Fuck FIFA. Fuck the AFC. Fuck Gianni Infanculo.
We should join UEFA and boycott the World Cup. Host our own version instead.
If UEFA do actually fully jump by that I mean a full formal exit from FIFA, and deep down I don't think that they will but if they do and take COMNEBOL with them then FIFA are done....
However South America has not joined the so-called boycott. CONMEBOL has been quiet so far on this specific plan. In recent months it has actually moved closer to Infantino (publicly endorsing his possible re-election, pushing for a 64-team 2030 World Cup that would give South American countries more games, etc.). The old UEFA–CONMEBOL tactical alliance from the biennial World Cup fight has cooled...
If CONMEBOL stays with FIFA, Infantino still has Africa, Asia and Oceania in his voting bloc, plus the money he is offering federations. FIFA as an organisation probably survives, but its flagship tournament is crippled commercially and in prestige.
If CONMEBOL eventually sides with UEFA, the picture changes dramatically. Europe and South America have produced every men’s World Cup winner since 1930 and generate the overwhelming majority of global football interest and revenue. A rival competition organised by those two confederations would immediately become the de-facto world championship for the strongest nations. FIFA would be left running a secondary tournament for the remaining confederations — still viable in terms of development money and votes, but no longer the undisputed centre of the global game.....
My and probably everyone else's instinct that UEFA won’t fully “jump” in the sense of a permanent clean break is still very plausible — boycotts can be walked back if FIFA climbs down. But the current position is already extreme.
Whether CONMEBOL follows will decide if this is a temporary crisis that forces Infantino to abandon the privatisation plan, or the beginning of a genuine split that leaves FIFA as a rump organisation.
Right now you could say that the ball is in South America’s court, and they have not shown their hand.
And to be honest I don't blame them for that. It’s the classic middle-power calculation. They’re not strong enough to dictate terms alone the way UEFA can, but they’re too important for FIFA to ignore. Staying non-committal for a few more days (or weeks) is probably the smartest short-term move available to them.
But at the end of the day any international football world cup without either European or South American countries is like strawberries without cream.
Still technically strawberries.
But you’ve removed the thing that makes most people actually want them.
