That would mean he’d be at Inter Miami for 4 more seasons. For our sake, I hope that’s not the case, but I wouldn’t put it past him.
I don't know how many more games I can take of Messi fans in the Nordecke pulling their phones out whenever the ball goes near him. There's also a certain song or two that I wouldn't mind bringing out of the archives for that game.
Maybe the Messi love will be a little bit less (though still annoying) with how the World Cup Final went.
The fact that he was allowed to foul indiscriminately without penalty throughout the tournament? The fact that he tried to get Cucurella ejected for cover this mouth? That he bitched about everything that didn’t go his way? I hate that midget. Hopefully people saw what he really is, an incredible talent and a huge asshole.
From the Times in London: Infantino is in advanced talks with JP Morgan and Jared Kushner's brother to sell minority interests in FIFA's commercial revenue streams (including the World Cup) to private equity investors. It would involve transferring all rights and revenue streams to a new commercial entity and then selling stakes of that entity. FIFA says the entity would be structured to not cede any operational or logistical control to the investors [LOL], and all of the money would be used to increase payouts to confederations and to make soccer investments in under-resourced nations and regions [LOL again]. FIFA has also denied the Times' report that Infantino is lined up to become chair of the new entity when he becomes term limited by FIFA in 2031. UEFA has condemned the proposition and urged other countries and confederations to follow suit.
And of course the son in law of a certain president from a certain country who is certainly friendly with a certain leader of a certain global soccer federation is looking to invest in said venture, in which that certain soccer leader will lead even though his term will most certainly be up. Curious...
Before anyone gets carried away with their TDS, please allow me to point out a few...misapprehensions: First, Josh Kushner is NOT the President's son in law. He is his younger brother. Second, Josh is a multi billionaire tech investor who founded and is managing partner of Thrive Capital, a venture firm that specializes in media and internet investments. He was an early investor in Instagram, and sold his share for a billion dollars. Thrive also invests in sports entities, and among other things has a large share of the Miami Heat, the Memphis Grizzlies and San Francisco 49'ers. As for this fantasy which everyone indulges regarding the unnamed politician and Gianni Infantino, that's simply a bunch of hooey. Infantino, and Blatter before him, spends half his time jetting around the globe giving stupid awards to heads of state. I could post dozens of pictures of him handing various plaques, certificates and medals to every half assed world leader. And when one of said leaders heads up a world cup host nation, they go all out. The slobbering over whomever it was in South Africa, hell, Infantino actually moved his wife and family to Qatar,on and on. It's how the game is played. Grow the hell up. It does not mean that any of them are bosom buddies. That's childish nonsense. As for this latest venture - officially FIFA Forward - it's an investment/bribe to allow Infantino to dangle $20 million bribes (excuse me, I mean "development grants") at various small nations who will support his reelection next May. Thrive, as an active sports marketing investment firm, is interested, as are others. It has nothing to do with the guy you spend sleepless nights bathing in conspiracy theories about. Sorry.
I agree that this hullabaloo is largely TDS fueled. But, I also don't know that it's out of the realm of possibility for some [insert adjective here] to want to recreate on a more frequent and more profitable scale the glory of this newly-discovered-by-Americans thing called the World Cup. So Bill, with all respect due to the Elder Statesman that you are - and with much thanks for teaching so many of us the ins, outs, and cattycorners of the inner workings of FIFA & CONCACAF over the years - let me ask you flat out: Do you think it's absurd to believe that Gianni Infantino and a venture capital firm have had conversations and drafted a plan to turn the World Cup in to an openly for-profit enterprise?
Oh heavens no. The height and width and depth of Gianni Infantino's corruption knows no Earthly bounds. Something that most people missed with Sepp Blatter was that he too was wildly corrupt, but not personally greedy. There's not much evidence of him stuffing his own pockets. His vice was power. But he didn't sock millions of dollars away for himself. Now Infantino, he loves money. He should have gone to prison back when he was General Secretary of UEFA for peddling media rights and how they talked Swiss prosecutors into dropping the charges is still a mystery. Well, OK, maybe not. So sure, there's almost certainly a personal financial motive here. BUT the more important thing is that UEFA is screaming bloody murder over the idea and intends to fight it. Creating a huge FIFA slush fund that they themselves will never see a dime of is not popular in Europe. We'll see.
Considering the amount of corruption and self-serving the current administration has engaged in, mostly out in the open, I find it laughable that the brother of the presidents son in law is far enough away as to call the president's association with an obvious money grab to be "TDS fueled". Of course Trump has his hand in it. To suggest otherwise would show cult-like behavior.
Concacaf has now come out against the plan too. Meanwhile, Infantino is full steam ahead. He has given member nations a 53-day window to sign on to the private equity plan, for which they'll receive a $40 million distribution. Any nation that doesn't pledge support will receive $10 million.
This recent World Cup showed what an engaged American audience brings to the table. Not only record crowds but also record investment and advertising dollars. Fox got $250M just for water break commercials. I think that was an eye opener for FiFA and even UEFA. The current world order is that America is second to Europe when it comes to football. When Infantino suggests that maybe FIFA start to work with American investment capital, I’m sure that ruffles the feathers of those who used to be more powerful.
Regarding the bolded, not exactly. CONCACAF did not come out against the plan. My understanding is C’CAF is unhappy they were not consulted about the plan. Thus, not an outright denunciation of the plan itself. Imo, the less powerful confederations / smaller FAs have been sucking up the money UEFA makes for FIFA. Time for UEFA to say nope - we’re not gonna subsidize anybody anymore. 1 person 1 vote is great in theory. But when only a handful do the heavy lifting of generating the vast majority of the money, 1 person 1 vote equals “we the smaller bodies want the gravy train from the larger bodies to continue, so we will always vote to keep the gravy train running for us.”
The issue with the argument is it's the same one that's led to the enshittification of college basketball, college football, the NFL, the NBA, MLB, and a bunch of other sports. They're all pursuing a short term strategy of squeezing as much money as they can out of things now, with no concern over the long-term health of the sport. College basketball poured all their effort into monetizing the NCAA Tournament and it made the entire regular season meaningless. College football tore up regional conference affiliations, which killed off historic rivalries, and it keeps expanding the playoffs which has killed bowl games, conference championship games, and soon the entirety of its regular season. Games like Ohio State vs Michigan and top 5 matchups no longer matter in most years. The NFL is hellbent on monetizing everything and making it as difficult and expensive as possible to watch your team on TV. International games, streaming paywalls, blackouts, intrusive advertising, etc. I'll cut it short before getting into all the issues with other pro leagues because you get the idea. By selling the World Cup, FIFA is now beholden to billionaire investor vultures who will want to squeeze as much short term money out of the sport as they can. They don't care if they kill the sport in the process. They will expand to 64 teams, then add a play-in tournament for another 16 teams, and then push to make it biennial or annual instead of quadrennial. And obviously there will be many more ads and commercials built into everything, along with runaway ticket prices and games bid out to streaming services. American TV executives and private equity are killing the golden goose.
UEFA has voted to boycott all FIFA competitions including future World Cups if the private equity initiative passes. Super League 2.0
When a shit idea is backed by obviously shit people, it would seem prudent to try and not be a part of it. CONCACAF has a call scheduled for 12:30 apparently, see what happens there.
Both the AFC and CONCACAF have expressed serious reservations and may very well decide not to go along, but it doesnt matter one little bit because without UEFA there is no World Cup. A few years ago when FIFA was making noises about holding the WC every 2 years, UEFA put a stop.to it with a simple.proposal: Holding an alternative tournament with only European teams and invite the US, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil to play. Maybe add Japan and Australia. They'll get the sponsors, they'll get the media deals, they'll get everything. They could literally kill FIFA. Dead. It doesnt matter how many votes Infantino can get for his deal. One little noted detail from World Cup US 2026: Alexander Ceferin, the President of UEFA, refused to attend the final because he dislikes the way Infantino is running FIFA and the way he ran the tournament. UEFA is not kidding around here.
Concacaf says nope. https://www.concacaf.com/competitio...lf-of-concacaf-and-its-41-member-associations "During the meeting, the membership expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies. In addition, the need for private equity investment to fund new and existing FIFA Forward programs following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history was questioned."
Infantino’s plan is dead. FIFA without the European teams is like a Star Trek reunion without Shatner.
UEFA and CONCACAF can be outvoted by everyone else, so they can't be too greedy or that will get shot down too.
Infantino sent a letter today to all 211 FIFA Federations. He told them that they all have unril Sept 19 (IIRC) to agree to his plan. If they do, they will all share in a whopping $7 billion pot of money from the World Cup. If they do not agree and his proposal fails, the offer will go down to $ 2 billion. 53 days. Reportedly not even the FIFA vice presidents or board members knew anything about any of this until.yesterday. And they all found out about it in the media.