UEFA threaten World Cup boycott.
Sad if football would fall apart like ice hockey or boxing.
Still, incredibly nice that someone is standing up to Gianni Infantino.
On Friday, FIFA and Gianni Infantino continued to show their true selves when they announced in a press release that they are moving forward with their plans to sell out parts of the World Cup.
Not only that, they are blaming the media for disrupting plans to consult with interested parties when it was revealed. Yes, my God. Aren’t they ashamed?
Consult those affected? At that time? Fifa has a tight deadline of September 19. It’s about one of the biggest decisions in the history of World Cup football and it’s hardly something you make a serious decision about after a month and a half of knowledge. Pure nonsense to then blame serious journalism.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has not only proven to be good friends with US President Donald Trump. He copies Trump’s aggressive style, attacks critics and never admits mistakes.
Earlier this week, Gianni Infantino attacked all perceived World Cup critics of the recently concluded championship in a 15-page post on Instagram. It is clear that Infantino does not understand that one can have several thoughts in one’s head at the same time.
It was possible to like much of what the World Cup in North America offered, but still point out the shortcomings in that the Somali referee Omar Artan was not granted a visa, that Iran were denied the right to the planned World Cup base, that the US striker Folarin Balogun had his suspension lifted and that ticket prices were too high, among many other things. Not everyone needs to worship the high priest Gianni Infantino.
Yet it was impossible to prepare for the veritable bombshell that The Times’ Martyn Ziegler revealed on Tuesday. In which he revealed FIFA’s plan to launch the company FIFA Forward Enterprise together with the American bank JP Morgan and the venture capital company Thrive Capital, led by Joshua Kushner, who is the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The idea is to raise many billions by selling 20 percent of the newly formed company, which will hold all the rights to all FIFA tournaments.
The recently concluded World Cup in North America was already a great success. Despite criticism of sky-high ticket prices, the stands were packed, viewership has been at record levels and turnover is approaching $15 billion, which is far above target. Still, it was not enough.
In parallel, Gianni Infantino and his management have apparently been working on their plan to try to break up the prevailing power structure in football with the help of American investors.
In a letter to all national associations – which went out the day after the plan was revealed – the FIFA base is luring the national associations with the idea that the annual contributions will increase from 8 to 20 million dollars starting directly in 2027. This will be increased by another 19 million annually from 2031 and then another 19 million from 2035.
The associations that answer yes before September 19 will receive an extra 191 million. On top of that, all national associations will receive an ownership that they can sell to raise even more money.
Uefa have rejected it and are threatening a boycott. On Thursday, a sharp press release came from UEFA after an emergency meeting: “UEFA member nations will not participate in FIFA competitions. UEFA and their 55 member nations are united: we unanimously and unreservedly reject FIFA’s proposal to transfer ownership shares in the World Cup to private investors”.
If the proposal to corporatize the World Cup for men and women and the Club World Cup as well as its commercial rights and then sell 20 percent to investors goes through, no countries from Europe will participate in the World Cup.
UEFA hope that the World Cup without Europe’s national team will not be as valuable and that this will cause Infantino’s plan to fall through.
The Asian Confederation are skeptical of the plans, but are not threatening a boycott. Concacaf, which are North, Central America and the Caribbean, were harsher in their criticism, but did not make any boycott threats either.
FIFA are a charitable organization based in Switzerland, where you don’t have to pay taxes, and have 211 member countries. They are organized into six football confederations based on continents: Europe (55 members), South America (10), Africa (54), Asia (47), Oceania (11) and North, Central America and the Caribbean (41). It is not yet known where South America, Africa and Oceania stand. Generally, Africa is close to Infantino, and South America wants an expanded World Cup in 2030 to get more matches. Yes, you get the idea.
It is an open power struggle that has broken out in the world of football. UEFA are critical of the undemocratic process and do not want to let investors in for the risks that it will lead to more and bigger tournaments and higher prices for everything in the pursuit of returns.
JP Morgan, on the other hand, believes that football is undercapitalized compared to the NFL and NBA in a prospectus that is circulating. The American bank wants to see more tournaments, sell media rights to pay channels, charge even more for events and also lend money to the company.
Gianni Infantino has long had a power struggle with, above all, UEFA, which is richer than Fifa through the Champions League and the European Championship.
Now the FIFA base wants to tie the national associations closer to itself, to reduce the influence of the confederations, and Infantino has always played on Europe against the rest of the world. UEFA crossed a limit for what can be accepted after the corporatization plans.
UEFA have not yet produced a candidate who can challenge Infantino at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March 2027. Will they do it?
Infantino had the support of nearly 200 member countries ahead of the World Cup finals a couple of weeks ago, according to The Guardian. The question is how affected that support will be by this?
The peace prize for Donald Trump and the alleged suspension of Folarin Balogun had already led to criticism. Perhaps the plans to corporatize the World Cup could reduce support even further? At the same time, Infantino has shown himself to be very skilled at dividing and ruling in the football world.
Swedish football is behind UEFA’s boycott threat. Which is obvious and it is time to do something and not just talk. Just think of how many of the greats in Swedish football over the years have spoken extremely well of FIFA’s general secretary Mattias Grafström and emphasized that he is a friend of Sweden. Well, servant. The half-Swedish with roots in Uppsala turned out to play along in Infantino’s insidious game to seize more power in FIFA and was neither a friend of Swedish football nor of football.
Gianni Infantino is up for re-election as FIFA President in March 2027, but according to the statutes he cannot serve more than four more years.
According to sources in The Times, the plan is for him to become CEO of FIFA Forward Enterprise and thus retain power beyond 2031.
Who is surprised? Infantino previously managed to get around the fact that you can only serve three terms, and like so many who reach high positions, the intoxication of power is something that does not let go.
The risk for football is that it will fall apart like sports like boxing or ice hockey and the World Cup will be watered down.
Who can even keep track of who is the world champion in boxing? And how hot is the World Cup in ice hockey every year? Not at all, except that it is played in May.
If UEFA and FIFA hold on, the European Championship might be expanded to include other countries every four years and then FIFA will have to run their World Cup without the countries from Europe despite the fact that they clearly dominate both the men’s and women’s sides. Sad of course, but it is FIFA’s and Infantino’s fault.
Where will this end?
Not entirely easy to predict and given FIFA’s latest press release, there is no turning back. Then the question is whether UEFA can hold together? The money that FIFA are attracting is a lot for a majority of UEFA’s national associations. It will be a real “chicken race” and I really hope that UEFA do not give up first without staying the course.
Infantino must be stopped somehow and perhaps the only way is through a real clash.
By Olof Lundh
