Infantino’s World Cup sell-off debacle has rocked football but Fifa’s crisis has deep and rotten roots

The coverage broadly agrees that a senior adviser to the FIFA chief has quit in protest over a World Cup sell-off plan. However, the framing and tone of the coverage differ across outlets. Centre-leaning outlets like Sky World and Metro focus on the adviser's resignation, while the Daily Mail on the right emphasizes opposition from leading nations and the Asian Federation. In contrast, the Mirror News, which has left and centre-leaning coverage, highlights the backlash against Gianni Infantino and the possibility of a boycott.

Infantino’s World Cup sell-off debacle has rocked football but Fifa’s crisis has deep and rotten roots

It has been a remarkable few days for an institution that may be irredeemable but this is a story that stretches back to a decision in 2010 There are decades in which nothing happens, and weeks in which decades happen, and those weeks tend to result in leaders being toppled. Not even a fortnight ago, Gianni Infantino was taking his victory lap on Instagram, attacking “those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumours” who had dared to question elements of his World Cup, which had generated a record $15bn in revenues. But the next day came the revelation of his plan to sell the World Cup to outside investors and a backlash that has him scrabbling to save his presidency. It has been a remarkable few days, but this is a story whose roots stretch way back, to the decision in Zurich in 2010 to award the 2022 World Cup not to the US but to Qatar, to a furious Bill Clinton hurling an ashtray across the room and demanding action, to an FBI inquiry into corruption, and to the flipping of the larger-than-life Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer, who had two apartments in Trump Tower, one for himself and one for his cats. Continue reading...

Fifa crisis: Is it possible to defend Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan?

Crafting a defence of Infantino isn’t easy, but it is possible to assemble both a behavioural excuse and a commercial justification for the Fifa president’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup.  One newspaper evocatively likened Gianni Infantino to Icarus at the weekend after his proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup melted [...]

FIFA chief's senior adviser quits in protest at World Cup sell-off plan

Gianni Infantino's senior adviser has quit in protest at moves by the FIFA president to sell off stakes in the World Cup and said it would be bad for football, Sky News can reveal.

Gianni Infantino's World Cup plot is unravelling as senior advisor QUITS and Asian Federation join leading nations in opposing controversial plan - denying deluded FIFA boss a majority

Gianni Infantino's divisive plan to sell stakes in the World Cup appears to be dead after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) joined UEFA and Concacaf in opposing the plot.

Gianni Infantino’s senior FIFA advisor quits in protest over World Cup plan

Gianni Infantino ally quits as FIFA boss blasted over World Cup plans in angry statement

Gianni Infantino has opened a Pandora's box in his attempts to alter FIFA and the World Cup forever in a controversial fashion