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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

#301

Post by tedggh »

kzrdude wrote: post #200
tedggh wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FIFA controls the largest event, so it should be the driving force for revenue but it’s not. But even if you add UEFA the whole thing still less profitable than an American professional and barely surpasses hockey. By the way, UEFA crying about this while they are the owners, regulators and revenue distributors is pretty crazy. It seems to me they are more concerned about not being able to hop on the FIFA deal themselves.

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

#302

Post by notahacker »

tverbeure wrote: post #109
coffeebeqn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know whos on Infantinos side on this

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.

Past tense. Were on his side. He also just lost a unanimous vote with CONCACAF, the body representing many of the smallest islands least likely to ever qualify for the World Cup or actually generate money from football (and a small number of larger nations that will benefit significantly from his other pledges like more places for CONCACAF natons at the World Cup)

In addition to them all knowing that a World Cup without UEFA isn't going to happen, they also weren't impressed by being presented with a fixed offer and a ticking clock rather than an opening of negotiations....

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

#303

Post by hermitcrab »

dismalaf wrote: post #58
hdgvhicv wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sepp Blatter weighed in, writing on X: "The close relationship between the Fifa president and the US President [Donald Trump] has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football. No-one has the right to sell our game." Sepp Blatter for crying out loud.

Who better to recognize corruption?

Game recognizes game.

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

#304

Post by wood_spirit »

worik wrote: post #264
madradavid wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CONCACAF join UEFA and reject FIFA's World Cup sell-off plan. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49488584/uefa-boycott... . By the end of this Gianni Infantino will only be left with the Africans .I am African and these Federations will do anything to keep him around because of the unprecedented amounts of corruption...

> unprecedented amounts of corruption... Yes I hear about that a lot. Yuk But I also hear that FIFA puts a lot of resources into developing the game in African countries. I am asking: Is that true in your experience?

Both can be - and seem to be - true.

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

#305

Post by monkey_monkey »

tedggh wrote: post #301
kzrdude wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FIFA controls the largest event, so it should be the driving force for revenue but it’s not. But even if you add UEFA the whole thing still less profitable than an American professional and barely surpasses hockey. By the way, UEFA crying about this while they are the owners, regulators and revenue distributors is pretty crazy. It seems to me they are more concerned about not being able to hop on the FIFA deal themse…

FFS this is getting fucking tiresome.

Do you not understand that FIFA and UEFA are a small component of the actual revenue of football? They are not all of football. This is not complicated.

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

#306

Post by hermitcrab »

xorcist wrote: post #230

Why only now? UEFA should boycott the world cup, period. It should have been enough even before the Balogun nonsense. They have the best league and the best teams, they have the know how and could easily host the UEFA World Cup. They could host a tournament without the pay-to-win arbitrary overruling of red cards and the clownish half time entertainment. Nobody would care about the FIFA World Cup. Fork it!

And run it on exactly the same dates as any FIFA matches.

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

#307

Post by monooso »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #131

Somewhere in this fetid swamp of corruption, you just know the trump crime syndicate has its greasy hands on the pie.

> If approval is granted, Fifa says Thrive Eternal is expected to lead the proposed investor group for FFE.

> Thrive is an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner - the brother of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5y67zrrdddo

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

#308

Post by dan_sbl »

rsynnott wrote: post #171
t0mpr1c3 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way that the Iran team was only allowed into the USA on match days was a disgrace. Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace. The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace. The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. I could go on.

> The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster? There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus r…

I believe a big issue was that significant amounts of parking were closed at each of the host stadiums for "security reasons", fan watch areas, etc. When they did some overhead shots of the stadiums, you could see tons of empty parking lot space.

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

#309

Post by tchalla »

hnarn wrote: post #277
Bridged7756 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia a pariah state, as opposed to the US. Good thing freedom won and the US was allowed to host.

What an excellent example of the most Russian thing of all: whataboutism.

Whataboutism doesn’t make the what about claim untrue.

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

#310

Post by notahacker »

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.

It's already an entity that makes billions that's run as a business even though it's nominally one of the few parts of the sport that isn't for profit, and it's not like they really need private equity to help them put ticket prices up, as the last World Cup showed.

Regardless of rhetoric about "not to be sold", the bigger issue is that this looks like a very bad financial arrangement for a sport that is awash with funds already so doesn't need to sell its future revenues off cheaply or learn how to make money from PE, but probably a good deal for Infantino and chums. Corruption at FIFA is nothing new, but a behind-closed-doors sweetheart deal for a large fraction of their future revenue was really pushing at boundaries ...

And Infantino had become so convinced of his own genius he thought that giving member states a fait accompli, a ticking clock and an indication that most of the money would go to states that voted yes (and a financial deal that would be an attractive bung to the 100 or so FIFA members with no chance of actually qualifying, but shrinks the future revenue stream for everyone else) would actually fly.

Plus UEFA already makes more money than FIFA, could happily organize a rival competition attracting more top teams from the rest of the world and sponsorship money if it came to that, and had a unique opportunity to flex where fans and clubs would be universally behind them...

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