UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions • Hacker News Board

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

#461

Post by tragiclos » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

mmonaghan wrote: post #452

NKosmatos wrote: post #398

“Football’s future cannot be dictated by the expectations of those whose first duty is to maximise financial return.” Very well said…replace the word football with internet/technology/web/research/university or so many others and you might understand why this single powerful phrase is so important.

Platitudes sound nice but in the real world you need incentives and there are plenty. Other than real madrid and barcelona and a few italian clubs, very few euro clubs are run as non-profits. Easy to argue that maximizing financial return is the reason football has grown in prominence over the last 20-30 years. I say that but I also agree i dont think fifa or any of the regional orgs need more or any financial incent…

> Other than real madrid and barcelona and a few italian clubs, very few euro clubs are run as non-profits.

Not non-profit per se, but the Bundesliga[1] requires that teams are majority owned by club members and investors are limited to minority ownership.[2]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50+1_rule

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

#462

Post by manquer » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:36 AM UTC

mktemp-d wrote: post #438

mcmcmc wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t the majority of that go back to the clubs that make it to European competitions though?

Here is the UEFA business model according to their statements. https://www.uefa.com/running-competitions/financial-distribu... 97% returns to the club and 9.3% is ear marked for football development programs. Some of the money is utilized as reimbursement to clubs that did not manage to qualify. PS Treating HN like a search engine is not constructive. No flak tho, I also do this sometimes.

It was a rhetorical question[1] I believe , the purpose was not to obtain information .

[1]used as aporetic or perhaps even epiplectic device

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

#463

Post by rascul » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:37 AM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #99

orangedog wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would non-fans even care? It was a 3 minute break, non-fans would not have any idea that you were going for 2 halves to 4 "quarters". I think this is the kind of thing purists care about but most people don't, most don't even know it is new.

> non-fans would not have any idea that you were going for 2 halves to 4 "quarters" … By non-fans do you mean people who have literally never heard of football, or something? I’m very far from a fan, no interest at all. But, I mean, I know there are two halves. Everybody knows that.

I didn't know there were two halves or how long they are. I'm over 40 and the first actual soccer match I've seen was in the latest world cup.

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

#464

Post by jrflowers » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:42 AM UTC

vehemenz wrote: post #453

snakey wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most american centric take I’ve seen all week! Bravo! There are many other nations with just as much influence in sports outside of the US. The only difference being that the US doesn’t care about them. Football is a global game, everyone’s, not another thing for the US to dictate and ruin.

I'm American, so I'm not sure who your comment is for. Anti-Americanism isn't a "gotcha" to me. If anything, it's confirmation of the persistent asymmetry in these discussions. Football (or basketball, if you're Lithuanian) is a massive cultural institution in many parts of the world. The difference is that sports—just sports—are the institution in America. We could look at revenues, but that's far too easy. Look at…

Please talk more about how not wanting things ruined is anti-Americanism

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

#465

Post by Fnoord » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:44 AM UTC

irthomasthomas wrote: post #276

masfuerte wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_cup_winners.svg

Two world wars and one world cup...

You know which country the Nazi's fled to, right..?

Hint: the same one who act like strongmen on the field.

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

#466

Post by Fnoord » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

hdgvhicv wrote: post #40

coffeebeqn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know whos on Infantinos side on this

> 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.

Must hurt, seeing someone do similar shit as you did, yet getting away with it.

Like, mmm, Lance Armstrong, after he got caught.

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

#467

Post by caminante » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:47 AM UTC

chirau wrote: post #421

bluedevil2k wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with your view on hydration breaks, I have to disagree that 48 teams was a bad thing. It led to wonderful stories like Cape Verde (and their goalie) who were competitive against Argentina. They wouldn’t even have qualified under the old system. We saw Congo almost beat England (again, a non-qualifier in the old days). Conversely, scoring goals is exciting and Germany’s 7-1 over Curaçao let us see some a…

Cape Verde would have qualified for the World Cup even if there were 32 teams. Cape Verde topped its group, beating usual world cup teams like Cameroon. The narrative that Cape Verde is a beneficiary of the 48-team setup is completely and utterly false.

Even if they wouldn't have made the 32 team bracket, these Cinderella stories are propaganda like the NCAA uses to monetize "student athletes".

It's an excuse to squeeze more money out of the brand with a lower quality product.

It's shrinkflation.

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

#468

Post by xdennis » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:48 AM UTC

billforsternz wrote: post #409

drcongo wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s no soccer competition Ahhhh, you're American!

Soccer is a legitimate name for the sport. Football is properly the name of a whole group of sports OR in a local context the locally most popular type of football. It's very weird for one type of football to try to claim the name all for itself globally. BTW I am not American.

No it's not. Americans call it that and they don't even like football.

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

#469

Post by triceratops » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:56 AM UTC

senderista wrote: post #456

triceratops wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Qatar#Slavery

Yes it's bad. Unfortunately a lot of countries are like this. Until we stop buying oil there's no way to make them change.

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

#470

Post by bl0b » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:59 AM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #410

bl0b wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what. The point of the World Cup is a worldwide celebration of soccer, interchange of culture. It belongs to the people. It's one of the only things left whose purpose is not just to make as much money as possible.

The Qatar World Cup tournament was obviously such a thing. The place had the money to build all the stadiums, but has never qualified legitimately and is a tiny country. Thousands of people died building those stadiums in Qatar. Plus there is advertising all over the players' clothing, the pitch, the pitchside hoardings etc. There is high rent advertising in every break. Even more so since theze silly hydration break…

I mean, of course you're right about all of that. (The Qatar world cup was more for 'sportswashing' than extracting profit, although FIFA itself still made plenty of money. And, the hydration breaks will hopefully be a thing of a the past, because it was so obvious what they were really for. But I'm not betting on that.)

It just sucks that everything good and sacred in the world (soccer and everything else) is being squeezed and shittified for profit. So if FIFA is prevented from converting from a non-profit with the nominal purpose of being a steward of the game for its own stake into a fully explicit for-profit capitalistic enterprise, then I'll take the victory. Even if the current system is far from perfect.