They Pushed Back, and It Worked

FIFA is an incredibly corrupt organization.  This shouldn't be news to anybody.  Its President, Gianni Infantino, is an incredibly corrupt man.  This shouldn't be news to anybody, either.  But, in case there was any doubt as to the degree of his corruption, Infantino made sure everyone knew how bad it was with his stunt earlier this week.  A stunt that didn't exactly get the type of reaction he was expecting.

Literally less than two weeks after the end of the World Cup, Infantino announced the creation of a $20 billion subsidiary known as FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would "unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has."  Essentially, FFE would've taken control of all aspects of FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup.  In Infantino's plan, FIFA would've sold a 20 percent stake in FFE to private investors (which would have minority, non-controlling interests), with a company that was launched by the brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law lined up to be one of those partners.  That tells you all you need to know about Infantino's motivation.

Infantino's cozy relationship with Trump has been a big source of controversy over the past, so the inclusion of a Trump-associated firm in this plan was a glaring red flag.  Trump runs in very rich, very influential circles.  Everybody just saw how much money the World Cup made and they wanted to cash in while the iron was still hot.  They hoped to exploit that popularity and make money for FIFA's 211 national federations, but also for themselves.  Because, make no mistake, these investors weren't getting into it if they didn't see the opportunity to line their own pockets.

To be clear, that isn't the reason why federations were against the plan (at least not entirely), but it certainly wasn't a good look.  And it was enough to raise questions about why Infantino thought this was so necessary that it had to be implemented immediately with no consultation from anybody.  Nor did they like how Infantino was essentially trying to bully everyone into submission by giving them a deadline to sign on, with the "or else" implied.

Members were told that a decision "must" be made by Sept. 19.  They were being given essentially six weeks to vote on such a seismic proposal that they were hearing about for the first time that day.  And Infantino said they just needed a majority vote for it to pass, even though FIFA's bylaws state that a 75 percent vote is required in order to change one.  But, since the 75 percent support was never gonna happen, that standard was conveniently lowered to a simple majority (which it still might not have gotten).

He also used the numbers in his attempt to get national federations on his side.  The financial infusion would bring in an additional $10 billion, which would mean about $40 million per association.  Without it, that amount would "only" be $2.7 billion.  So, FIFA obviously "needed" the extra cash to help out its members.  Why wouldn't they want those extra funds?

The backlash was immediate.  National federations weren't shy in their criticism of Infantino or his plan.  And the continental associations weren't particularly enthused about it, either.  Even the British Prime Minister chimed in with his disdain.  The lack of transparency was the biggest issue.  But, just as significantly, they were against the entire idea on principle.  There was plenty of legitimate concern about how much influence these companies with private equity shares would have and exactly what they would do with it.  Because, once they got in, nobody would expect them to stay uninvolved.  Would they act in FIFA's best interest, though?  Or their own?

What might some of those interests be?  For starters, expanding the World Cup to 64 teams (which it looks like Infantino is pushing ahead with anyway).  And why stop there?  It's not a reach to think there would be a push to hold the World Cup every two years instead of every four (pushing it up directly against the Euro and the Olympics).  Then, having the Club World Cup in the other two years.  Broadcasting was one element that would've gone under FFC's control, so would they get a say in who's awarded the TV rights?  Worse yet, would they make a push to move the World Cup off linear TV entirely and create a direct-to-consumer, pay-per-view platform that would require a subscription fee for anyone who wanted to watch any game?

UEFA had perhaps the best response of all, declaring that "None of us are the owners of football.  It's not FIFA's to sell."  And it was UEFA that led the crusade against Infantino's plan.  They threatened that UEFA could potentially boycott FIFA events if the plan wasn't reconsidered.  In an emergency meeting of UEFA's 55 member associations, pretty much everybody was on the same page.  After that meeting, UEFA made the announcement that they were following through on their boycott threat, starting with the Women's Under-20 World Cup in Poland, which starts on Sept. 5.

Just think about how impactful a UEFA World Cup boycott would be.  It's the largest confederation with the most teams and the greatest number of participants in the tournament.  But that's just the half of it.  Six of the eight World Cup quarterfinalists and three of the four semifinalists were UEFA members.  And Spain obviously won the World Cup.  Just as it did at the 2023 Women's World Cup.  No UEFA teams would make for a significantly depleted tournament.  Especially with an expanded field (that would need to be filled with somebody).

Practically speaking, a UEFA boycott would render the World Cup essentially meaningless.  It would also create some pretty significant logistical issues.  Spain and Portugal are the primary hosts of the 2030 World Cup.  If they're not playing, there's no chance they're still hosting.  Yes, Morocco is also a co-host, and there are individual games in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (another controversial Infantino decision that was made for reasons that weren't exactly transparent).  But, without Spain or Portugal, you'd be asking the other four co-hosts to take on a much bigger burden than the one they signed up for.

Shortly after UEFA's announcement, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation followed suit.  They didn't go so far as to join the boycott, but they made it clear that they're in agreement with UEFA's stance.  As it turns out, so are some members of Infantino's own administration.  One resigned in protest and another released a statement condemning Infantino for his lack of openness regarding the project, which he made clear he thought should not proceed.

In the wake of all the negative feedback, Infantino did an about face and announced that the project will no longer move forward.  But, of course, in true Infantino form, he took no accountability for his role in the entire thing!  The statement from FIFA said: "Having listened carefully to all the views that the project created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place."  Translation: "Nobody but Gianni thinks this is a good idea, and he realized he can't bully his way into getting what he wants on this one, so he's gonna try to save face by acting like he suddenly cares about their opinion." 

Except the unforced error may end up bringing some consequences for Infantino.  Despite questions about his leadership and his blatant corruption, he stood to run unopposed for a final four-year term as FIFA President later this year.  Now that's not so guaranteed.  It's still likely that he'll be reelected.  But he may face some competition, even if it's just a token candidacy to force an actual vote, because of this unnecessary misstep.

If all of this sounds familiar, it should.  It wasn't too long ago that several of the top European clubs (led by Real Madrid and Barcelona) tried to create the UEFA Super League, a breakaway competition with permanent members designed to challenge the Champions League.  Negative backlash led to the English teams withdrawing, followed by the German teams, and the idea of the Super League fell apart in about the same amount of time as it took for FIFA.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from all this is how much power FIFA's members actually have.  Infantino tried to jam the FFE down their throats and expected everybody to just fall in line.  Except they didn't.  They fought back instead.  And it worked!  They forced him to stand down.  As much as it was a big loss for Infantino and his rich partners, it was a massive win for FIFA, its member nations and the game of soccer as a whole.