New Statesman
·Aug 2026
Football was ruined long before Gianni Infantino came along
Gianni Infantino’s abandoned plan to sell stakes in a new entity controlling World Cup rights exposed the limits of FIFA’s latest commercial ambition, but the deeper problem predates his presidency. Football has spent decades becoming dependent on television money, betting, sponsorships, private equity, premium hospitality and wealthy foreign owners. The Premier League and Champions League helped normalize this transformation, while stadiums increasingly function as commercial and surveilled spaces rather than communal venues. Infantino’s embrace of Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia and lucrative global markets is therefore presented as the logical endpoint of football’s commodification, not its origin; he should resign, but the sport’s broader institutions and stakeholders share responsibility for how it reached this point.