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UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

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Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#191

Post by tedggh »

triceratops wrote: post #179
tedggh wrote: post #142

Why is this out of the gate bad? Note that this is not taking FIFA to private equity, but creating an investors owned subsidiary to run events and commercial operations where the non profit arm will still own 80% of it. With the right protections it could help FIFA make more money and reinvest in the sport, particularly women’s football. FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA. Soccer is…

> FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA. FIFA holds one significant money-making tournament for a month every 4 years (all due respect to the Women's World Cup in terms of prestige, but its revenue is a small fraction of the Men's World Cup). The NHL runs 6 months a year annually.

That’s part of their poor commercial vision. Even the World Cup brings less revenue than one season of the NBA. Doesn’t even make sense to compare it with the NFL.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#192

Post by millhouse_ams »

tedggh wrote: post #142

Why is this out of the gate bad? Note that this is not taking FIFA to private equity, but creating an investors owned subsidiary to run events and commercial operations where the non profit arm will still own 80% of it. With the right protections it could help FIFA make more money and reinvest in the sport, particularly women’s football. FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA. Soccer is…

NHL/NFL/NBA are national leagues, the FIFA world cup a tournament that takes place every four years. You’re comparing apples and pears.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#193

Post by brunoborges »

testdelacc1 wrote: post #161
brunoborges wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is not how much it made, it is how to transfer that wealth (whether 6B or 60B) out of a non-profit into someone else's account without looking like, or literally being, a criminal.

A nonprofit can be questioned about how it pays people. A private company answers only to shareholders.

bingo

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#194

Post by masfuerte »

jimbokun wrote: post #124
tverbeure wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 200+ participating countries. Many of those are on his side, because they’re tiny and easy to bribe: a few million is significant for them and often that money can be siphoned into corrupt pockets. That said, a World Cup without any of the 55 UEFA countries wouldn’t make sense commercially.

But the USA men might finally do well! Depending on whether the South American teams show up…

I like this map:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_cup_winners.svg

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#195

Post by cryptoegorophy »

antonyt wrote: post #101
dmarcos wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How was it a shit show? I’m genuinely curious. I attended 5 games (Atlanta, LA and Dallas) and was a fantastic experience minus the process to get tickets.

Not OP, but I would guess: "hydration breaks" to inject commercials, half-time shows that felt alien to much of the core audience, and various rule-bending shenanigans (Ronaldo, Balogun).

Also a funny trump red card

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#196

Post by triceratops »

tedggh wrote: post #191
triceratops wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA. FIFA holds one significant money-making tournament for a month every 4 years (all due respect to the Women's World Cup in terms of prestige, but its revenue is a small fraction of the Men's World Cup). The NHL runs 6 months a year annually.

That’s part of their poor commercial vision. Even the World Cup brings less revenue than one season of the NBA. Doesn’t even make sense to compare it with the NFL.

Again, it doesn't last as long as one season of the NBA or play as many games.

A single NBA season has over 1200 games - over 12 times as many games as the most recent World Cup (104). And that was already the largest-ever WC. Does the NBA have 12x the revenue of the WC?

> Even the World Cup brings less revenue than one season of the NBA

This isn't even true btw. The 2026 WC made $15b and the 2025-26 NBA season made $14.3 billion. [1][2]

Most of the WC's participating teams represent places poorer than the places NBA teams hail from.

You can't run the World Cup like the NBA. That's not how the sport works.

1. https://www.sportico.com/leagues/basketball/2025/nba-revenue...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/18/fifa-record...

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#197

Post by ralfd »

erfgh wrote: post #190
brunoborges wrote: post #2

Infantino clearly wants to see FIFA making billions so he and many others can pocket millions legally. But the only way for this to happen in a non-corrupt way, given that FIFA is non-profit and therefore requires a lot of questionable operations, is to turn FIFA into a business like NFL / MLS. The problem with that is that it then it is no longer a sport, rather a... business. UEFA letter is spot on.

What's wrong with making billions? Will this hurt the game somehow?

Yes.

The game was already hurt this world cup with the flow destroying „hydration breaks“ to sell more ads.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#198

Post by curun1r »

dmarcos wrote: post #77
nkg wrote: post #51

I'm so happy to see they care enough to take a stand. The last World Cup was a sh-t show. I expect the LA olympics to be no better.

How was it a shit show? I’m genuinely curious. I attended 5 games (Atlanta, LA and Dallas) and was a fantastic experience minus the process to get tickets.

The Iranian team’s treatment is a prime example. The Somalian ref being denied entrance is another. And the Balogun red card is a double example (it shouldn’t have been a red card in the first place, but the precedent that the President of the host country can get a call overturned is even worse).

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#199

Post by tommek4077 »

erfgh wrote: post #190
brunoborges wrote: post #2

Infantino clearly wants to see FIFA making billions so he and many others can pocket millions legally. But the only way for this to happen in a non-corrupt way, given that FIFA is non-profit and therefore requires a lot of questionable operations, is to turn FIFA into a business like NFL / MLS. The problem with that is that it then it is no longer a sport, rather a... business. UEFA letter is spot on.

What's wrong with making billions? Will this hurt the game somehow?

We've seen the start with "hydration breaks" and a 30 minute half-time.

Re: UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

#200

Post by kzrdude »

tedggh wrote: post #183
jotajota24 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it bad to sell 20% of the biggest tournament in the world to a private company lead by people involved with the most corrupt administration in the history of the US? The model has been working fine for decades, why does it matter that it makes less than american sports?

The most beloved, most watched sport in the world making less than the American/Canadian hockey league is a commercial failure. Non profits are generally inefficient at running businesses. With the right guardrails a private arm that knows how to run a business could help FIFA make a ton of money. And yes a lot of rich guys will become even richer too, so what?

The point of Fifa is not to make money. The point of it is to further the interests of the sport.

Besides, your tally of sports incomes is wrong since you didn't include UEFA revenue, which is also football money, in the count.

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