's okay.
8:30
Speaker 1: You were kind of busy. I guess is there anything
8:33
Speaker 1: about this tournament when you look back now, because again
8:36
Speaker 1: I gave you an a plus plus plus plus. I
8:39
Speaker 1: don't know how you could have done a better job.
8:41
Speaker 1: There were no issues. Even the traffic wasn't nearly as
8:43
Speaker 1: bad as New Jersey wanted it to be, thank god,
8:46
Speaker 1: not one, not one security concern. All these games went
8:50
Speaker 1: up and flying callers, every c did a fantastic job.
8:53
Speaker 1: When you look back, was there anything that you thought
8:55
Speaker 1: maybe could have been a little better or not?
8:57
Speaker 3: Really? You know, they're always little details. But I think
9:01
Speaker 3: the beautiful thing is those little details stayed kind of
9:04
Speaker 3: below the surface, right, And that's really when you're talking
9:07
Speaker 3: about running an event of this magnitude. There are always
9:11
Speaker 3: going to be different things, last minute changes, dealing with
9:14
Speaker 3: the Iranians, let's say, dealing with ebola breaking out in
9:18
Speaker 3: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and how do you
9:21
Speaker 3: make sure that that doesn't come to our shorts. How
9:23
Speaker 3: do you work with Canada and Mexico to make sure
9:26
Speaker 3: that their health policies are in line with our title
9:29
Speaker 3: forty two health policies. So that way, when the DRC
9:32
Speaker 3: plays the second game in Guadalajara or Monterey, one of
9:35
Speaker 3: those two Mexican cities, and they come back with Portugal
9:40
Speaker 3: comes back to Mexico, let's say, or it comes back
9:42
Speaker 3: to Miami after playing them, they're not going to bring
9:44
Speaker 3: in Ebola with it. So, I mean, there were all
9:48
Speaker 3: different kinds of challenges, all different kinds of things where
9:50
Speaker 3: you have to adjust all audibles. But that's really the
9:54
Speaker 3: incredible team that President Trump was able to build that
9:56
Speaker 3: we were able to deal with that call those audibles,
10:00
Speaker 3: look ahead, really see ultimately the problem set before it
10:04
Speaker 3: even came to our shores, and deal with it then,
10:06
Speaker 3: so that way people could really just sit back and
10:09
Speaker 3: enjoy it. Really is amazing when you think about it.
10:11
Speaker 3: I kept looking at different events, right Obviously, when you
10:14
Speaker 3: think about major events, and you think about terrorist events,
10:17
Speaker 3: you think about Munich in seventy two, that's one that
10:19
Speaker 3: obviously pops to the top of mind. Think about Atlanta
10:22
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety six. And as I got this job,
10:25
Speaker 3: I realized that the goal of this was going to
10:27
Speaker 3: be how do we make sure that this world Cup
10:30
Speaker 3: is defined by something that's on the field. We don't
10:33
Speaker 3: want it something off of you. We don't want a
10:35
Speaker 3: security in SID something like it happened at Copa America
10:38
Speaker 3: two years ago when you had thirty thousand people for
10:41
Speaker 3: the final rushing the gates over here. But SID, this
10:44
Speaker 3: is one of the things that I even underrated. I
10:46
Speaker 3: kept saying that if we're talking about the great play
10:49
Speaker 3: on the field at the end of this, then we've
10:51
Speaker 3: done our job. But it's even better than that, because
10:53
Speaker 3: we're talking about just how much the world, as you said,
10:58
Speaker 3: loves the United States of America, and we still with
11:00
Speaker 3: all these different countries coming here. It was amazing. That's true.
11:02
Speaker 1: They don't want to leave. How many games do you
11:04
Speaker 1: estimate you actually went to over this period of time.
11:08
Speaker 3: So the funny thing was, and I actually was working
11:09
Speaker 3: at WABC during the last World Cup, and I watched
11:13
Speaker 3: more soccer during that World Cup, But then I did
11:15
Speaker 3: this World Cup. I didn't go to guitar just a
11:18
Speaker 3: matter of when you're there. I probably went to call
11:21
Speaker 3: it a dozen to fifteen matches something like that, was
11:25
Speaker 3: in every single city multiple times. But you're moving around
11:28
Speaker 3: so much. You're in the Mercy Operations Center. You're going
11:31
Speaker 3: you're meeting with these diplomats. You're going to take a
11:34
Speaker 3: look at counter uas because something just came into the airspace.
11:37
Speaker 3: So ultimately, that's really what the day ends up looking like.
11:41
Speaker 3: And so I look forward to enjoying kind of some
11:44
Speaker 3: of the highlights of this over the next couple of days.
11:47
Speaker 3: I'll go through and look back and watch the fifteen
11:50
Speaker 3: minute recap of this match and really seeing what happens
11:54
Speaker 3: after the match. Is that beauty, right, people singing John
11:56
Speaker 3: Denver coming together. Remember one moment that really struck me,
11:59
Speaker 3: which was really amazing. It was at the end of
12:02
Speaker 3: the England Ghana match up in Boston and I'm about
12:06
Speaker 3: to leave and I hear Country Road being sung, But
12:10
Speaker 3: I knew the English should already left. The Ghanies were
12:12
Speaker 3: still there singing John Denver country Road.
12:15
Speaker 1: In Country Roads. Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievably. So do you think
12:20
Speaker 1: I know President Trump reached out immediately and said, we
12:23
Speaker 1: want this again. I know in four years we ain't
12:26
Speaker 1: gonna get it, but do you think it's a real
12:28
Speaker 1: possibility that we can host this World Cup again sooner
12:32
Speaker 1: than later?
12:33
Speaker 3: Well, I will say, I know the next World S
12:35
Speaker 3: Up is spoken for by Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and then
12:39
Speaker 3: the one after that the Saudi's landed in twenty thirty four.
12:43
Speaker 3: So I really think twenty thirty eight is a very
12:45
Speaker 3: real possibilit twenty thirty eight, twenty forty two, I think
12:49
Speaker 3: it's a real possibility. And I said this when they
12:51
Speaker 3: were asking about the see for President Johnny Infantino, and
12:54
Speaker 3: they were saying, well, what do you think about his leadership?
12:57
Speaker 3: And I said, look, he's the one who ultimately looked
13:00
Speaker 3: and said the United States is a place where we
13:02
Speaker 3: can go and maximize our product. And that's really what
13:06
Speaker 3: they've done. But the beautiful thing is we've had this
13:09
Speaker 3: opportunity to show ourselves American hospitality of the world. The
13:13
Speaker 3: thing that I think a lot of people think when
13:16
Speaker 3: they think about the United States, if you're an international visitors, well,
13:19
Speaker 3: they're not welcoming because of illegal immigration. Right. You have
13:22
Speaker 3: the media sometimes that tries to conflate the two of those.
13:25
Speaker 3: It's actually the exact opposite, And we prove that this
13:28
Speaker 3: time more than anything, is that hey, look, just because
13:31
Speaker 3: we don't want bad actors coming in the country, and
13:33
Speaker 3: just because we care about knowing who's coming to our
13:36
Speaker 3: soores does not mean that America is not the most
13:39
Speaker 3: welcoming country in the world. We want people to come
13:42
Speaker 3: to the United States of America. That's going to add
13:44
Speaker 3: to this world. That's going to add to the American experience.
13:47
Speaker 3: It's going to bring discretionary income. It's going to add
13:50
Speaker 3: to this incredible American experiment over our next two hundred
13:54
Speaker 3: and fifty years. That's that balance that President Trump plays.
13:57
Speaker 3: And that's really the ideals of America first America versus
14:01
Speaker 3: never America only.
14:03
Speaker 1: That's right.
14:03
Speaker 3: It's American ideals first. That's right.
14:05
Speaker 1: Oh boy, you said that. Well, two more cook ones,
14:07
Speaker 1: I'll let you go. How often did you speak the
14:09
Speaker 1: cash Patel about keeping our places safe?
14:13
Speaker 3: I spoke more over the last forty days to Secretary
14:16
Speaker 3: Mullen and to Cash Patel than I did my wife.
14:19
Speaker 3: And for the help of my marriage, let's just open August.
14:22
Speaker 3: That's not the case as well.
14:25
Speaker 1: Oh, poor de Ze, she must be happy it's over.
14:27
Speaker 1: I'm sure she misses you, you know. On the way out.
14:31
Speaker 1: Argentina got shut out yesterday. And look, Spain was a defensive,
14:35
Speaker 1: dominant force the whole time. Again, they shut out France
14:38
Speaker 1: and Amboppi. They wanted to score six four goals, I'm sorry,
14:40
Speaker 1: and a six to four loss to England on Saturday
14:43
Speaker 1: and Puppy scored about ten goals.
14:45
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was.
14:46
Speaker 1: And Messi was right there too. He came in second
14:48
Speaker 1: and goal scoring, So to me, there was not an
14:51
Speaker 1: indictment yesterday of Messi. But but he is thirty nine
14:54
Speaker 1: years old. The next time the World Cup comes, he'll
14:57
Speaker 1: be forty three. Now, he's still scoring a lot of
15:00
Speaker 1: goals in Miami in the MLS and again he came
15:03
Speaker 1: in second in goal scoring in this tournament. But there's
15:07
Speaker 1: a fear from the people who do love this sport
15:10
Speaker 1: in this country that we may have seen the last
15:12
Speaker 1: of Messi in World Cup action yesterday.
15:16
Speaker 3: What do you think, Well, I'm gonna take all the
15:18
Speaker 3: drama out of this right here, because I'm gonna tell
15:20
Speaker 3: you what's gonna happen. Not because I have you know,
15:23
Speaker 3: any inside information on this, but I just I could
15:26
Speaker 3: feel and I have a feeling of what's going to happen.
15:28
Speaker 3: For three years, we're going to talk about we've seen
15:31
Speaker 3: Messi's last World Cup. We've seen Messi's last World Cup.
15:34
Speaker 3: But this guy, he's still such a great competitor. I
15:36
Speaker 3: got to tell you, the way he scored those two
15:39
Speaker 3: goals in the semi finals, there are few people in
15:41
Speaker 3: the world that could do that. I get My bet
15:44
Speaker 3: is he plays in one more World Cup in twenty thirty,
15:48
Speaker 3: He's going to be still a good player at that point.
15:50
Speaker 3: Will he still be one of the greatest couple players
15:52
Speaker 3: in the world like he is now? I don't know,
15:54
Speaker 3: But will he still be a value add I think
15:57
Speaker 3: absolutely he will be. And the truth is, you know,
16:00
Speaker 3: well when I saw him those last couple of minutes
16:02
Speaker 3: in that semi final, he really reminded me of Michael Jordan.
16:05
Speaker 3: Right he drew the double team and he kicked the
16:07
Speaker 3: ball over to John Paxton and he buried it there
16:09
Speaker 3: and then the cross right on the forehead really really impressive. Look,
16:13
Speaker 3: the truth is, this Spain team was just by far
16:16
Speaker 3: the best team in the world. They were able to
16:18
Speaker 3: prove it. You could see just how much faster they
16:21
Speaker 3: were than Argentina. Who I mean, look, they worthy got
16:25
Speaker 3: to the finals. There was no fluke that they got there.
16:27
Speaker 3: They just were the best team in the world.
16:29
Speaker 1: Well, Argentina had to come back on winning. They were chilling,
16:31
Speaker 1: even Cap Burdie. I think at one point they certainly
16:33
Speaker 1: trailed England and others. And then you rate Andrew again. Congratulations,
16:38
Speaker 1: you made a soccer fan out of me. I mean
16:40
Speaker 1: I talk about this event like I'm freaking Alexi Lallas.
16:42
Speaker 1: Who would have thought that you really did great? My friend?
16:47
Speaker 1: I knew you would. I always had the confidence, but
16:49
Speaker 1: to actually see it now complete. Like I said at
16:52
Speaker 1: the top of this conversation, take a bow, Andrew Giuliani, Congratulations,
16:57
Speaker 1: amazing job. I love you. Thank you so much.
17:00
Speaker 3: Thank You're the best.
17:01
Speaker 1: You really ought to. Thank you Andrew Giuliani right there,
17:03
Speaker 1: What an amazing job this kid just did with this
17:06
Speaker 1: immense responsibility the World Cup. It's over Spain wins, but
17:12
Speaker 1: he thinks, and I agree, we have not seen.
17:15
Speaker 2: The last of MESSI thanks for listening to Sit and
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17:26
Speaker 2: the podcast, share it with your friends and listen anytime
17:29
Speaker 2: at WABC radio dot com and download the WABC Radio app.
17:34
Speaker 1: Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms.
17:37
Speaker 2: Plus follow WABC on social on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and
17:43
Speaker 2: X see you next time for a new episode, so
17:46
Speaker 2: you never have to wonder what the heck is going
17:48
Speaker 2: on here