{"id":1185,"date":"2026-08-01T22:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2026-08-01T22:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:40:28","slug":"the-world-cup-is-not-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1185","title":{"rendered":"The World Cup Is Not for Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You\u2019re reading The Sporting Scene<\/strong>, Louisa Thomas\u2019s weekly look at the world of sports.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Remember the World Cup? The Germans at the IHOP<\/em>s, the Koreans in sombreros, the spirit of Cabo Verde, and Lionel Messi\u2019s tears? Remember the growing ambitions of the U.S. men\u2019s national team, or Erling Haaland\u2019s headers, or the mastery of Rodrigo in the Spanish midfield? Remember the sense, however begrudging, that FIFA<\/em>\u2014despite its crass commercialism, its many missteps, and its well-documented history of venality; despite even the blasphemy of hydration breaks during World Cup games\u2014might have been at least a little bit right about one thing, that soccer unites the world?<\/p>\n

Read more Overheard in New York: O.K., Actually These Were in Newark Airport<\/a><\/p>\n

No?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Me neither. At least not after hearing about the FIFA<\/em> president Gianni Infantino\u2019s proposal to spin off FIFA<\/em>\u2019s commercial rights into a for-profit company and then sell a twenty-per-cent stake in the new entity to private investors. In exchange for their support of the capital raise, the proposal suggested, FIFA<\/em>\u2019s two hundred and eleven member federations would receive forty million dollars each from the windfall to turbocharge the sport\u2019s development. The detail that the private-equity company he had in mind to lead the sale, Thrive Capital, was founded by the brother of Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law was as perfect as it was predictable.<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe Infantino pulled off a neat trick after all: the world united impressively to denounce his plan. The idea of putting the World Cup up for sale was too rich even for people who\u2019d rubber-stamped awarding the 2034 event to Saudi Arabia. \u201cThe soul and governance of football are not assets to trade,\u201d Europe\u2019s governing body, UEFA,<\/em> said in a statement, and announced a unanimous decision to boycott all FIFA<\/em> events, including the World Cup, until the proposal was withdrawn. CONCACAF<\/em>, which represents North American, Central American, and Caribbean federations, added its opposition. The A.F.C., comprising Asia\u2019s federations, protested the process by which the plans had been made\u2014if it can even be called a process in the first place. \u201cIt is the project of one person,\u201d Kevin Lamour, FIFA<\/em>\u2019s chief operating officer, wrote in a statement to the Associated Press on Friday. Everyone had been \u201cdeceived,\u201d he said\u2014not only the public but also FIFA<\/em>\u2019s own administration. \u201cThis lie by omission over many months and this unilateral exercise of power are not trivial. They are indicative of a lack of trust, a lack of transparency, a lack of discernment, a lack of good governance. And a serious lack of respect.\u201d In protest, Infantino\u2019s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, who was instrumental in the planning of this summer\u2019s World Cup, announced his resignation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some of the opposition was to be expected. UEFA<\/em>, which is richer than FIFA<\/em>, never passes up a chance to condescend to Infantino. Cordeiro, for his part, used to work at Goldman Sachs; he can count the money already piling up in FIFA<\/em>\u2019s coffers, and presumably he knows better than to trust the claim that even a passive private-equity investment promises to be a no-risk, no-involvement long-term deal. The plan was \u201cmortgaging football\u2019s future,\u201d he said when he resigned. Still, the outcry\u2014and the lack of outspoken public support even from those federations and allies that Infantino has made a show of propping up\u2014had unusual force and breadth.<\/p>\n

By Friday night, the scheme was dead. Infantino\u2019s office released a statement withdrawing the plan. \u201cHaving listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Read more Overheard in New York: Auditing Exchanges in FiDi<\/a><\/p>\n

It was assumed that Infantino would run for re\u00eblection as FIFA<\/em>\u2019s president unopposed; now he\u2019ll probably have a fight on his hands. That\u2019s for the good. But as for the soul of football? Its defenders will have to do better than making Infantino squirm. The sport is already awash in cash from petrocratic sovereign funds. It caters to autocrats; it is plagued by racism; it\u2019s threatened by climate change. (Whatever the financial incentives behind those hydration breaks, some of them seemed necessary.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy, and quite convenient right now, to blame FIFA<\/em>\u2019s greed for all this. But it didn\u2019t invent the scheme. Professional teams and leagues all over have been eager to access capital from outside investors, whatever the cost to sports\u2019 gauzy ideals. Private equity even has a solid foothold in college sports now. Everything seems to be for sale, and has been for some time: teams, players, luxury stadium boxes, patches on kits, stadium signage. And perhaps more.<\/p>\n

One thing I can\u2019t forget from this summer\u2019s World Cup is Kalshi\u2019s marketing blitz. The prediction market was hardly the only company to plaster its logo on every available surface. It wasn\u2019t even the only company to deploy Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet in coy ways. But as the tournament wore on, it became hard to escape the Kalshiness of the whole thing. Most days during the World Cup, a publicity e-mail would land in my inbox, alerting me to the latest legend who\u2019d signed on with Kalshi: Messi, Luka Modri\u0107. Then came the e-mails reporting the latest trading volume: $6.67 billion, then $14.6 billion, then, finally, twenty-six billion\u2014or roughly seven times the G.D.P. of Cabo Verde.<\/p>\n

Three million new users downloaded the Kalshi app during the World Cup. Exactly what they were doing when they opened it up is a question I\u2019ll leave to the courts. (On Friday, the State of New York sued Kalshi, accusing it of running an \u201cillegal gambling operation\u201d; Kalshi, which classifies the service it provides as commodities trading, insists that it is not.) But the effect it has on the experience of following an event, the commodification of attention, and the real-time intensity of having a stake in the game is of a piece with what gambling provides. The World Cup might not be for sale any longer. But the very thing that makes sports common and meaningful\u2014hope\u2014appears to be. Which is the bigger problem?\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more Overheard in New York: Riding the L Train<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Louisa Thomas on the FIFA president Gianni Infantino\u2019s proposed plan to sell off the World Cup, which was scrapped after major backlash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-sporting-scene"],"yoast_head":"\nThe World Cup Is Not for Sale - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1185\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World Cup Is Not for Sale - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Louisa Thomas on the FIFA president Gianni Infantino\u2019s proposed plan to sell off the World Cup, which was scrapped after major backlash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1185\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-01T22:40:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"headline\":\"The World Cup Is Not for Sale\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T22:40:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185\"},\"wordCount\":1082,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/5693194b0e235f839181acec47cbf03f.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"The Sporting Scene\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1185\",\"name\":\"The World Cup Is Not for Sale - 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