Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

uefa.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 702 posts

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

#531

Post by pta2002 »

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…

In Portugal at least, all (I think? At least all the major ones like Benfica, Sporting and Porto) of the clubs are sports associations and are controlled by the club members. This does not mean that there isn’t major money in this, but a club president can get removed by fans, which happened with Porto recently (due to corruption… the club almost went bankrupt).

These clubs are often very old as well, and often were small regional clubs that got big, so they are significant in their cities and do a ton more than just football.

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

#532

Post by maccard »

Ekaros wrote: post #203
kzrdude wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A common factor seems rather that international sports orgs are often very corrupt. Would be interesting to understand why it happens systematically. Lack of good governance structures must be part of it.

I think fundamental issue is that only people who want power, money or influence get involved at highest levels. For rest operating at grass roots or slightly higher and having local impact is more important. Farther you move from there more power hungry and less passionate about underlying thing the people get.

Oh boy I couldn’t disagree more. Grassroots and local sports is absolutely plagued with politics, favouritism and corruption. Ask anyone who has been on the committee or coaching for their local kids soccer/athletics/hurling (in my case) teams - what goes on is absolutely criminal.

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

#533

Post by dataengineer56 »

madradavid wrote: post #208
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.

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...

CONCACAF and UEFA almost always vote together, but they are far outnumbered by every other region and FIFA only needs a majority vote for a rule to pass. You're excluding about half of the planet by only mentioning Africa.

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

#534

Post by don_esteban »

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 is a word invented to deflect any criticism of western hypocrisy.

Like antisemitism, its overuse has rendered it toothless.

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

#535

Post by dataengineer56 »

notahacker wrote: post #302
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.

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 with…

CONCACAF almost always share opinions with UEFA, that really wasn't a surprise or anything new.

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

#536

Post by dataengineer56 »

t0mpr1c3 wrote: post #69
shmuli9 wrote: post #16

About time Hard to think of a modern institution as corrupt as fifa. That may not bother too many people because it’s not their government, but I just think it stinks

FIFA has been monstrously corrupt since at least as far back as the 1970s (Havelange). I backslid this year, but did completely boycott watching in 2018 and 2022. Russia is a pariah state and should never have been allowed to host, and Qatar was manifestly unsuitable. The only difference this year is that the bribery and political favors were out in the open.

> Qatar was manifestly unsuitable

Every stadium was within a 30 mile radius and fans reported a clean, safe experience. Sounds like a good place for a tournament to me.

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

#539

Post by sien »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #514
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...

Honestly no one care about United States, Canada and Mexico in soccer. These countries are irrelevant.

I'm not an American but FIFA certainly care about the US and Mexico.

The US is a vast market. It's played a lot in the US as well. The MLS also not a tiny league. Football is also huge in Mexico.

Hugo Sanchez was truly a legend. Among many.

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

#540

Post by jurgenburgen »

bdangubic wrote: post #455
mcmcmc wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s a solution: bar FIFA from selling viewing rights to their competitions and allow any station or channel to stream for free. That would grow the global game. Take away the money and FIFA doesn’t have much to bargain with. They need to remember they are a purely administrative organization.

> That would grow the global game. The game is already as global as it gets, 1.5bn people watched the wc final…

So a minority of the human population?
Post reply on HN