Bullet point summary by AI
- FIFA and president Gianni Infantino announced plans to sell 21 percent of the World Cup through a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises.
- The move has drawn swift condemnation from UEFA and sparked outrage among fans and critics over perceived corruption and greed.
- Infantino faces growing pressure to justify the decision as national associations weigh the financial implications against ethical concerns.
When the internet freaks out about something, I’m naturally inclined to believe they’re overdoing it for engagement. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the anger directed at FIFA selling private stakes in the World Cup was not even close to sufficient.
Not to worry: I’m happy to help that along. FIFA and Gianni Infantino have announced (after it leaked and everyone flipped out) that, yes, they are planning to raise a round of funding by selling off 21 percent of the World Cup under a new body called “FIFA Forward Enterprises” (FFE), generating billions of dollars in immediate funding and distributing it to member associations that rely on FIFA for their operating budgets.
In short, the World Cup would become one-fifth privately owned, and the profits would be directed accordingly. Of course, Donald Trump’s family is intimately involved through Jared and Joshua Kushner and Infantino himself stands to make huge personal dividends from the plan. The specifics are granular and important, but those are the basics. Basics to which I issue the following response:
FIFA’s bid to sell the World Cup is unfathomably shameful
Are you guys kidding me with this? This is, bar none, the most nakedly corrupt and overpoweringly greedy move I can remember in my lifetime of following sports. There have been literal cheaters and point-shavers who look like small potatoes next to this kind of major league financial cynicism. FIFA is essentially privatizing a competition that is the golden paragon of international unity through sports. The World Cup is sacred. Imagine if the Catholic Church sold off pieces of sacred salvation (they did) Oh, they did? How did it go? (it started the Protestant Reformation). Ah.
FIFA’s cozying up to the Trump administration as its great future financial patron is not surprising, but the openness with which they shun their fans is repeatedly shocking. The European soccer governing body, UEFA, swiftly condemned the move as unprecedented and vowed to oppose it. Infantino responded with a set of thinly-veiled bribes for national associations to drum up support.
Gianni Infantino’s use of his position threatens to destroy international soccer
Infantino’s ability to recognize that he is the president of an unaccountable, uncontrolled international cartel selling soccer at monopolistic price points has turned him into the unhinged guarantor of his friends’ wallets. Previous regimes, corrupt and problematic in their own special ways, had not yet fully realized the potential for political and financial power associated with the World Cup.
In short, Infantino does not need to please soccer fans, he just needs to enrich those that keep him in power. Whatever else you say about the man, he’s great at that. Is there were more to life and soccer than money? FIFA, the soccer god, has spoken: there isn’t.
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