In a perhaps rare example of corporate contrition, JPMorgan Chase issued a public apology in 2021 over its involvement in a scheme to form a breakaway elite European football league. America’s richest bank pledged: “We will learn from this.”
Some five years later, the financial giant finds itself in the teeth of another controversy embroiling elite football after it was this week revealed to be the main adviser to global governing body Fifa over its hotly-disputed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup and its other competitions to private investors.
The £3.2bn investment project spearheaded by Fifa president Gianni Infantino appeared to be unravelling this weekend after three major football federations, led by Europe’s Uefa, voiced trenchant opposition. The European body said its members, including England, would boycott future World Cups if the scheme went through.
Fifa, which is officially a not-for-profit organisation, insisted it was pressing ahead with its plan, saying “nobody is selling football”. Unhelpfully for Infantino, Fifa’s bullishness coincided with the resignation of one his most senior advisers, Carlos Cordeiro, who said he had no knowledge of the scheme and suggested it would “mortgage football’s future”.
