Online Reporter
Senior figures within European football are working out whether there are legal options to oppose Gianni Infantino’s plan to set up a private company to run Fifa’s competitions, while some executives have privately spoken of their countries being ready to boycott the World Cup.
They are among the more furious reactions to Fifa’s announcements on Tuesday, but others were reminded of another aspect of this long story.
Back when Infantino first started to really ingratiate himself with the US president, advisers within American politics were warning about how integrating yourself with Donald Trump normally goes one way. There’s eventually a will for the wider family to be involved.
In any event, we now have a situation where this Fifa is willing to sell off parts of the most precious prize in football — the global good that is the World Cup — to the Trump empire. Josh Kushner, the brother of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, is in discussions to be a lead investor in Infantino’s absurd new plan.
Sepp Blatter was willing to go further in his description of all this.
It should be stressed that it is wrong to be too revisionist about the disgraced former Fifa president, given that this world wouldn’t be possible without him, but his experience has inevitably given him an eye for the intricacies of the game’s politics.
“The close relationship between the Fifa president and the US president has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football,” Blatter posted.
That’s a huge part of this dismal story summed up — but far from all of it.
It is nevertheless instructive that “the Kushner element” was said to be infuriating many stakeholders “more than the money”.
Where else was Infantino’s relationship with Trump going? Does this not tie in with all the claims that Infantino now sees himself as some kind of tech mogul-style founder, as much as the pope of football?
Some believe that the six weeks of the World Cup saw him descend too deep into the bubble, to the point we get this, and a point that could bring a bursting moment.
Because, if so much of this has evolved out of Infantino’s shameless obsequiousness with Trump, it has also raised multiple other tensions — right up to the future of Fifa’s not-for-profit status under Swiss law when it is essentially converting its primary asset to a private business entity.
For now, most remain infuriated by the sheer brazenness of Infantino using his position to sell off the World Cup like this.
It was this base emotion that prompted Andy Burnham to comment on it.
Politicos have pointed out that it sets up the new UK prime minister’s first indirect clash with the Trumps, but it’s a point of principle for an authentic football fan like Burnham, and one that will gather popular support.
It’s also the first time since the proposed Super League that the game has seen such a direct major government intervention, which points to the story’s scale.
Burnham’s input may only increase pressure on the Football Association and other federations.
The immediate response from such bodies, as with so many involving Infantino of late, was silence. But on Wednesday morning, the FA expressed “deep concern” over the plans. “When the proposal is shared in the full and transparent way now promised by Fifa, we will make our views clear, and comment further,” a spokesperson added. — UK Independent
