RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 19 sourcesAt the start of the emergency meeting that saw Uefa drop “a nuclear bomb” on Gianni Infantino ’s plans to privatise the World Cup, federation president Aleksander Ceferin uttered a phrase that would be echoed a few times over the next two hours.
“Enough is enough.”
Spain are among the European nations threatening to boycott the World Cup (Reuters)
That may not just apply to the project and Infantino’s leadership of Fifa , which is now suddenly under serious threat , but also the wider football world.
Language about weapons is arguably appropriate because this is now a war, and it is one that football has long needed. Infantino’s move is unprecedented and would break what international football is, but it didn’t come out of a vacuum. It came out of a 40-year commercialisation of the game , that Uefa have themselves been complicit in.
Football’s two most powerful bodies are at war (Getty)
Even that has its limits, though, as can be seen with the announcement that Uefa countries will boycott all Fifa competitions if Infantino presses ahead with this plan.
Almost everyone involved can see the real cost here beyond Infantino’s promises of $40m to associations who go with him. It isn’t just selling off parts of the game but allowing the most nakedly capitalistic influences in – to have considerable say on every decision.
It has been described as a “very bad securitisation deal” for an asset that isn’t even “distressed”.
Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup has been met with fury (Reuters)
Uefa’s overtly collective stance is itself instructive since that also tests some of the game’s structures. One reason that figures around Infantino were so confident in this plan was because of how Fifa politics work. Money distribution is a vote-returning mechanism, and this was more money than most had ever seen. Smaller associations could clear debts.
Indeed, before Uefa’s meeting, the leadership had been conscious of how persuasive Infantino’s plans were to those countries of less resources.
So, Uefa began to work on cracking the whip. The deck for Fifa’s plans – essentially “selling off football’s crown jewels in perpetuity” – is said to have hardened resolve.
By the time the 2pm meeting started, with the vast majority of representatives phoning in via video call, the spirit was one of unity.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has made a power play (Reuters)
After Ceferin opened proceedings, insisting that this “isn’t about him and Gianni” and that he never wanted a fight with Fifa, he pointed to the simple reality that the global body already have all the money they’re going to need.
FA chair – and Fifa vice-president – Debbie Hewitt was the next major figure to speak, and was the first to mention the “boycott”, while criticising governance under Infantino’s leadership.
The speech received praise from other members, something all the more notable since England’s reticence had previously been noted, the FA are in line to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup and are said to want another.
FA chair Debbie Hewitt took a critical stance despite ties with Fifa (PA Wire)
The boycott will apply to all Fifa competitions, and that is even more damaging for Infantino since so much of his plan is based on the global body realising some of the immense value of the European club game. That’s what is most attractive to his investors, too. The 2029 edition of the Club World Cup hasn’t even been agreed on yet, though, and currently looks some way off.
It’s all why it’s currently impossible to see how this can proceed, with the impact so substantial that it could well bring the Swiss-Italian official’s downfall.
Numerous officials at the meeting questioned his leadership, which was described as everything from “dictatorship behaviour” to “not what you’d expect from a true leader”.
Gianni Infantino (left) may find his position in peril (PA Wire)
Another Fifa Executive Committee member, Razvan Burleanu, directly pointed the finger at Infantino, while Wales’ Noel Mooney – who did stress individual federations still need funding – asked if there could still be faith in Infantino.
This is now open season, in a way that was previously unheard – at least in public. Uefa and other confederations are already looking at prospective challengers for the next election.
It’s impossible not to conclude that Infantino has overreached, resulting from overconfidence that came from being in the World Cup and Donald Trump bubble for so long.
He’d got through the Folarin Balogun affair , the ticket prices, the “hydration breaks”, the Fifa peace prize, the deliverance of the World Cup to Saudi Arabia by acclamation and all manner of unilateral decisions and governance by fiat until he inevitably went too far.
Some have described this as “the most unreal unforced error” possible and “the beginning of the end for Infantino”.
He is said to have confused support for another term with support for any decision.
Fifa appears to be facing turmoil (Getty)
Another senior figure said the privatisation plan was “the straw that finally broke the wafer-thin peace pact since the Super League”.
And we’re now into a potentially new world.
Some nations – including those outside Europe – are beginning to wonder whether this might actually be the opportunity to break Fifa’s one-country one-vote structure, and even such distinctive confederation separation. Why not have worldwide qualifiers, especially as such games lessen in commercial value? Whether you agree with that or not, the entire system has long looked very antiquated.
Either way, the repercussions of this are going to be huge, and there may be a lot of unintended consequences. That may apply to Uefa, too. Despite the show of unanimity, some smaller nations like Azerbaijan say they would have liked more of a chance to speak. Around 50–60 per cent of the countries got an opportunity to do so, and the figure that offered the most qualified view was Scot...
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