64 teams in group stage? Bonkers.
Oh, US wants to host WC in 2038. Might as well call it Water Closet 2038.
No sane countries and cities would want to host WC (similarly, Olympics), as FIFA demands no tax status for itself, affiliates, sponsors, etc. That means the money goes straight back to FIFA and its leeches, with the host countries and cities getting stuck with the deficits, getting millions/billions into the red for their budgets. As @Arminius said, he’s upset that Canada “partnered” with this United North America bullshit bid for the 2026 WC, while Canada and Mexico only get a handful of events, and we are getting stuck in the debt.
I thought Guilani was dying…
Or is another one. Also as for Trump I wouldn’t make plans for 2038. I doubt you’ll get there.
Anyhow if you have a 64 team tournament and I’m very much against it you’ll more than just one country hosting it.
That’s where I think Saudi may struggle. The next one with 3 nations plus a couple of others tagged on potentially.
They have no ethics… done sorted
How’s this
"However, Fifa’s Code of Ethics, external has restrictions on offering and accepting gifts, with article 21 stating that such gifts can only be offered or accepted if they “have symbolic or trivial value”
Should add, ‘or if they come in brown envelopes’ to make it realistic.
FIFA’s corruption more and more blatantly exposed.
Thank you, Mike Pence.
Inside Lutnick’s back channel with FIFA brass
A previously unreported dinner with Gianni Infantino and a handful of insiders shows how far the Commerce Secretary’s ties to soccer’s governing body extend — including a push to get Folarin Balogun’s red card lifted.
Not sure if this is the actual Romain Molina account (French football journalist).
Translation:
Several people on the UEFA board had been working behind the scenes for some time to put forward a candidate to challenge Infantino in 2027.
Since the decision to appease Trump, other leaders in world football have been discussing the idea of finding an alternative because “this is no longer possible.”
Problem is a cleaner than clean candidate won’t win the votes of the various corrupt parties around the globe. Infantino can only really be brought down by checks and balances and like the US Congress, senate and Supreme Court they simply aren’t or won’t do their job.
Also commitment to expansion will be required otherwise the candidate is a loss from the start.
Maybe England can argue Quansah’s case…
If anyone has any dirt on Infantino I’d rather they use it to get Haaland banned from the next game for something spurious like an unsafe man bun bobble
Yeah the entire set up at FIFA incentivizes corruption.
Its amazing to think that Infantino was himself the “we need to clean this place up” candidate after the peak of the Blatter era scandals
He meant we need to clean up financially, and he has delivered on that, every tournament bringing in more than the last🫰
This is a really great conversation with the former head of ESPN. His impact on the growth of the game in the US over the last decade cannot be overstated with the way he put all his resources behind covering the world cup in 06 through 14 the way it is supposed to be covered and banking that the audience would follow
In this conversation he talks about the series of corrupt steps that resulted in Fox getting the broadcast rights for this tournament for WAY under par.
- Fox beat ESPN to the rights to 18 and 22 in a combined bid
- The 22 bid was based on it being a summer world tournament with Fox having a lot less appetite or even capacity for a winter tournament given the importance of the NFL to the schedule
- When the corrupt deal was made to switch 22 to the winter Fox signaled they were going to sue FIFA out of existence and so a sweetheart deal was struck with them to give them a no bod contract for this edition for pennies on the $ if they agreed to drop any claim about 22
Might not play out that way - there is a great deal of anger towards Infantino in CAF, due to the failure to secure access for spectators (and even players) in FIFA’s agreement with the US.
An elementary violation of the rule that you dance with the one who brought you
Depends how much money he can offer to the right people.