Gianni Infantino has an extraordinary gift. Whenever it feels like football is in danger of becoming just another business, Fifa’s president manages to find a new way to show fans that those running the game are way ahead of them.
His latest money-making scheme, revealed on Tuesday, was his Icarus moment. The plan – which the Sunday Times reports was originally to be launched the day before last month’s World Cup final, a quite staggeringly crass piece of timing if true – was to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
It provoked a predictable backlash and his eventual U-turn after nations in the European confederation Uefa announced they would boycott all of Fifa’s competitions until the plan was dropped and barred from being raised again. Uefa’s statement was stinging, attacking what it called a “shabby, back-room, opaque deal”. It added: “The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
At the start of this week, Infantino’s position at the head of Fifa looked unassailable; now it looks like he’ll be lucky to end the week in a job.
Infantino’s talk about unlocking football’s commercial potential suggests there is always another asset to monetise. But fans responded universally: football isn’t for sale.
