The battle of the World Cup sell-off plot may be over but the war is only just beginning.
FIFA’s embarrassing climbdown over the landgrab hatched by its president Gianni Infantino to auction off stakes in its various competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors unified football in outright condemnation of the brazen proposal.
None were more forthright in shooting down the plans than UEFA, who wrote to their former Secretary General to warn that they were ‘actively considering legal action’ against him for the money-spinning scheme despite it being swiftly aborted.
UEFA ready to wage war on FIFA over World Cup sell-off
But that was potentially only the tip of the iceberg for punitive action from the House of European Football, which also committed to a unanimous boycott of all FIFA tournaments if the controversial carve-up by present governance pressed ahead - a stance which has been firmly upheld.
UEFA must take a degree of accountability for Infantino’s scheme. It was, after all, from their Nyon headquarters where the powerbroker which the Swiss-Italian became was allowed to build his stock before ascending to power, 167 miles northeast, at the global game's Geneva base over a decade ago.
He is to them what Anakin Skywalker became to the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars; starting out as their once great future hope before defecting to the footballing dark side.
Contempt for Infantino runs deep among his erstwhile employers, whose president Aleksander Ceferin led an eight-person walkout at last year’s FIFA Congress in Paraguay after a three-hour delay caused by its figurehead prioritising schmoozing with world leaders, including American president Donald Trump, in the Middle East.
That affront inflamed relations between the eminent organisations of international football, but tensions had existed long before the botched ploy to allow Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared, and myriad shadowy investors to get rich off the World Cup’s legacy. Infantino’s 2016 defection saw FIFA aggressively manoeuvre itself to outstrip the Champions League as the highest-grossing tournament.
It also lit a spark in Ceferin to actively push his organisation to become the antithesis of FIFA while also trying to steal the thunder of his former colleague turned adversary where possible. The latest example saw UEFA assign refereeing duties for this month's Super Cup to Omar Artan, the Somali official who was denied entry to the World Cup by the Trump administration.
Another such effort saw the governing body reportedly planning to join forces with the International Champions Cup, a pre-season exhibition series involving some of Europe’s biggest clubs, to roll out a Champions League-style tournament in summer 2021 to overshadow the launch of the expanded Club World Cup before Covid put paid to the rival initiative.
Infantino’s attempted revenge manifested itself in engaging in discussions to rebrand the European Super League under FIFA’s umbrellamere months before the controversial breakaway that threatened to destroy the integrity of the Champions League was unleashed and rapidly disintegrated amid widespread backlash.
When the short-lived concept was rolled out by 12 of the continent’s biggest teams, Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi replaced Juventus supremo Andrea Agnelli as head of the European Club Association – now European Football Clubs. Such a move would previously have been chided by Ceferin’s administration, given the murky connotations associated with state ownership in elite-level football.
But Al-Khelafi was embraced with open arms at a time of genuine conflict and has even been touted as a possible UEFA-endorsed rival to Infantino in next year’s FIFA elections, despite the Qatar Football Association already ruling out backing any candidate to run against the incumbent.
Worse, however, could still follow for the 56-year-old if the World Cup’s prestige remains diminished by a summer of controversy which stretched beyond his ill-fated FIFA Forward Enterprise. It recently emerged that the blueprint for an alternative tournament under a working title of the Global Nations League have been locked away in the UEFA vault for the best part of a decade and support for the eight-team format already garnered early support from both CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation.
Infantino’s gluttony has derailed his bid to kill the golden goose of international football but Ceferin would not hesitate in firing the bullet that strips him of all power. If he succeeds, the accusations of a ‘UEFA Mafia’ regularly aired by supporters will no longer be without foundation.
