Football's Soul Is Up For Sale -- And Gianni Infantino Is The Shameless Auctioneer

Published 29 July 2026 · sports

Football's Soul Is Up For Sale -- And Gianni Infantino Is The Shameless Auctioneer Written By, Last Updated: July 29, 2026, 21:24 IST Gianni Infantino

Football's Soul Is Up For Sale -- And Gianni Infantino Is The Shameless Auctioneer Written By, Last Updated: July 29, 2026, 21:24 IST Gianni Infantino promised to clean up FIFA after Sepp Blatter. Well, he's trying to sell football's soul altogether now. Rapid Read Donald Trump ogles at the FIFA World Cup trophy while Gianni Infantino presents it to him like a salesman (AFP) There’s a reason football is called the beautiful game. It has always belonged to the people. Not billionaires, not politicians, not corporations looking for another asset on a balance sheet. Just the folks who love it unabashedly. For more than a century, football also has survived being weaponised by those in power. Hitler’s Germany used it for propaganda. Military dictatorships wrapped themselves in it. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have spent fortunes using it to reshape global perception through sportswashing. Yet, the game always endured because, at its core, it belonged to the fans. Now, though, the game faces perhaps its greatest threat yet — becoming just another investment portfolio for crony capitalism. Blatter Or Infantino? They’re All The Same If Sepp Blatter exposed football’s ugliest face through corruption, Gianni Infantino seems determined to finish the job by turning the sport itself into a financial product. When Infantino replaced Blatter in 2016, he sold himself as FIFA’s reformer. Blatter had left behind one of the darkest periods in football history, with FBI raids, corruption investigations, bribery scandals and a governing body whose credibility had completely collapsed.

Infantino promised transparency. He promised renewal. Well, nearly a decade later, FIFA isn’t trying to clean up football. It’s trying to monetise its soul. Save The Game’s Soul? Shush, Show Me The Money FIFA wants to create a new commercial company — FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — that would own the commercial rights to the World Cup, including broadcasting, sponsorships, ticketing and media revenues. FIFA would technically remain a non-profit association in Switzerland, meaning the World Cup itself isn’t being “sold." Instead, the money it generates is. Up to 21 percent of this new company would be sold to private investors, reportedly raising around $4.2 billion. FIFA insists it would retain control, but that misses the point entirely. The World Cup has never belonged to shareholders. Now, for the first time, it would generate permanent profits for investors whose only relationship with football is financial. Oh, and profits for eternity for one slimy Infantino. So, much for FIFA being a ‘non-profit’, huh? Infantino has dressed the proposal up as “the democratisation of football." But he couldn’t be further from the truth, because this is merely commodification masquerading as reform. The irony couldn’t be richer. FIFA already has arguably the most democratic voting system in global sport. Every one of its 211 member associations — from Brazil to Fiji — gets exactly one vote. Ownership has never existed because FIFA legally cannot have owners. So instead of selling FIFA, Infantino has found a loophole: build another company.