The radical reform that Gianni Infantino is proposing for the football World Cup – to ‘privatise’ it (to an extent) by selling shares in it to private investors – is yet another symptom of the seemingly inexorable advance of untamed capitalism and its mercenary culture in the modern world. (See https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/28/sport/fifa-world-cup-plan-angers-europe-uefa.)

I’ve written on this subject before, albeit mainly with reference to the English domestic game (https://bernardjporter.com/2026/06/23/the-world-cup/). Here we can see the same thing happening, but on a global scale: our ‘People’s Game’ being transformed into an investment opportunity for the rich. I imagine that Infantino’s great buddy Donald Trump may have had a hand in this. He’s already tried to influence one match: persuading FIFA to overturn a (maybe harsh) red card against an American player, against the ‘spirit’ of FIFA’s rules. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Trump%E2%80%93FIFA_red_card_controversy.) You can see from this what can happen when important stakeholders are given special influence over any sport. (And Trump was, or at least considered himself to be, the largest stakeholder in this year’s World Cup. Hence his notorious hogging of the limelight at the celebrations after the final game.)

The good news, however, is that UEFA (European football’s governing body) has so very rapidly dissociated itself from the plan, even threatening to boycott any future World Cups if it were ever implemented; followed by most other regional football associations. Infantino might not remain in his €5 million p.a. job for much longer. That would represent a clear victory for the People’s Game; and possibly a small but significant setback for the encroaching Leviathan of late-stage global capitalism.