9 ms·
UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions
- brunoborges 2mo agoInfantino clearly wants to see FIFA making billions so he and many others can pocket millions legally. But the only way for this to happen in a non-corrupt way, given that FIFA is non-profit and therefore requires a lot of questionable operations, is to turn FIFA into a business like NFL / MLS. The problem with that is that it then it is no longer a sport, rather a... business. UEFA letter is spot on.
- orangedog 2mo agoWhat's new? I thought it has been known as a big-money thing for some time now.
- skywhopper 2mo agoFIFA has announced they plan to officially sell off everything to private investors, dropping all pretense of being a steward of a common good.
- glitchc 2mo agoFIFA made $~15 billion USD this World Cup, roughly double what they made in Qatar in 2022. There are many low-hanging fruit that can be optimized to increase that revenue by 10x.
- haunter 2mo agoThe difference that FIFA ran the whole tournament now. There was no Local Organizing Committee (LOC) like with every single previous event.
- ahartmetz 2mo agoI have never before seen "FIFA World Cup" used so much and I guess that's why. Do you enjoy watching FIA F1 or IOC Olympics? It's pushy and inconsiderate self-promotion that nobody wants to hear.
- ascagnel_ 2mo agoI also wonder if it's a trademark thing -- there are other world cups, but there's only one FIFA capital-W world capital-C cup. Just off the top of my head, the last decade has had cricket, rugby, basketball, and ice hockey world cups.
- overfeed 2mo agoI didn't realize the commercial-block-sized "hydration breaks" were that profitable. For a second, I thought the Americanization[1] of fùtbol would be done gradually and no one would complain as we'd be slowly boiled. I'm glad the corrupt bastards got greedy/impatient and took a big swing. 1. Sports primarily as a business, catering to owners first, sponsors second, broadcasters third, and then lastly, fans. IMO non-profit sports organizations are the best model for fans, who I identify the most with.
- glitchc 2mo agoPer-ticket prices were a big factor too. By turning it into an open bidding process, every ticket sold at close to its market value, and many above that.
- skywhopper 2mo agoAnd they took a 15% commission on both sides of every aftermarket transaction. I’ve never seen such an overtly avaricious “marketplace”.
- tremon 2mo agoOff in the distance, an app store rings its 30% bell.
- herdrick 2mo agoAbove? I don't know anything about these particular auctions, but how could any auction arrive at a price above market value?
- ginko 2mo agoThat one I can't be too mad about. Better FIFA gets the profits instead of ticket scalpers.
- notahacker 2mo agoThere were 40% more games than the last World Cup, which is a lot of extra broadcast rights and ticket revenues...
- lossolo 2mo ago> There are many low-hanging fruit that can be optimized to increase that revenue by 10x. The $15 billion figure is for FIFA's ENTIRE 2023-2026 revenue cycle, so not just this World Cup. But the obvious "low-hanging fruit" was making the tournamenta lot larger (104 matches instead of Qatar's 64), so a lot more tickets, hospitality sales, ads etc Also two 3 minute hydration breaks per match, giving broadcasters additional advertising windows. That's your "optimization".
- notahacker 2mo agoYeah, I can see them doubling that revenue by being even more extortionate with ticket prices and adding another 16 teams (as already planned to happen) to add more games. But the only way they 10x is to start running more FIFA competitions, and that's when they encroach on UEFA's cash cows...
- throw1234567891 2mo agoSome good thoughts here. I could see a stretching break and maybe a rolling competition between halves.
- jimbokun 2mo agoThe new thing is trying to take the organization from a non-profit to a corporation. Mainly so the executives can increase their already large compensation apparently. Interesting parallels to OpenAI.
- javier2 2mo agoFor Infantino, they reckon his salary can go from 6M to 60M under this new org…
- oliwarner 2mo agoThey just made $15bn.
- jimbokun 2mo agoWhich is clearly not enough.
- brunoborges 2mo agoThe point is not how much it made, it is how to transfer that wealth (whether 6B or 60B) out of a non-profit into someone else's account without looking like, or literally being, a criminal.
- testdelacc1 2mo agoA nonprofit can be questioned about how it pays people. A private company answers only to shareholders.
- brunoborges 2mo agobingo
- didntknowyou 2mo agoand part of the proposal is to get Fifa to borrow and take on debt lol it's peak capitalism
- jmathai 2mo agoThe experience interacting with FIFA is so terrible already. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if it turned into a profit machine.
- CodingJeebus 2mo agoAgreed, the tickets to the tournament this year were just outrageously priced. Football is historically a working class sport, but $1,000 to watch a team like DR Congo in the group stage is next level criminality. And it's only going to get worse from here.
- curun1r 2mo agoFIFA looked at this World Cup as an experiment. They wanted to see whether turning the monetization knob all the way to 11 would encounter significant resistance or whether fans would still watch/attend. The US, with its plethora of expensive stadiums and lax regulatory environment for price gouging compared to Europe, was the perfect testing environment. They upped the number of teams to 48 to get more games, used dynamic ticket pricing, added hydration breaks for more commercials in markets that would allow it and added a few other income streams. All this more than doubled their profits because, and this is the important part going forward, fans didn’t push back. They complained, but the still came/watched. So this will now be the new norm. Host countries will be ones where laws don’t prohibit gouging fans. They’ll come up with creative solutions to meet the rotation requirement like the upcoming host a couple games in South America farce that’s allowing them to go to Saudi Arabia after that. They’ll continue to push the boundaries of decency until they get sufficient pushback.
- jmathai 2mo agoI don’t disagree with what you’re saying but I said before any of this mess, and just dealing with the ticket purchasing experience, that this would be the last World Cup I attend. It’s sad though. The World Cup, while imperfect, remains an event that brings the world together. We don’t have many of those left.
- 2mo ago
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- seviu 2mo agoFIFA is also a terrible employer Got friends working for them as developers. They ran away. In months
- jackbravo 2mo agoAre you talking about EA or FIFA?
- decimalenough 2mo agoYes.
- skywhopper 2mo agoBased on the quality of their World Cup ticketing website, I’m not surprised. That was the worst ticketing experience I’ve ever endured.
- duxup 2mo agoIt's wild how bad the experience is working for top level sports teams can be. Many (in the US at least) have an absolute lock on massive profits and value increasing like crazy ... but they operate like the cheapest small business that can't bother the new guy a chair that isn't broken.
- ardit33 2mo agoThey also got so greedy that even EA couldn't deal with them anymore and they ended up destroying the Fifa videogame franchise
- tmgldn 2mo agoImagine being more money hungry than EA - a company which makes billions from gaslighting children into gambling money on getting their favourite players.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- lossolo 2mo ago> and many others Trump and Kushners "Joshua Kushner is now the kingpin in driving the sale of the World Cup to investors and family ties are tight around the project"[1] 1. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/30/fifas-sale-of-the-century-how-kushners-and-trump-are-at-centre-of-a-tangled-web https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/30/fifas-sale-...
- outside1234 2mo agoThese people looked at OpenAI and went "Hey, I can run corruption like that too!"
- fHr 2mo agotrue lmao
- hulitu 2mo ago> UEFA They are no strangers to certain aspects of it. /s
- erfgh 2mo agoWhat's wrong with making billions? Will this hurt the game somehow?
- ralfd 2mo agoYes. The game was already hurt this world cup with the flow destroying „hydration breaks“ to sell more ads.
- tommek4077 2mo agoWe've seen the start with "hydration breaks" and a 30 minute half-time.
- mig1 2mo agoInvestors calling to change red cards because the best players should play, etc
- stackghost 2mo agoYes it will hurt the game. Americans already have the NFL if they want to watch commercials. Leave soccer alone.
- didntknowyou 2mo agonothing wrong, but did we really need ticket prices to go from 100 to 1000 if they weren't struggling financially?
- madradavid 2mo agoCONCACAF join UEFA and reject FIFA's World Cup sell-off plan. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49488584/uefa-boycott-all-fifa-competitions-protest-world-cup-private-equity-plan https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49488584/uefa-boycott... . By the end of this Gianni Infantino will only be left with the Africans .I am African and these Federations will do anything to keep him around because of the unprecedented amounts of corruption...
- conradfr 2mo agoWhile the football business is horrible it's nice that this may fail like the Super League. Now if only that could put a dent in Infantino reelection...
- runarberg 2mo agoI am not sure a replacement for Infantino is enough. It seems like FIFA has a culture of corruption and Infantino is merely the latest manifestation of said culture. Some serious reform and restructuring seem needed.
- jamesblonde 2mo agoFifa is a reflection of the world. All members (nations) get a vote. Most countries are corrupt. Thank go there is still a bastion of democracy/fairness left in Uefa.
- runarberg 2mo agoI am all in favor of a global revolution to overthrow capitalism with a solidarity of workers of the world. But I think we can have a non-corrupt FIFA without one.
- retr0rocket 2mo ago[dead]
- miohtama 2mo agoInfantino should call Altman
- juliusceasar 2mo agoOr Madoff, SBF, Weinstein, etc
- throw1234567891 2mo agoDon’t give them stupid ideas.
- notahacker 2mo agoIt's already an entity that makes billions that's run as a business even though it's nominally one of the few parts of the sport that isn't for profit, and it's not like they really need private equity to help them put ticket prices up, as the last World Cup showed. Regardless of rhetoric about "not to be sold", the bigger issue is that this looks like a very bad financial arrangement for a sport that is awash with funds already so doesn't need to sell its future revenues off cheaply or learn how to make money from PE, but probably a good deal for Infantino and chums. Corruption at FIFA is nothing new, but a behind-closed-doors sweetheart deal for a large fraction of their future revenue was really pushing at boundaries ... And Infantino had become so convinced of his own genius he thought that giving member states a fait accompli, a ticking clock and an indication that most of the money would go to states that voted yes (and a financial deal that would be an attractive bung to the 100 or so FIFA members with no chance of actually qualifying, but shrinks the future revenue stream for everyone else) would actually fly. Plus UEFA already makes more money than FIFA, could happily organize a rival competition attracting more top teams from the rest of the world and sponsorship money if it came to that, and had a unique opportunity to flex where fans and clubs would be universally behind them...
- dzonga 2mo agoInfantino & Trump are just corrupt. Neck to neck with officials in African governments. Infantino & Trump's corruption is literally driven by greed. not the good greed - but just bad, power hungry insatiable greed.
- TZubiri 2mo agoSeems like this is the era of using NFP to make money through spinoff corporations.
- rapidfl 2mo agothe FIFA branding on the EA game was gone and EA still came out well. So UEFA could learn something from that situation.
- coffeebeanHH 2mo agoFIFA can't act corrupt by definition. They removed this word completely from their codex.
- TechTechTech 2mo ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49112089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49112089
- devy 2mo agoAccording to aljazeera's article, "the core investor would be a New York venture capital investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner."
- vrganj 2mo agoDupe of a dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49108292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49108292
- ChrisArchitect 2mo agoWelcome. Not a dupe if some time has passed between submissions without much discussion or upvotes. And this is the source.
- ChrisArchitect 2mo agoWelcome. Not a dupe if some time has passed between submissions without much discussion or upvotes. And this is the source.
- baalimago 2mo agoIt seems like Europe, yet again, have to stand up for ethics, morality and try to deflect corruption. It's so tiresome.
- hdgvhicv 2mo agoIt’s standing up for football. Far more important.
- jkingsbery 2mo agoIsn't Infantino European?
- efdee 2mo agoSwiss.
- dataengineer56 2mo agoSwitzerland is in Europe
- cccbbbaaa 2mo agoWell, FIFA is also an European organization. Swiss, to be exact.
- dgellow 2mo agoIt’s located in Switzerland, but it’s a global organization and has really close ties with the US president
- secretsatan 2mo agoSorry to be a pedant, while switzerland is in the european landmass, it is not a member of the EU.
- triceratops 2mo ago
- riffraff 2mo agoIt's crazy that as despicable an organization as UEFA is, they're still far better than FIFA. Infantino has been a disgrace, I hope they manage to get rid of him, but I have very little hope.
- vostrocity 2mo agoI don't follow any sport, but I actually don't understand why UEFA and FIFA are non-profits when all the American leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL) are for-profit corporations. It seems to work well in America.
- charlieyu1 2mo agoAre they? Their revenues are limited and they can’t really extend their influence outside USA. Meanwhile European games are watched globally
- tmgldn 2mo agoBecause they were designed to be decentralised federations, atop the footballing body in each country. More generally, the US is the most capitalist country, whereas the rest of the world does automatically see capitalism as justified, superior or inevitable. Lastly, football is a grassroots participation sport that is seen by its fans as more of a religion than a conventional act of entertainment. Of course, religion in the US is also often for-profit, but hopefully you get the point.
- overfeed 2mo ago> It seems to work well in America. Does it? Who does it work out well for? Franchises continuously extort tax-payer funds for stadia,some team switches host cities every few years, and the for-profit corporations are legal cartels that decides who gets to own a team. The number of ad-breaks is horrendous to anyone who's watched sports elsewhere.
- NetMageSCW 2mo agoHow exactly do they extort tax-payer funds?
- ktallett 2mo agoThe FA's worldwide don't need FIFA, they can set up a new world tournament. You will get a lot of poor nations who stick with FIFA for the cash but at the end of the day without European teams the world cup and FIFA will have minimal value. 5 of the last 6 world cup winners were european and it will only get more biased towards Europe. Argentina post Messi have no chance, and Brazil are the furthest away from winning than they ever have been.
- Izikiel43 2mo ago> Argentina post Messi have no chance Hold my beer
- ktallett 2mo agoSpain have a far more youthful side, who can easily win again. France will come back, as will England. Argentina have few players coming through and many stars will have retired by the next tournament, even youthful Alvarez will be 30 next time out.
- Izikiel43 2mo agoYou said they have no chance, and maybe that's true for the next world cup, but Argentina is a factory of top players across all leagues, and the Argentina team has been to 7 World Cup finals, winning 3, and 6 of those were since 1978 (so out of 13 world cups, Argentina was a finalist in 6, and won half of those), and except 2002, Argentina always reaches knockout stages and beyond.
- paxys 2mo agoFAs coming together and creating a new FIFA will just mean you get another organization that is exactly as corruption-ridden as FIFA. There's no point starting fresh if you don't fix the underlying problem.
- jimbokun 2mo agoThere will be no cash for the poor nations without the European teams competing.
- triceratops 2mo agoThis is so highly unusual even sports-allergic HN wants to discuss it. It's like a religious schism in some sense.
- xhevahir 2mo agoIt's about brazen corruption in one of the world's most famous institutions. Taking an interest in it isn't as irrational as all that.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- robocat 2mo agoFIFA Gate corruption was in 2015. The new problem is business. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_case https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_case
- JumpCrisscross 2mo agoOn what planet are we supposed to believe Infantino isn’t corrupt?
- AlecSchueler 2mo agoIt's unusual when we're flagging posts about DOGE exfiltrating public data as off topic because it isn't purely tech related.
- theshrike79 2mo agoTBH a bunch of people were (still are?) massive fans of the dipshit in charge of DOGE. Nobody likes Infantino.
- nairboon 2mo agoDOGE is internal US politics, football is global and large parts of Han's audience is global nowadays.
- haunter 2mo agoI think the mandatory ad break introduced by FIFA at the World Cup was also too much for most football people, not just fans. Changed too much, broke the dynamics, basically the sport became a game of 4 quarters instead of 2 halves. These two things combined together are just over the top and unacceptable (UEFA already said they won't use these mandatory ad breaks anywhere) This is the closest where I can see a future where we have a rugby union / rugby league like schism. Oh and guess who is behind the investment group: https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-fifa-investors-kushner-infantino-uefa-8345e0864e3a217632733810c232b423 https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-fifa-investors-kushner-...
- orangedog 2mo agoWhy would non-fans even care? It was a 3 minute break, non-fans would not have any idea that you were going for 2 halves to 4 "quarters". I think this is the kind of thing purists care about but most people don't, most don't even know it is new.
- poncho_romero 2mo agoWhy would anyone be in favour of more ad breaks?
- orangedog 2mo agoI'm not arguing for ad breaks, I'm saying non-fans would not even be aware this is something new. This is the thing that is too much? I just don't get it. The entire thing is a spectacle to sell ads.
- monkey_monkey 2mo agoNo one really gives a shit what Americans who don't follow football think, though.
- orangedog 2mo ago
- glitchc 2mo agoCue UEFA's leadership being replaced in the next year or two. FIFA has had a taste of the amount of money involved in professional sports. There's no going back.
- CodingJeebus 2mo ago50 of the 55 member UEFA states took the floor to express their outrage at FIFA, this is not a matter of UEFA leadership being out of touch. The vast majority of the confederation is ready to walk.
- glitchc 2mo agoI understand that this is a principled stand by UEFA, no doubt about it. But the amount of money in the offering is too large for the clubs (and their superstars) to snub their noses at it. When it comes down to money, principles are the first to be bought and sold.
- CodingJeebus 2mo agoI don't think you do understand, because the nation associations involved (not clubs) have resoundingly rejected this plan. First UEFA has announced their complete boycott, now CONCACAF has rejected it. This is DOA and Infantino just gave the delegation a huge reason to run a candidate against him in the upcoming elections.
- emptyfile 2mo ago[dead]
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoFIFA has been spectacularly corrupt since at least thd 1970s, and UEFA is not far behind. When Blatter was kicked out of FIFA for corruption, the USA provided a legal venue for the investigation. Between Infantino and Trump you would think that is off the table. Expect some kind of back door deal.
- scaredreally 2mo agoELI5? What are the factors and implications?
- xenospn 2mo agoThere is no World Cup without UEFA.
- coffeebeqn 2mo agoUEFA is Europe basically. So like the nexus of modern football
- ahartmetz 2mo ago7/10 of the currently top ranked national teams are UEFA members.
- overfeed 2mo agoUEFA's reach affects the remaining 3/10 and beyond. Nearly the same fraction of world cup players (68%) earn their livelihoods playing for European league teams- including many players representing non-European countries at the World Cup.
- xxs 2mo agoAn even funnier fact is that players who play for clubs in Europe (UEFA) won't be allowed to represent their countries.
- jimbokun 2mo agoFIFA made ludicrous amounts of money as a non profit running the last World Cup and want to transition to a for profit corporation to make even more. UEFA representing the European nations with the most competitive teams and many of the biggest stars, just told them good luck running a World Cup without us.
- shmuli9 2mo agoAbout time Hard to think of a modern institution as corrupt as fifa. That may not bother too many people because it’s not their government, but I just think it stinks
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoFIFA has been monstrously corrupt since at least as far back as the 1970s (Havelange). I backslid this year, but did completely boycott watching in 2018 and 2022. Russia is a pariah state and should never have been allowed to host, and Qatar was manifestly unsuitable. The only difference this year is that the bribery and political favors were out in the open.
- paxys 2mo agoThere are levels to it. Sepp Blatter was notoriously corrupt, but Infantino makes his "envelope full of cash under the table" style of corruption look amateurish.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoEven in the festering pit of slime that is FIFA, Infantino stands out for his festeringdom and slimitude.
- Bridged7756 2mo agoRussia a pariah state, as opposed to the US. Good thing freedom won and the US was allowed to host.
- paulbjensen 2mo agoIt's only a matter of time before there are sponsors on the Yellow and Red cards...
- coffeebeqn 2mo agoGuaranteed slots to the tournaments for patrons
- fred_is_fred 2mo agoThe red card for covering your mouth while talking to an opponent is brought to you by Telegram.
- secretsatan 2mo agoI follow a local team and don’t really follow the larger picture, but injuries are sponsored, i always thought that would produce a perverse incentive. EDIT: not sure why i’m getting downvoted, they post up the injured player on the screens with a private medical company prominently displayed.
- NetMageSCW 2mo agoBecause there is no incentive for the players? Who do you think is incentivized and how does that cause a player to get injured?
- secretsatan 2mo agoPerhaps the ref may turn a blind eye?
- runarberg 2mo ago“Looks like this is a card. He already has a yellow (sponsored by Qatar Airwaves), and may be looking at his second. YES! he is receiving is second yellow, this time sponsored by Universal Studio, and here is the red card. Sponsored by Red Bull. He is leaving this game and his team mates one down.” Second commentator: “It is true, Red Bull gives you wings. In this case, the wings only take you to the shower room.”
- onesandofgrain 2mo ago[flagged]
- triceratops 2mo agoYou seem to believe things that bring people joy are a waste of human potential. Please explain. Are we only meant to be machines that produce 16/7?
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- kreyenborgi 2mo agoI wish sports would be sports, business be business, and politics politics. Whenever they mix, it is for the worse.
- Ekaros 2mo agoFIFA is just upholding western values. Profit, exploitation and money over everything else. They with FIA and likes are just showing the world what truly matters for western world.
- callamdelaney 2mo agoYet it’s the very west uefa protesting.. right
- xhevahir 2mo agoOr maybe not, since it's Europe who are objecting here?
- paxys 2mo agoAmerican values, not western.
- orangedog 2mo agoWe're really going to act like the entire world doesn't have issues with this. Given this is a worldwide institution dealing with this, I think you are both casting the new too small. Famously before either the US or Western world, these values were never celebrated.
- marcosdumay 2mo agoUS values, from the culture of the last 40 years.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- tmgldn 2mo agoPut it this way - Europeans don't generally call themselves from "the West" in 2026 - it's an American geopolitical fantasy.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo ago
- sunrising 2mo agoIt's a pity that those letters are not sent for many many other things.
- blahblaher 2mo agoGood to see some "balls" can still be found
- nkg 2mo agoI'm so happy to see they care enough to take a stand. The last World Cup was a sh-t show. I expect the LA olympics to be no better.
- dmarcos 2mo agoHow was it a shit show? I’m genuinely curious. I attended 5 games (Atlanta, LA and Dallas) and was a fantastic experience minus the process to get tickets.
- orangedog 2mo agoSports people (I was listening to Bill Simmons) rated it pretty highly. There was nothing egregious and it was widely attended.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoThe way that the Iran team was only allowed into the USA on match days was a disgrace. Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace. The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace. The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. I could go on.
- rsynnott 2mo ago> The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster? There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus routes, it’s always a bit of a shitshow when a big event finishes. I’ve no idea how it could work _at all_ if you’re just depending on buses and cars, which a bunch of the US stadiums seemed to be.
- 2mo ago
- mgianluc76 2mo agoGood calls. Honestly, the last World Cup already had way too many unwatchable matches before the quarterfinals. And the hydration pauses to sell more ads. And that halftime show during the final.
- paxys 2mo agoFootball/soccer is one place where Europe can easily flex their muscles against American capitalism and corruption. Good on them for saying it loud and clear.
- jimbob45 2mo agoThis is a joke, right? I can’t think of any league as blatantly corrupt as FIFA on any level.
- jotajota24 2mo agoWhat are you on about? FIFA is not a league and certainly not in charge of european football
- tremon 2mo agoI'm not convinced. There's plenty of large clubs in Europe owned by foreign capital and those clubs have already tried to push a pan-European league for themselves. I can see the FIFA using those teams as leverage to gain a foothold in Europe without UEFA. * e.g. Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Paris SG, AC Milan and Inter Milan -- in Spain, individual clubs can't be owned by private equity but the La Liga corporation is)
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- whateveracct 2mo agoCONCACAF too
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoRight, IIRC they basically banned everybody in Trinidad from FIFA and relocated the HQ. It didn't help that Chuck Blazer just looked like a pedophile. Not sure if it's a coincidence that he lived in Trump tower. He had two apartments there, one for his cats.
- dotcoma 2mo agoEurope, united at long last!
- mrhottakes 2mo agoGood. Good riddance.
- einrealist 2mo agoYes, but isn't football already overly commercialised? Why is advertising for sports betting or alcohol any better than the FIFA issue? UEFA should take a look at itself, too.
- jimbokun 2mo agoYou can be against more than one thing.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoEurope is where all the money is made in football. UEFA just want more of the pie. FIFA is a repulsive pit of corruption but UEFA isn't much better. Remember Blatter and Platini?
- jen20 2mo agoBlatter was president of FIFA, not UEFA.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoYes, and when Blatter was investigated for corruption both he and Platini, president of UEFA, were banned. This was barely 10 years ago, it's not ancient history. Platini is still suing Infantino now.
- jen20 2mo agoIn even more recent history, both were cleared by a court of wrongdoing [1]. Infantino is clearly worse in every respect. [1]: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/44397617/ex-fifa-chief-sepp-blatter-michel-platini-cleared-corruption-case https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/44397617/ex-fifa-chie...
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoWho can decide the precedence of a louse and a flea?
- kzrdude 2mo agoAnd Infantino has been in high leadership in UEFA (not president), then FIFA
- sizzzzlerz 2mo agoSomewhere in this fetid swamp of corruption, you just know the trump crime syndicate has its greasy hands on the pie.
- verdverm 2mo ago*hands on a peace of the pie
- monooso 2mo ago> If approval is granted, Fifa says Thrive Eternal is expected to lead the proposed investor group for FFE. > Thrive is an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner - the brother of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5y67zrrdddo https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5y67zrrdddo
- sizzzzlerz 2mo agoI thought I smelled something.
- pms 2mo agoI'm speechless...
- hn_submit 2mo agoI find the UEFA standpoint a little disingenuous since commercial interests have been a top priority in football (soccer) for decades. Claiming that allowing investors to participate will hurt the sport are at the very least a misrepresentation of the current situation. Although I disagree with his methods and goals I enjoy watching the way Infantino uses power play to stack the cards in his favor. The only way for the UEFA to reclaim authority would be to demand two-thirds voting rights. The model of "one country, one vote" clearly works to UEFA's disadvantage even though its clubs contribute the majority of FIFA's income.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoYes, it's a stretch to believe that UEFA is objecting strictly on a point of principle. UEFA seems to think people have forgotten that they tried to buy off top teams from the national organizations into a European super league. In effect they did it anyway with CL.
- bl0b 2mo agoThe super league wasn't UEFA's doing at all. The top clubs themselves tried to break away and self-organize, and they ultimately won some concessions from UEFA (new CL format, more CL money to the big teams)
- bwnkl 2mo agoI think they meant the original idea of the European Super League from the 1980s (that preceded the Champions League)
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- faramarz 2mo agoThey’re not against the economics of it. It’s carefully worded against private governance.
- tedggh 2mo agoWhy is this out of the gate bad? Note that this is not taking FIFA to private equity, but creating an investors owned subsidiary to run events and commercial operations where the non profit arm will still own 80% of it. With the right protections it could help FIFA make more money and reinvest in the sport, particularly women’s football. FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA. Soccer is by far the most popular sport on the planet, the fact that it makes a lot less money than hockey is insane.
- jotajota24 2mo agoWhy is it bad to sell 20% of the biggest tournament in the world to a private company lead by people involved with the most corrupt administration in the history of the US? The model has been working fine for decades, why does it matter that it makes less than american sports?
- tedggh 2mo agoThe most beloved, most watched sport in the world making less than the American/Canadian hockey league is a commercial failure. Non profits are generally inefficient at running businesses. With the right guardrails a private arm that knows how to run a business could help FIFA make a ton of money. And yes a lot of rich guys will become even richer too, so what?
- rassimmoc 2mo agoguardrails, yea pedotrump pissed all over existing guardrails in this wc. and you want to sell him a piece of fifa :D
- triceratops 2mo ago> help FIFA make a ton of money It's a non-profit. So who cares? Why is more money automatically good? > making less than the American/Canadian hockey league is a commercial failure They aren't alike. The NHL doesn't happen once every 4 years.
- kzrdude 2mo ago
- rsynnott 2mo agoOkay, got to admit I did _not_ have “Trump breaks the World Cup” on my bingo card.
- verdverm 2mo agoE is for everything TTD
- baggachipz 2mo agoI mean he breaks everything, so....
- igsomething 2mo agoThe same UEFA that added redundant matches and teams to the Champions League for money, and that came up with the Nations League because they wanted to extract more money from the national teams?
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoAnd attempted to hive off the best teams into a super league, even though this would have destroyed national leagues across the continent.
- Vinnl 2mo agoThe Super League was decidedly not UEFA's - UEFA even announced sanctions against the organisers (though I think those were repealed by a court), because it was going to compete with UEFA's leagues.
- padjo 2mo agoFunnily enough it was Infantino who lead the introduction of the Nations League.
- pbalau 2mo agoWhile I agree the extra CL games are not a great idea, they are not a very bad one either. The Nations League is a good idea, for a number of reasons: 1. It gives smaller teams, like Gibraltar, Malta etc, a chance to play competitive football against teams their level and a chance to actually get better. In the old system, the only way for Gibraltar to play a competitive game, was to play in the Euro or WC qualifications, against the likes of Germany, Spain, England etc and get trashed. They can't get better if they have no chance to win. 2. Nations League brings money to the various FAs, a google search suggests anything between €750,000 to €10.5 million, as opposed to extracting money from the FAs. 3. The Nations League games replaced a bunch of friendlies. Now those games matter.
- ff10 2mo agoI secretly hope that Infantino goes ahead with it anyway. UEFA and others will form something new. Something that replaces the incredibly broken and corrupted FIFA with a de-facto and de-jure non-profit governing body.
- t0mpr1c3 2mo agoThen you would have two corrupt organizing bodies. Something similar happened with FIDE (chess) in the Kasparov years. I believe FIDE is still headquartered in a dodgy dictatorship in Central-asia-stan. And I've lost count how many global boxing organizations there are, seemingly in competition with each other to minimize sporting legitimacy and financial transparency.
- jotajota24 2mo agoThis whole thread is full of people that cannot conceive a model where profit is not the goal
- throwaway132448 2mo agoWelcome to HN. It wasn’t always this way, but it sure is now!
- kalleboo 2mo agoWhen I first came here 15 years ago it was always more about "Bay Area Startup News" than Hacker News, it has definitely always had a heavy capitalist slant. I'd go as far as to say it has more anti-capitalist sentiment now than it ever has had before.
- throwaway132448 2mo agoNot what I remember - we had TechCrunch for that. Hacker News was for hacking - we used to flood the front page with Erlang articles whenever things went off track. Also pro/anti capitalism isn’t the issue - narrow mindedness and a lack or empathy is.
- rvz 2mo agoFounders who used to post on HN are no longer here. (They are on bookface.) There has been an increase in anti-capitalist sentiment on this orange site in over a decade. But in 2026, the majority here (mostly in Europe) are always upset when they need to pay for their tools. "Open source" is the biggest excuse for developers and some HNers to never pay for anything. This appears to be unique in this industry.
- shark1 2mo agoWow! You have my respect, UEFA.
- xorcist 2mo agoWhy only now? UEFA should boycott the world cup, period. It should have been enough even before the Balogun nonsense. They have the best league and the best teams, they have the know how and could easily host the UEFA World Cup. They could host a tournament without the pay-to-win arbitrary overruling of red cards and the clownish half time entertainment. Nobody would care about the FIFA World Cup. Fork it!
- hermitcrab 2mo agoAnd run it on exactly the same dates as any FIFA matches.
- xorcist 2mo agoExactly! You would have a number of oil states competing, and that's it. They have everything to win. It's opposite of the PGA/LIV situation, the breakout group have the stronger trademark and the better teams. It's baffling that UEFA didn't move in already when FIFA was too greedy even for EA, which is saying something.
- smotched 2mo agoUEFA is not an angel, they generate far more money than FIFA from TV rights, sponsorships, and tickets. They also just don't want to ever lose that.
- TheRoque 2mo agoIsn't it a non profit too ? But you seem to imply it's going into individual's pockets ?
- throw1234567891 2mo agoThe non-profit makes no profit but it doesn’t mean those involved can’t make profits. An investment in a new jet for the boss is an investment back into the non-profit!
- j45 2mo agoI wonder if this might lead to UEFA and othe similar orgs simply banding together to create their own FIFA.
- dalemhurley 2mo agoUSA vs Australia grand final!
- plandis 2mo agoCONCACAF rejected the proposal too. Maybe it will be Senegal vs Socceroos?
- ratelimitsteve 2mo agolike so many corrupt organizations lately, FIFA has been getting away with it for a long time and they overplayed their hand. this was a long time coming and i'm really glad to see it.
- pelagicAustral 2mo agoOutstanding. I hope the muscle through and make it happen.
- hermitcrab 2mo ago"The investment fund Fifa is dealing with - Thrive Capital - is led by Josh Kushner, the brother-in-law of Trump's daughter Ivanka." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cjejl274xx8o https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cjejl274xx8o FIFA is famously corrupt. But now they don't bother trying to try to hide the corruption.
- hdaz0017 2mo agoshould wind FIFA up and create a less corrupt world body.
- PaulRobinson 2mo agoThe moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever. Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure. From that moment onwards, every decision on the international calendar, every decision on competition formats and every decision shaping the future of football is no longer driven by what best serves the game, but by what best serves shareholders. These words apply to any investment. It's worth considering as part of any business, including many of the businesses we're here to watch grow - the moment you have others involved as equity partners, the entire culture has to change. Do it consciously, or not at all.
- w10-1 2mo ago> Do it consciously Yes > These words apply to any investment [...] the entire culture has to change I think that's fatalistic. There are plenty of people and legal structures that limit the influence of investors to reasonable returns, most famously founders retaining control, or the public benefit corporation (like Veeva) or nonprofit (OpenAI as the counter-example showing how even structures are no guarantee). It's all part of setting up the systems to work with available people, within the business leader's ambit.
- tovej 2mo agoCo-ops or democracies are the only type of organization that has some resistance to power hungry conmen.
- Kuyawa 2mo agoFirst off, fire Infantino on the spot, just the same way they fired Blatter for corruption. This last world cup was the worse I've ever seen since 1978, almost 50 years, and I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. We all know billions are moved under the table, but money can never break rules and traditions, specially if they don't benefit fans and players above all Did anybody ask the players about the hydration break? About increasing teams to 48, now to 64? More games is more possibility of injuries and benched players are no good for the show. So always be careful about wanting more golden eggs, the goose may be exhausted already
- bluedevil2k 2mo agoWhile I agree with your view on hydration breaks, I have to disagree that 48 teams was a bad thing. It led to wonderful stories like Cape Verde (and their goalie) who were competitive against Argentina. They wouldn’t even have qualified under the old system. We saw Congo almost beat England (again, a non-qualifier in the old days). Conversely, scoring goals is exciting and Germany’s 7-1 over Curaçao let us see some amazing goals. More teams means more underdogs, more chances for greatness and more high points. I know it was purely for money, but I think the move to 48 teams really worked.
- iforgetti 2mo agoCape Verde would have qualified under the 32 team cup as well. Agreed with both you and parent on the commercial, I mean hydration, breaks. What a disaster.
- chirau 2mo agoCape Verde would have qualified for the World Cup even if there were 32 teams. Cape Verde topped its group, beating usual world cup teams like Cameroon. The narrative that Cape Verde is a beneficiary of the 48-team setup is completely and utterly false.
- caminante 2mo agoEven if they wouldn't have made the 32 team bracket, these Cinderella stories are propaganda like the NCAA uses to monetize "student athletes". It's an excuse to squeeze more money out of the brand with a lower quality product. It's shrinkflation.
- rimeice 2mo agoUEFA should take over the World Cup.
- jonplackett 2mo agoThis is. Very well written letter.
- amelius 2mo agoI wonder how often this guy's name is mispronounced as "Infantilo".
- senorrib 2mo agoThe European motorsports clubs should learn with UEFA and rollback the sale of the FIA to the Saudis.
- andix 2mo agoI think motorsports is going to fade away over time. Especially in car racing the technology got so advanced, that it's starting to get more and more boring. If/When self driving cars become widely available, it might start to feel absurd and artificial. I used to watch most F1 races as a kid. But it just doesn't feel interesting anymore.
- ericcumbee 2mo agodrop the second F in FIFA and change Infantino to Mohammed Ben Sulayem and it sounds familiar.
- karmakaze 2mo agoIf FIFA was opensource now would be time to fork it.
- sizzzzlerz 2mo agoThink of it this way. Should this proposal take effect, football will become the sporting world's equivalent to modern day Las Vegas.
- shevy-java 2mo agoGreed is ruining football. Granted, this happened before that already, we also saw this in olympics in general - but FIFA now pushed this onto a new level. This is trying to leech off of people now. After all, without people there would be no FIFA. They are leeching here.
- ErroneousBosh 2mo agoPlay dirty football, win dirty prizes. I don't even like football and I want to see Infantino go down.
- faramarz 2mo agoI want to know what kind of outcomes were put forward in front of him, because otherwise he looks like the biggest fool of the decade (a rich one at that). Wow! Goes off to have Claude look at the FIFA governance charter. This guy is so done!
- NKosmatos 2mo ago“Football’s future cannot be dictated by the expectations of those whose first duty is to maximise financial return.” Very well said…replace the word football with internet/technology/web/research/university or so many others and you might understand why this single powerful phrase is so important.
- TZubiri 2mo agoTo my knowledge there's a lot of infrastructure NFP that have not sold their assets: the NICs, IETF, FSF/GNU, Debian, WikiMedia (sort of)
- mmonaghan 2mo agoPlatitudes sound nice but in the real world you need incentives and there are plenty. Other than real madrid and barcelona and a few italian clubs, very few euro clubs are run as non-profits. Easy to argue that maximizing financial return is the reason football has grown in prominence over the last 20-30 years. I say that but I also agree i dont think fifa or any of the regional orgs need more or any financial incentives. Keep profits for the club, keep the governing body to governing, and the regional orgs to organizing. I actually think this is an area where the us could do a lot of good - sweep in, clean out fifa and as many of the regional orgs as you're able (they're connected), and keep the pressure on. Only the US is really able to do this and we hate cheating in sports.
- tragiclos 2mo ago> Other than real madrid and barcelona and a few italian clubs, very few euro clubs are run as non-profits. Not non-profit per se, but the Bundesliga[1] requires that teams are majority owned by club members and investors are limited to minority ownership.[2] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50+1_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50+1_rule
- kioleanu 2mo ago* with a few universally hated exceptions
- CM30 2mo agoSo, how many countries will be left to participate in these competitions if FIFA doesn't change course? What about if even more national associations from non-European countries get involved? Because in the 2026 world cup, every single team except Argentina in the quarter-finals onwards was a member of UEFA. And even in the earlier rounds, it was probably like 50 or so percent of them... If neither side backs down before 2030, you may as well just call off the next World Cup. Especially given that two out of three hosts would also not be participating...
- Quarrelsome 2mo agoAfrica, South America and Middle East football and maybe Oceania federations support it. North and Central American, Asian and Europe do not. That's broad strokes as each member has an individual vote.
- opinologo 2mo agoIf you look at the points per game, Conmebol was the top achiever with 1.77 points per match. Then UEFA (1.76) then Concacaf (1.21), CAF (1.07), AFC (0.66) and OFC (0.33) Please note that penalty shoots are considered a draw. If we are considering performance alone, Conmebol and UEFA should get more spots.
- barbazoo 2mo ago> As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership. This seems to have actual teeth. What's Infantino going to do to save face? No one cares about a world cup without the Europeans.
- mmooss 2mo agoHere's a look at FIFA's finances, "Where the money comes from and where it goes". I've always wondered where the billions go (and for the Olympics too): https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7330307/2026/07/09/fifa-finances-bookkeeper-analysis/ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7330307/2026/07/09/fifa-fin...
- doomboiardee 2mo agoFIFA wants to add 6 more hydration breaks per half..you know..for the players!
- dragant 2mo agoI actually like FIFA's plan. FIFA is distributing money back to the the associations...ALL ASSOCIATIONS...and lots of money. Infantino has really poured money into minority (less wealthy) associations across the world. No wonder we got Cape Verde and its glory!
- ZYZ64738 2mo ago"Some things are simply too important to sell." Nice! Next the more "unimportant" stuff already sold or about to be: healthcare? education? public transportation? water? energy?
- pbalau 2mo ago> Union of European Football Associations
- djtango 2mo agoIt's ok - who cares about Europe anyway, they will be irrelevant imminently. How about they create a new national league in the US, say called the National Football League and sell that to commercial interests then whoever wins that they can declare the best team in the world and therefore it is the world cup.
- aucisson_masque 2mo agoAgree. The best team are in Europe anyway, why would we care about the rest of the world ? UEFA is all we need, make the best fight against the best in Europe and let fifa do it's shit. Maybe we could do something like Europe - south America competition.
- tremon 2mo ago> a new national league in the US, say called the National Football League How thoroughly un-American. A proper US national league would have "world" in its name.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- jl6 2mo agoInfantino’s justification has been to “grow the game”, but I cannot imagine how football could possibly get any bigger, except maybe in the US.
- Invictus0 2mo agoThey want to get China and Italy in
- pbkompasz 2mo agoFIFA will have the same slow death as Formula 1, if the only focus becomes making money...
- BrenBarn 2mo ago> The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever. Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure. If only we recognized the evil of this in more areas of society. Those obligations and pressures have already corrupted so much of our world. It would be nice if we could expunge them from more than just a game.
- dev0p 2mo agoWe should create our own FIFA, without the blackjack and hookers.
- jmloop 2mo agoI don't think it's about the legacy of football and blah. UEFA (Europe) may be left out of deals, that's about this reaction. They don't give a shit about sport and people. There are more important issues in the world right now than football; does any big organization stand up and call for these actions to stop? Millionaires complaining about other millionaires. "How unfair, my neighbor has more slaves than me" (ancient Greece)
- genshro 2mo agoI agree with you.
- rvz 2mo agoSince when did HN care about football
- r_lee 2mo agowas this generated with AI? constant "this is not x, it's y" and vocabulary that I usually see from like Claude
- Henchman21 2mo agoNo one has the moral authority to sell what they merely hold in trust for the next generation Well said.
- blackhaj7 2mo agoAbsolutely love this. Nice to see some integrity in 2026
- BrandoElFollito 2mo agoI find it perturbing that one completely corrupt organization haggles with another completely corrupt organization using some moral arguments. It is just missing the Olympic Committee to complete the podium of corruption. On top of that these organizations explain how doping is bad and in the case of the Olympic Organization - that there is some kind of amateurism expected from the participants. We want sport to be exciting so since these people are completely specialized, we should let anyone use what they want (on their bodies and in terms of equipment). It is a commercial entity anyway, intended to bring recreation to people.
- beepbopboopp 2mo agoInfantino either has already paid out people or already accepted money. Its unbelievable that he didnt poll for enough votes before launching. Theres a now a greater than 50% he has to step down. Crime only plays if you do it correctly.
- jsLavaGoat 2mo agoHey your anti-American/FIFA/etc. bot post landed in the wrong thread. Might want to double check that algorithm.