The most commercially powerful voice in football has joined the revolt against FIFA’s leadership. In a series of interviews before the new Premier League season kicks off, chief executive Richard Masters lined the English top flight up alongside UEFA, the Football Association and the growing list of national associations that have publicly turned on Gianni Infantino.
His verdict on the past three weeks was blunt.
“This is a problem of FIFA’s making. This is a self-inflicted wound,” Masters told BBC Sport.
“The organisation has pressed the self-destruct button, and the consequences of that flow now into the solutions that need to be found.”
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The plan that lasted three days
The trigger was FIFA Forward Enterprise, a new commercial vehicle unveiled by Infantino on 28 July. It would have handed roughly 20 percent of the operational rights to the World Cup and every other FIFA competition to private investors, led by Thrive Eternal, the New York firm founded by Joshua Kushner. FIFA valued the entity at around $20 billion.
UEFA’s 55 member associations voted unanimously to boycott FIFA competitions if the sale went through. Within 72 hours, FIFA scrapped the plan. Carlos Cordeiro, a senior FIFA adviser and former US Soccer president, resigned the same day, calling it a bad deal for football.
Masters was equally direct on why the idea should never have reached the table.
“I don’t think FIFA should be ever contemplating selling off a stake in the World Cup.”
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“They’re a not-for-profit organisation. They should really be holding that competition in trust for the future of football.”
The ‘unity candidate’ push
Since the plan collapsed, a growing list of national associations have formally withdrawn their support for Infantino’s next re-election bid. Wales and Finland moved first, followed by Sweden and the English FA, with, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Greece, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand added to the tally in the following days.
Portuguese great Luis Figo went further, publicly demanding Infantino’s resignation on 5 August and writing that the FIFA boss had “lied, deceived” his way through the affair. “He should go. Now,” Figo wrote.
Masters signalled that the Premier League sits on that side of the argument.
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“I think it’s a bad idea, and the FA have taken the right position regards to Gianni.”
“Obviously another candidate has to emerge, a unity candidate,” he told Sky News.
He went further on what any challenger should stand for.
“I think an emerging unity candidate should have on his or her agenda reform of FIFA, and perhaps even reform of the president’s role and how it interacts with those things.”
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Why the Premier League’s voice matters
The Premier League generates the largest broadcast revenue of any domestic football competition on the planet, and its players and matches sit at the centre of the commercial appeal of every FIFA tournament.
Its chief executive publicly endorsing a challenger to Infantino changes the temperature of the campaign.
The mechanics of a FIFA vote are still stacked in the president’s favour. Each of the governing body’s 211 member associations casts its own ballot, and confederations do not control how their national federations vote.
But the political story is now different from the one Infantino would have preferred as he heads towards his next election: the league whose product drives the audiences is openly aligned with the confederation, the FA and a growing list of national associations pushing for a change at the top.
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