FIFA UNITES THE WORLD
We begin Football Daily’s 29 July 2026 edition with a trip back to 26 February 2016. Gianni Infantino has been elected as the new Fifa president on a promise to clean up a disgraced organisation. “A good day for football,” says the FA director, David Gill. “A good day for the sport,” concurs the American Fifa executive committee member, Sunil Gulati. “Who’s that bald loser on the news?” says an unnamed Republican candidate.
- Fifa proposes private investment over £7.5bn to commercialize the World Cup and other competitions.
- Fifa claims funds will expand football development funding, while critics say the deal would boost Gianni Infantino's net worth.
- UEFA, Concacaf and the FA strongly criticized the plan, with UEFA calling an emergency meeting and a potential World Cup boycott.
- The plan is framed as a profit driven race risking football's soul, echoed by Sepp Blatter's warning about corporatization.
- The controversy spotlights tensions over who owns football, citing the claim that the game belongs to the people not a profit oriented institution.
Infantino’s message is simple. “Fifa has gone through sad times, moments of crisis. But those times are over. We enter now a new era. We’ll restore the image of Fifa and make sure you will be happy with what we do.” Infantino, whose pitch included a boast that he had vastly increased Uefa’s revenues, promised to address Fifa’s $550m (£414m) financial black hole. “It’s your money, not the money of the Fifa president,” he said. “The money of Fifa has to be used to develop football … I’m a candidate of the whole world and football. We have to build bridges, not walls.”
The news that Fifa is seeking private investment in the World Cup and the rest of its competitions has been reported. The proposed investment is in excess of £7.5bn and, according to a Fifa statement, would be used to expand the net worth of Infantino. The Fifa statement says the money will be used to “expand football development funding”. Fifa’s money does not belong to its president – Infantino said it himself in 2016.
Look, we all know football is about the bottom line. Money doesn’t just talk; it never shuts up. Uefa, Concacaf and the FA are among those who have strongly criticised the proposals. Uefa’s 55 members are to hold an emergency meeting, with a potential World Cup boycott on the table.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Football belongs to no individual and to no institution. It belongs to the people. If Fifa were transferred into a profit-oriented corporate structure, it would lose its soul” – former Fifa president and man of the people Sepp Blatter weighs in on plans to sell off the World Cup.
