The problem with that is that it then it is no longer a sport, rather a... business.

UEFA letter is spot on.

Now if only that could put a dent in Infantino reelection...

So this will now be the new norm. Host countries will be ones where laws don’t prohibit gouging fans. They’ll come up with creative solutions to meet the rotation requirement like the upcoming host a couple games in South America farce that’s allowing them to go to Saudi Arabia after that. They’ll continue to push the boundaries of decency until they get sufficient pushback.

But there's always a breaking point... hopefully.

It’s sad though. The World Cup, while imperfect, remains an event that brings the world together. We don’t have many of those left.

A private company answers only to shareholders.

Got friends working for them as developers. They ran away. In months

Trump and Kushners

"Joshua Kushner is now the kingpin in driving the sale of the World Cup to investors and family ties are tight around the project"[1]

1. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/30/fifas-sale-...

Interesting parallels to OpenAI.

For a second, I thought the Americanization[1] of fùtbol would be done gradually and no one would complain as we'd be slowly boiled. I'm glad the corrupt bastards got greedy/impatient and took a big swing.

1. Sports as business first, catering to owners first, sponsors second, broadcasters, and then lastly fans. IMO non-profit sports organizations are the best model for fans, who I identify the most with.

The $15 billion figure is for FIFA's ENTIRE 2023-2026 revenue cycle, so not just this World Cup. But the obvious "low-hanging fruit" was making the tournamenta lot larger (104 matches instead of Qatar's 64), so a lot more tickets, hospitality sales, ads etc

Also two 3 minute hydration breaks per match, giving broadcasters additional advertising windows.

That's your "optimization".

The game was already hurt this world cup with the flow destroying „hydration breaks“ to sell more ads.

That said, a World Cup without any of the 55 UEFA countries wouldn’t make sense commercially.

Depending on whether the South American teams show up…

(Though AFAIK they haven’t yet threatened a boycott.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_cup_winners.svg

His son in law is running the investment firm https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-fifa-investors-kushner-...

In turn Trump wants to nominate Infantino for Secretary General of UN https://www.euronews.com/2026/07/22/trumps-pick-for-the-next...

I think it’s important to clarify the incentives at play, people are rarely evil for the sake of being evil

Sepp Blatter for crying out loud.

Edit: I just realized you meant who here on hn, in which case I assume the hardcore capitalists/libertarians. But they can speak for themselves.

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

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.

IOC is about the only organisation that comes close to it I think.

Also the treatment of the Iranian team was comically awful.

There was nothing egregious and it was widely attended.

Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace.

The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace.

The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles.

I could go on.

This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster?

There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus routes, it’s always a bit of a shitshow when a big event finishes. I’ve no idea how it could work _at all_ if you’re just depending on buses and cars, which a bunch of the US stadiums seemed to be.

Now if only it had been a good half-time show...

Second commentator: “It is true, Red Bull gives you wings. In this case, the wings only take you to the shower room.”

This is the closest where I can see a future where we have a rugby union / rugby league like schism.

Oh and guess who is behind the investment group: https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-fifa-investors-kushner-...

I can't say I think the halftime show is a big deal at all though.

Every single break time decision in football is arbitrary already.

This is like saying “customers aren’t worried enough about the corporate process - they only care about the end product!”

a few years ago when the momentum was moving towards tennis, some european clubs proposed a "super league" comprising of only the elite teams, the purpose was again to maximize ad profits (and i should go back to check who actually proposed it, who they were affiliated with). That time they were suggested not to proceed, or else they would be boycotted from all other events, the players too. That was also a good decision.

football (not handegg) it already corrupt enough as it is, and too much money is flowing into it, it's incredible and heart warming that there is still some dignity left in the associations.

I'd say this is very, very common knowledge in huge parts of the world. It's not something only enthusiasts and purists know.

This is certainly something many people I know have cared a lot about - and again, I'm not a football enthusiast myself, but still the vast majority of the people I know are, because, not being one really is an outlier.

[0] https://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/popular-sport/fans....

> There are plenty of stoppages in game already which take as much time.

Well. Not really. And those "stoppages" are part of the game. Actually watching the players quarrel with the referee and whatnot is something football fans want to do. It's not comparable.

This is the thing that is too much? I just don't get it. The entire thing is a spectacle to sell ads.

A game having two main uninterrupted halves is one of those foundational facts. Players train for being able to play for that long without getting too thirsty to continue.

I don't often watch football outside the world cup. I don't support any teams. But I know how football is meant to be played, and I was definitely annoyed about the hydration breaks.

Does USA have people that don't follow american football but will watch the Superbowl? Would those people notice if there were three times as many breaks as usual?

Well...many if not most of the people who don't follow NFL and watch the Super Bowl are watching it for the half time show and ads, so more breaks would make them happy, heh.

… By non-fans do you mean people who have literally never heard of football, or something? I’m very far from a fan, no interest at all. But, I mean, I know there are two halves. Everybody knows that.

It's a non-profit. So who cares? Why is more money automatically good?

> making less than the American/Canadian hockey league is a commercial failure

They aren't alike. The NHL doesn't happen once every 4 years.

Besides, your tally of sports incomes is wrong since you didn't include UEFA revenue, which is also football money, in the count.

FIFA holds one significant money-making tournament for a month every 4 years (all due respect to the Women's World Cup in terms of prestige, but its revenue is a small fraction of the Men's World Cup). The NHL runs 6 months a year annually.

A single NBA season has over 1200 games - over 12 times as many games as the most recent World Cup (104). And that was already the largest-ever WC. Does the NBA have 12x the revenue of the WC?

> Even the World Cup brings less revenue than one season of the NBA

This isn't even true btw. The 2026 WC made $15b and the 2025-26 NBA season made $14.3 billion. [1][2]

Most of the WC's participating teams represent places poorer than the places NBA teams hail from.

You can't run the World Cup like the NBA. That's not how the sport works.

1. https://www.sportico.com/leagues/basketball/2025/nba-revenue...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/18/fifa-record...

Maybe fans would prefer that it stayed that way.. making just enough money to keep the sport going, without the profit motive.

I don't care what american billionaires make with nhl/nfl/..., hands fucking off of football.

Although I disagree with his methods and goals I enjoy watching the way Infantino uses power play to stack the cards in his favor.

The only way for the UEFA to reclaim authority would be to demand two-thirds voting rights. The model of "one country, one vote" clearly works to UEFA's disadvantage even though its clubs contribute the majority of FIFA's income.

UEFA seems to think people have forgotten that they tried to buy off top teams from the national organizations into a European super league.

In effect they did it anyway with CL.

Infantino has been a disgrace, I hope they manage to get rid of him, but I have very little hope.

Does it? Who does it work out well for? Franchises continuously extort tax-payer funds for stadia,some team switches host cities every few years, and the for-profit corporations are legal cartels that decides who gets to own a team. The number of ad-breaks is horrendous to anyone who's watched sports elsewhere.

Internationally the standard is non-profits. Most sports have both their international organisations and highest standard of play organisations as non-profits - football, tennis, golf, cricket. The international components of baseball, american football, and basketball are all non-profits (though they are lower standards of play than the US internal leagues).

Lastly, football is a grassroots participation sport that is seen by its fans as more of a religion than a conventional act of entertainment. Of course, religion in the US is also often for-profit, but hopefully you get the point.

UEFA representing the European nations with the most competitive teams and many of the biggest stars, just told them good luck running a World Cup without us.

It didn't help that Chuck Blazer just looked like a pedophile. Not sure if it's a coincidence that he lived in Trump tower. He had two apartments there, one for his cats.

Remember that when (FIFA president) Blatter was investigated for corruption, (UEFA president) Platini was also banned.

Hold my beer

This was barely 10 years ago, it's not ancient history.

Platini is still suing Infantino now.

Given this is a worldwide institution dealing with this, I think you are both casting the new too small.

Famously before either the US or Western world, these values were never celebrated.

When Blatter was kicked out of FIFA for corruption, the USA provided a legal venue for the investigation. Between Infantino and Trump you would think that is off the table.

Expect some kind of back door deal.