FIFAdom

Yes sir, Gianni has said and done some eye-opening things lately, but he was saving his most sparkling gem for last.  I think that this explains the reason behind his embracing of DT.  He has put forward a proposal to ‘sell off’ a significant stake, (20 billion dollars, or so), of the commercial rights to FIFA’s tournaments.  By creating a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise, (sounds like DT came up with the name himself, doesn’t it?), whose goal is to raise huge amounts of cash from investors.

He’s bating the deal to his 211 member associations by predicting a distribution of billions of dollars among them, should this go through.  Not surprisingly, an investment company founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of DT’s son-in-law Jared, (maybe it’s just a coincidence), is leading the way in the search for investors.  Gianni is very pleased with his idea, stating he believes that it will cement the commercial side of the game, which is one of the main problems for most.  UEFA immediately accused Infantino of selling out the soul of the game.

They accuse FIFA of crossing lines that a governing body should never cross.  They also say something even more poignant, that no one owns the sport, that it’s not FIFA’s to sell.  Good point, this is just another attempt by a governing body to allow the super wealthy to take hold of something that belongs to everyone.  Once they are given the keys to the executive washroom, they will make their presence known.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe there are many such institutions that are squeaky clean, corruption will persevere as long as money continues to be the unifying god.  The difference this time is that it will no longer be contained in-house.  The insistence that turning e

verything into a product that can be packaged and sold is taking the fun out of it all, but it’s never about us.  The people may have owned for a long time, but these days, popular things often get hijacked by the wealthy, slowly shutting most of us out, exempting those who are willing to pay the tariff.  The World Cup in North America was the test case. Exorbitant prices of everything from the tickets to the consumables at the stadiums were a constant subject of frustration.  People were expected to dish out, and many did.

  Gianni has tried this before, attempting to tie up with a Japanese bank, back in 2018, but didn’t manage the votes he needed from his colleagues at FIFA.  I certainly hope that they do the same this time around, seeing as the only thing that is different today is the level of greed among those who have way, way more than they need.  We are quickly falling into a society of owners and renters, with no rent control.  Everything seems to be up for grabs, often not due to some sort of failure on the part of whatever is being purchased, but by the need of the few to control the many.  It makes them feel special, even if they’re standing on our shoulders.

Fiquem bem,

Raul Freitas/MS