As every megalomaniac finds out in the end, there comes a point in the power trip when the writing is on the wall.
For the deplorable Gianni Infantino, that moment arrived after UEFA’s 55 member associations made it clear they will not stand for FIFA’s plot to sell off the World Cup to the highest bidders.
UEFA will boycott FIFA competitions – including the World Cup itself – unless these preposterous plans are consigned to the dustbin where they belong. Concacaf were next to show their displeasure, with their 41 members also rejecting Infantino’s plan.
Quite right. But it shouldn’t end there. How can Infantino stay in office when he has betrayed the sport he has been trusted to lead and plunged FIFA into all-out war with UEFA, the biggest federation in world football?
The 56-year-old has declared his intention to stand for re-election as FIFA president at the next congress in Morocco in March 2027. If he had any shred of dignity, Infantino would get out long before football has the chance to kick him out.
Go, Gianni, go!
If Gianni Infantino had a shred of dignity the FIFA president would get out long before football has the chance to kick him out, after his plans to sell off the World Cup were opposed
UEFA’s 55 members, including newly crowned world champions Spain, vowed to boycott the World Cup should FIFA’s plans go ahead
UEFA, led by Aleksander Ceferin, issued a blistering statement declaring that the World Cup ‘is not for sale’ and accused Infantino of presiding over ‘governance by intimidation’
Like so many of the club executives who hatched the doomed European Super League in secret back in 2021 only to see it go up in flames on the launch-pad, Infantino should do the decent thing and quit now that it’s clear his clandestine plans to raise £3.1billion in private investment are in tatters too.
‘The World Cup is not for sale,’ declared a blistering statement from UEFA, agreed unanimously and co-signed by the English FA and Europe’s other 54 associations. They criticised Infantino for ‘a profound failure of leadership’ and presiding over ‘governance by intimidation’.
They described his attempts to flog the family silver behind their backs without any consultation whatsoever as both ‘irresponsible’ and ‘indefensible’.
The man who sold out to co-hosts USA this summer with the commercially driven hydration breaks, ridiculously long half-time show during the final between Spain and Argentina, and the unforgivable decision to suspend Folarin Balogun’s red card at the behest of his buddy, President Donald Trump, so the striker could play in the last 16 against Belgium, has now hit a major roadblock in his efforts to sell off the World Cup itself.
Even Sepp Blatter, Infantino’s predecessor and another FIFA despot who hails from the Valais region of Switzerland, has branded the plan as ‘deeply damaging’ to the game.
When you have gone too far even for a man like Blatter, you must know that your moral compass is off.
Like Blatter, Infantino is likely to ignore our plea to leave and fight on for his long as he can and bank on the support of the smaller federations in his battle against UEFA, possibly right up to next year’s congress.
For the sake of football’s future, we can only hope he fails.
