Infantino Worked with Top Clubs on Fifa Super League Project

The Guardian reveals 2020 documents: a preliminary agreement for the creation of a breakaway competition. Another shadow cast on the management of the president of world football's governing body.

Gigantism and globalism have been the hallmarks of Gianni Infantino's policy. This agenda has unfolded since 2016, the beginning of his first term as Fifa president. In 2018, he backed an offer from an investor consortium led by Japan's SoftBank, willing to inject $25 billion to expand the Club World Cup and create a global Nations League. That idea was rejected by the Fifa Council. Two years later, amidst the pandemic emergency, as top clubs' discontent with the football industry's structure simmered, Infantino sensed the mood and made contact with some of them. The objective remained the same: to wage war against those who then held the main commercial levers, namely Uefa with its Champions League, and to place Fifa at the centre of the business, even if it meant tearing up the statutes. 

revelation

Suspicions were already circulating then; confirmation now comes from the Guardian's revelation of documents dating back to 2020. The British newspaper has obtained a term sheet (a non-binding preliminary agreement) for the launch of the "Fifa Super League". In April 2021, the independent Super League project was announced by twelve clubs and collapsed within hours, under the weight of protests from politicians and fans across Europe. Infantino himself, during those days, sided with Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, stating: "We can only and strongly disapprove of a Super League that is a closed league, separate from current institutions, leagues, federations, Uefa and Fifa." But the documents now show that months earlier he had been involved in negotiations for a breakaway competition. Furthermore, in the documents, Fifa appears under the code name W01, the same acronym used in the British army to denote a high-ranking officer. 

details

According to the term sheet, the partnership between Fifa and the Super League would have lasted at least twelve years, with the creation of a joint venture to manage commercial operations not only for the "Fifa Super League" but also for the expanded Club World Cup, to be played annually over three weeks. The Super League, which would also have had a women's version, would have comprised fifteen permanent members and five clubs qualifying through existing competitions. Fifa would have benefited from "a privileged equity stake", effectively having the final say on format and calendar changes, fund distribution, and the appointment of the CEO. Concurrently, the plan under discussion envisaged a reduction in international windows (two periods of two weeks each per year) and the number of teams participating in domestic leagues. In this way, Fifa would have bypassed affiliated federations in reshaping global football. 

role

The Guardian highlights that "Infantino was among the Fifa staff members involved in the project and, it appears, was fully informed about the evolution of the negotiations." It is unclear why the preliminary agreement was not taken further. Sources cited by the British newspaper state that "Infantino later told his collaborators not to work against football's institutions." Certainly, the facts that have emerged in recent days reinforce the conviction that Infantino has operated, and continues to operate, to disrupt the status quo and expand his sphere of influence. How else to interpret his latest idea, that of selling a share of Fifa's commercial assets to private investors? Fifa, which has just celebrated Inserisci qui il tuo testo5 billion in revenues for the 2022-26 cycle and possesses $5 billion in cash and financial assets, would not have made a great deal by permanently selling – according to the plan announced last week and quickly shelved – 20% of the rights to its lucrative tournaments, primarily the World Cup, for $4.2 billion. Perhaps someone else would have profited from the deal.

This article was originally written in Italian by La Gazzetta dello Sport editor. The English version has been generated using AI translation tools. If you notice any translation errors or have suggestions, please contact us at iniziativegazzetta@rcs.it

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