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Uefa agrees to boycott Fifa competitions if World Cup sell-off plans proceed
(www.theguardian.com)
Fuck FIFA and Fuck Infantino
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Someone that cares about soccer should explain to me how Infantino hasn't been lynched already. I've never seen quite that level of corrupt sycophant publicly displayed before, let alone in charge of a sports league, and that's not a high bar to jump.
Corruption is basically legal at FIFA, and Infantino is very good at it. He has greatly increased the funds for the development of sports infrastructure in smaller football nations. While this looks good on paper, in reality this is him buying loyalty from those countries. Combine that with every country having a single vote in FIFA decisions, and there is not much the big nations can do to get rid of him, even if they wanted to.
Blatter has been just as bad for decades. But Blatter is throwing money and tickets at EU and SA politicians.
Because there’s no real unity thus far among the stake holding groups (supporters, players, clubs and associations) in regards to what to do about it as a whole. Corruption to a certain degree in the game has been a thing for a while and it’s been more or less tolerated, to a point. As for supporters, people are just simply reluctant to stop watching and they should, I guess, if they want to do something about it.
The reality is, it will take a unified action by the players, clubs and associations that would really move the dial. That’s hard though because several of them have stakes on dodgy actions themselves and know that change through the main associations might stop that.
A lack of unity and pathway, as much as incentive really. Now the incentive has come along.
*football
This is the most credible call to boycott FIFA I think I've ever seen, and a boycott is the most credible solution to FIFA's rampant corruption I think anyone has proposed, and we definitely do need to fix FIFA's rampant corruption, but boy does it suck that we're punishing the women for men's bad behavior (I am biased because the women's World Cup is my favorite World Cup)
Along the lines spelled out by Uefa, the proposed boycott would begin with next year’s Women’s World Cup.
This entire thread here (not just to post I'm replying to but most posts under it) is a wonderful illustration of how the "fans" will always find an excuse to delay doing anything.
No wonder shit got this far.
Based as fuck of UEFA to take on FIFA. I agree this is the best chance at actually making a difference in the sport but fuck I'm really into women's soccer right now and was really looking forward to the Women's World Cup. Punished again.
Based indeed.
Given that you're really into woso, I'll put in a shameless plug for !nwsl@lemmy.world and !nsl@lemmy.ca where we discuss the US and Canadian leagues.
Right on, subscribed to both!
I'm going to the Portland vs Orlando game in a couple weeks, there's such a great energy at the games!
I totally agree, the Danish women team qualified and I was actually looking forward to see them play the world cup, but I also said to my wife that they would most likely be the ones to suffer from this because it's "cheaper" to boycott the women's world cup than boycotting the men which sucks on many levels.
55-zip. Now that's a high scoring game!
Seriously though, I only watched the WC for the first time this year, and I don't know the history behind FIFA corruption. What I observed over the past month was:
- FIFA forbidding host cities from running any other events during the WC (I've never heard of such arrogance)
- some serious price gouging around tickets which was no doubt helped by the former
- reports people couldn't even bring their own water bottles to a summer event in freakin' Florida (this is just criminal)
- the Trump card scandal
- allegations of certain teams (notably Argentina) being favoured in the officiating
And now, of course, selling the whole organization out at the highest levels. So how did we get here? Or do I not want to know…
It has been there for a while. You've got an organization that makes deals worth billions and filled with people from countries where corruption is more tolerated. Some of it can be outright bribes, others can be gifts to the home country in their name.
I was pissed off that USA had implemented advertising breaks in the world cup. Fuck FIFA.
I was similarly ticked off by the halftime show during the final. Keep that shit contained to the Super Bowl.
I don’t know why any sporting events schedule halftime shows. Hardly anyone likes them.
Americans that's why
I swear a good number of American sports fans don’t actually like their sports. Everything I hear that’s “good” about the Super Bowl is external and not the actual game
There are 330 million Americans, which ones are you referring to? Because it really depends on the region a lot of the time.
Were the ones you were referring to Americans living in the same city / state of said superbowl team? Or did you just make that up based on some comments you read online?
Baseball fans are pretty ride or die. I think it's the necessary induction into the sport due to the arcane nature of it, similar to cricket fans.
Baseball fans are pretty ride or die
Sure, but they seem to enjoy statistics much more than the actual games 😄
If you liked your sport, you'd be obsessed with them, too. 😉
Nah. I love watching football (as opposed to handegg) much more than obsessing over football statistics lol
It's okay, not everyone can get into a sport beyond just watching it casually. 😉 When you live and breathe the sport, you'll understand lol.
Can't tell if you're joking or being a twat 😄
Dude... you started the banter and now you're getting upset someone is bantering back with you?
I was just playing along in good fun, but that is legitimately twat behavior, dude lol.
My bad, joking it is 😄
It's all good, man. 😁
Yeah we do it in Australia as well and it’s generally b grade entertainment.
We’re actually truly embarrassing at it.
Halftime is for taking a shit. It's tradition.
Or grabbing a beer (or two) and a sausage.
That itself is the value they are pursuing. Taking control of a popular sport to sway public opinion is hella effective. Especially when they are targeting eu
Just an observation. Even Israel voted for this. What is going on? Don't they always vote for what the Americans vote for?
The football association mightn’t (yet, anyway) reflect the government’s view on this if they have one.
I guess just accept that as a bellwether to how bad this is.
Let's see what happens. Not very hopeful though. Money always wins at the end.
Well I certainly hope all the major associations threaten to pull out. That’s the important one, not singular nations.
Infantino and FIFA couldn’t even be arsed to try and hide the corruption anymore. The Trump effect in full force.
Ok, but this should have happened over a decade ago because of Sepp Blatter's corruption.
Blatter did at least try to hide the corruption
I'm waiting for Trump to impose tariffs on UEFA