UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions

Post by jurgenburgen » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 7:24 AM UTC

ornornor wrote: post #509

vagrantJin wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own frustration isn't corruption per se, a state cannot exist without it - at least not for long, but how cheap African corruption is in general. Others may require considerable resources and billions perhaps. Not here. Just a few Land Rover discoverys for key officials and a scholarship for their kids in Europe is all that is required to sell a whole state. To say nothing of a sporting organization.

That’s not Africa only. When a corruption scandal comes up (bribing, lobbying), I’m often surprised at how cheap it was to buy the official. It’s often in the 10–50k eur region.

Post by Thlom » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 7:27 AM UTC

opinologo wrote: post #483

Fnoord wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, it is pretty bullshit if you ask me. So it used to be that there were pre-tournament games, to qualify. A lot of countries... they wouldn't qualify. They'd play an ample amount of pre-tournament games though. Now, you seen more countries qualify, and you see countries who used to not qualify, dropping ASAP (in the deathmatch 16th matches, right after poule). So what did we get out of that? A few matches during…

>>* We want to see fair-play, with a meaningful VAR which can be called by the captain or coach of each team twice (getting back their call if agreed on). I am not sure what your problem with Argentina is, but with a meaningful VAR, Cucurella would have been sent off and Enzo Fernandez would have stayed on the pitch. I am sick of the anti-Argentina racist campaign. Just follow the amount of yellow and red cards they…

Post by kioleanu » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 7:32 AM UTC

tragiclos wrote: post #461

mmonaghan wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Post by bcraven » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 7:47 AM UTC

dataengineer56 wrote: post #536

t0mpr1c3 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by illliillll » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 7:50 AM UTC

dataengineer56 wrote: post #533

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...

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.