FIFA sell-off, UEFA backlash

Linford

Linford

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FIFA, or at least Infantino, plans to sell off shares in a company that will run the World Cup.

All 55 UEFA nations met yesterday and voted to boycott all FIFA competitions unless/until they reverse this decision.

FIFA Women's World Cup qualification will be the first fixtures at risk coming this winter.
 
Linford said:
FIFA, or at least Infantino, plans to sell off shares in a company that will run the World Cup.

All 55 UEFA nations met yesterday and voted to boycott all FIFA competitions unless/until they reverse this decision.

FIFA Women's World Cup qualification will be the first fixtures at risk coming this winter.
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For the moment UEFA are united but will that hold.

The poorer countries in Europe rely on FIFA for the majority of their funds. They are gambling that financially UEFA are a better bet. If I was Infantino I would be making calls to these countries suggesting otherwise.
 
Badger11 said:
For the moment UEFA are united but will that hold.

The poorer countries in Europe rely on FIFA for the majority of their funds. They are gambling that financially UEFA are a better bet. If I was Infantino I would be making calls to these countries suggesting otherwise.
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Čeferin will do exactly the same. Time will tell which jumped-up bureaucrat wins out.

It's hard to second guess whether they can hold on to that majority, but I do hope they can. Infantino and FIFA under his charge are getting increasingly concerning.

Rescinding a red card under political pressure, the whole "FIFA Peace Prize" nonsense, ignoring the rules around half-time duration, suspicious refereeing of Argentina matches, and now throwing the safety of the entire governance of the game to the wolves like this.

UEFA aren't without their own issues, as we know fully well as a club, but something has to give at FIFA in this climate.
 
Badger11 said:
For the moment UEFA are united but will that hold.

The poorer countries in Europe rely on FIFA for the majority of their funds. They are gambling that financially UEFA are a better bet. If I was Infantino I would be making calls to these countries suggesting otherwise.
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Fifa are nothing without the big european countries. Money from the euros and champions league, would completely eclipse money generated by fifa competitions without European clubs and countries, in fact, the Europa league and conference league would probably generate more money.
 
rikz said:
Fifa are nothing without the big european countries. Money from the euros and champions league, would completely eclipse money generated by fifa competitions without European clubs and countries, in fact, the Europa league and conference league would probably generate more money.
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Agreed.

So countries like Albania will have to decide which side will give them a better deal. UEFA generates a lot of revenue but in truth we are talking about a subset of countries in UEFA. It could become a bun fight with the greedy big clubs also weighing in.
 
How FIFA is going about this has made exactly zero sense. If there is a comprehensive plan then it should have been provided to the confederations while they were all at the World Cup together. Instead, a few got notified and the rest had to hear about it on the news.

I also don't think the money is necessarily worth it. FIFA made $15 billion off of this world cup, double what it made in 2022. So who is in dire need of the funding? I get it that CAF is always looking for more but UEFA seems good and CONMEBOL and CONCACAF have begun working together to solve their financial and scheduling issues.

The more I read into this, Infantino got seduced by some venture capitalists who promised him billions and haven't really read anything that defends his thinking. This has to be some of the worst public relations that I've seen in a long time.
 
All 41 of CONCACAF concurred with UEFA, which means even the US did as well. The only hope that FIFA had if UEFA bolted was that they could get enough from the rest of the world but taking the US market out and combining it with UEFA puts it at over 50% of the global broadcast rights.

This looks more and more like a an investor get rich quick scheme that really wasn't vetted well.
 
Mark B said:
All 41 of CONCACAF concurred with UEFA, which means even the US did as well. The only hope that FIFA had if UEFA bolted was that they could get enough from the rest of the world but taking the US market out and combining it with UEFA puts it at over 50% of the global broadcast rights.

This looks more and more like a an investor get rich quick scheme that really wasn't vetted well.
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Agreed.

I guess other regions are not against a deal but just this deal. Infantino will have to up the moolah if he wants to win.
 
Badger11 said:
Agreed.

I guess other regions are not against a deal but just this deal. Infantino will have to up the moolah if he wants to win.
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I don't know if even that would matter at this point because with Europe and the US against it, there just isn't enough money that will be able to buy off those confederations.

I think if he had explained what the issue was that they are trying to solve, it would go a long way in showing why this is necessary. Something along the lines of "a desire to expand World Cup locations by investing billions in stadium development and upgrades in economically challenged countries so there is a more equitable distribution of future World Cup games."

But instead its just "We can raise a lot of money."
 
silvertop said:
Can we conclude anything from the fact that the two most corrupt federations in Africa and South America are yet to offer any protest?
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Other then that they were bribed and promised additional funding? From the perspective of CAF, CONMEBOL and OFC I get the need to generate additional revenue because most of the teams that went to the World Cup were living at budget motels and struggling to actually pay their players.

I think there is actually a way forward in helping them, but it will require some other confederations to assist. For example, CONMEBOL has been partnering with CONCACAF to run a tournament together as well as letting CONMEBOL host its tournament in the US so it could increase the revenue brought into its own tournaments through getting deeper into the US market.

Something similar could be done with CAF and Asia/Europe to help give them a boost.

I think the goodness out of this is that the confederations are going to get a little power back from FIFA as this is a massive overstep on FIFA's part.
 
Badger11 said:
For the moment UEFA are united but will that hold.

The poorer countries in Europe rely on FIFA for the majority of their funds. They are gambling that financially UEFA are a better bet. If I was Infantino I would be making calls to these countries suggesting otherwise.
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To me you seem to be implying that UEFA needs to present a united front if it is to deter FIFA from this catastrophic idea. Could the big European countries, if necessary, not just say "We're having nothing to do with this; if Albania want to join, good luck to them." Because without Spain, England, etc. I would guess that the scheme would be at worst uninvestable, or at least investable only at a much reduced price for the promoters.
 
Fifa couldn't even sell the TV rights for the fifa world club cup in this country. Then out of the blue they signed a massive deal with DAZN about 2 days before it was announced the Saudis would be hosting the 2034 World cup.
 
JRW2 said:
To me you seem to be implying that UEFA needs to present a united front if it is to deter FIFA from this catastrophic idea. Could the big European countries, if necessary, not just say "We're having nothing to do with this; if Albania want to join, good luck to them." Because without Spain, England, etc. I would guess that the scheme would be at worst uninvestable, or at least investable only at a much reduced price for the promoters.
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You are right. In the past a number of countries have unilaterally boycotted tournaments. It can be done. A united front is better though not necessary.
 
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