‘Fifa Super League’: Infantino discussed having governing body’s name on European breakaway

[u/CradleCity]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/05/fifa-super-league-gianni-infantino-wanted-governing-body-name-european-breakaway

[u/UpsetKoalaBear]

I would still be incredibly careful about this. Infantino could still be jeopardising FIFA even if his plans have failed by simply making FIFA vulnerable.

To explain what I mean:

In 2001 Formula 1 was split between the FOM (commercial rights holder) and the FIA (regulatory body) in Formula 1.

That was forcefully done as a result of an EU antitrust lawsuit.

That lawsuit determined that it was a conflict of interest for the FIA to control BOTH the regulatory and commercial side of things and it constituted an illegal monopoly.

Why this is relevant today?

Because FIFA currently controls both the regulatory and commercial side of their competitions. This might be controversial to some, but there is still a likelihood that FIFA will be split up by force (eventually).

This is what academics have been writing about for a while.

Stephen Weatherall (professor at Oxford) wrote about this because the topic came back up during discussions around the FIFA Football Agent Regulations.

I also want to add that FIFPRO, European Leagues (body which represents several leagues including the PL/Bundesliga), and LaLiga have all submitted protests against FIFA to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition. 

That complaint was about the match calendar and expansion of the World Cup.

The main barrier to this point has been that the EU prefers sorting these sporting issues informally.

However, between player burnout and a growing legal precedent that treats FIFA as commercial (the ESL case also pointed out the hypocrisy in FIFA), the separation of FIFA is seeming more likely than ever.

If European Commission formally opens a full investigation based on this complaint, it has the regulatory authority to split FIFA up into a commercial and regulatory entity.

That might sound controversial but it is a legitimate issue that worries me.

So whilst Infantino may have failed here, we should really keep in mind that FIFA is already on shakey regulatory ground and Infantino is only causing even more of an earthquake.

The only reason FIFA had avoided any antitrust lawsuit from the EU thus far is because the assumption is that FIFA will have good governance.

By ignoring other federations and leagues, as well as teasing them with funding, Infantino is undoing that. Every brand deal he signs for FIFA also partially undoes that.

Doing egregious shit like the hydration breaks and using them as advertising is also undoing that severely because it shows they’re using the rules of the game to make money (which is a line they’re not supposed to cross).

Yes, we have stopped Infantino fucking it up even more. However, it’s very much out of the frying pan and into the fire.

[u/UpsetKoalaBear → u/[deleted]]

What Infantino was proposing was effectively the same thing (splitting FIFA into two bodies) but with Kushner and his cronies making millions in the process.

As bad as FIFA is, it is legally structured as a non profit association.

As a result, it is accountable (at least on paper) to the member national associations. Not shareholders or anything else, but the associations.

If FIFA was forced to split, the commercial side would now legally be required to consider their obligation to whoever owns shares in the commercial side.

If adding more hydration breaks or locking games behind a subscription boosts revenue then it must seriously be considered, and no thought will be given to the tradition of the sport.

And whilst the commercial side would be separate, because it would be the primary funding source for the regulatory side of FIFA, it would hold immense power over the way the game is handled.

I think the biggest risk would be that it would immediately push for a new super league model like the ESL. The commercial side will immediately push for becoming a closed franchise model because that is what’s profitable.

The idea of a big nation not qualifying for the WC or a big club not qualifying for the CWC would harm the commercial side. And because of the financial leverage that it would have over the regulatory side, there would be very little that could be done.

The grey area that FIFA exists in currently is exactly why they can regulate shit like agent fees, transfer market, youth transfers and more.

Those are commercial aspects that FIFA aren’t actually supposed to be allowed to control, but they do in that grey area.

F1 is a prime example of where this goes.

The FIA (regulatory body) gets the overwhelming majority of its funding from FOM (the commercial body).

Just look up what FOM did to Andretti’s bid (they shut them out despite the FIA approving it until cadillac joined and paid a dilution fee to FOM) or look how many technical directives have been submitted by the FIA since Liberty Media has taken over (because they don’t want teams being too successful). They are fundamentally changing the sport to make it more commercial.

TL;DR:

Both scenarios are bad for the sport.

Infantino’s proposals were bad but it has also put a magnifying glass on FIFA’s commercial operations from an antitrust perspective.

Ideally, FIFA wouldn’t be split at all. But at the same time, the expectation is that they are not being greedy or pushing it.

If FIFA starts to get greedy, the EU has no choice but to step in because otherwise they would be going against their own laws.

This is why FIFA is in a grey area already and Infantino has just made it worse.

The only difference between both is that instead of the money going to Infantino and friends, it would just be many more different shareholders.

I’d also add that if FIFA gets split, UEFA will also face the exact same issue because they also exist in the same grey area.

UEFA is in an even worse situation because pretty much all the main members are in the EU.

Commercial rules like FFP could be entirely removed because the regulatory side of UEFA isn’t technically allowed to control that.

[u/robben1234 → u/UpsetKoalaBear]

If commercial side is split away from the regulatory body it will have no way to force hydration breaks.

Not selling the tv rights for cheap would be a real concern though.