Gianni Infantino’s decade-long reign at the head of Fifa remains under intense scrutiny.
“European countries began turning their backs on Gianni Infantino as moves intensified across the globe to end his crisis-hit tenure as Fifa president. The Football Association was the highest-profile of several Uefa member associations to drop its support for Infantino’s proposed re-election next year. It will write to Fifa confirming it no longer endorses Infantino for a fourth term in charge after the intense controversy surrounding his failed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors. Wales and Serbia publicly confirmed that they had withdrawn their backing, following a lead taken by Finland last week. Along with the FA, those federations had all previously written letters in favour of Infantino prolonging his tenure but patience has run out across the continent. …”
Guardian
Scrapped proposals, statement wars and the ongoing Infantino furore
“Here we go again. And, no, we are not talking about the start of the new Scottish Premiership season or the preliminary round of the Carabao Cup – although that Tranmere v Rochdale shootout was a cracker. Yes, after a week of talk about money, greed and Donald Trump’s son-in-law’s brother, the hot topic around the water cooler on Monday was again Gianni Infantino and, more specifically, the English and Welsh FAs’ decisions to row back on their support of a stalling ship. Along with Finland, they’re the first of Uefa’s 55 members to withdraw their letters of support for next year’s Fifa overlord elections. By the time Football Daily hits your inboxes, there could be a flurry of other nations frantically clicking unsend on those endorsement emails – more than 200 had their flags planted on Terra Gianni just a matter of weeks ago. …”
Guardian
“FIFA has insisted ‘nobody is selling football’ after criticism of its decision to launch a consultation on selling stakes in a World Cup commercial entity to private investors. The world governing body of football stopped short of saying it would be withdrawing the plan and instead reaffirmed its commitment to press ahead with the consultation period. It comes as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) joined the European confederation UEFA and Concacaf, the confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean, in rejecting FIFA’s notion of selling stakes in the World Cup. 
“Fifa’s justification for its proposed plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors is about giving the 211 member associations more money to develop football. It’s safe to say that in the past, funds have done more developing in some places than in others, with millions either going missing or not being used for their original purpose and 
“He is very online but does not like the media. He flies all over the world in a fancy private plane provided by Qatar. He presides over a large organisation, with committees and a big rulebook, but makes all the key decisions and only tells a few people what he is doing. He loves shiny things and fireworks. He wants to do more business with the Kushner family and believes he is underpaid. His preferred strategy is to double down, flood the zone and ask for more — it is an approach that has worked well for him so far. Some people think he is amazing, some do not. Can you tell who it is yet? No, not him, the other one. Yes! It’s FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who is back in the news again after a break of… 24 hours? 
A HYDRATION BREAK DURING NETHERLANDS VERSUS TUNISIA AT THE 2026 WORLD CUP. 
“Chris Richards keeled over, and Tyler Adams sobbed. Weston McKennie slumped in a chair, mind spinning, stare blank, while Matt Freese wandered and Tim Ream pondered the end. They, the U.S. men’s national soccer team, had just been banished from their home World Cup, 
“Folarin Balogun will be available to play the USMNT’s World Cup round-of-16 match against Belgium after his one-game red-card ban was suspended, FIFA has confirmed. 
“Presented as a still image by the video referee, the case for the prosecution is obvious. United States forward Folarin Balogun is stepping down, with force, seemingly over the right ankle of Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic. The opponent’s foot is also in a contorted shape, sliding slightly to his right, providing a squeamish image where the first instinct of the viewer is to wince and turn away. It does not take a wild, imaginative leap to hypothesize that this challenge could lead to serious injury, such is the manner of the tackler’s landing and the point of contact. This perception is only enhanced by Muharemovic, clearly in initial pain, beating the turf he lies on. …”
“The U.S. men’s national soccer team rolled into the World Cup knockout rounds with a 2-0 win over Australia on Friday. In front of a raucous, star-spangled crowd here at Lumen Field, even 
“It began with thunderous chants of ‘U-S-A’ and climaxed with the best 45 minutes in U.S. men’s World Cup history. It was seven years and 364 days in the making, and it was worth every day, hour, second of waiting. U.S. soccer fans and players had, for years, dreamed of this moment, a glitzy World Cup opener on home soil, an unparalleled stage for their sport. They had dreamed of meeting it, of igniting America, of elevating soccer. But no one could have realistically envisioned this — 
“Union shop stewards inside SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles are handing out buttons which read ‘Kick ICE Out’ for workers to wear at the venue hosting FIFA’s World Cup match between the United States and Paraguay on Friday night. The Unite Here Local Eleven union represent over 2,000 workers at the venue who largely work in food and beverage concessions, including cooks, dishwashers, servers and bartenders. The Athletic received images of both cooks and bartenders wearing the buttons. The union said the language of their agreement with the stadium operators, Legends Global, permits employees to wear ‘one (1) official Union button while on duty’. …”
SoFi Stadium workers protested against ICE last month, a key issue in their bargaining sessions with stadium operators.
“Thousands of tickets remain unsold for the United States’ high-priced World Cup opener, with data captured by The Athletic and other sources suggesting that the game is not on pace to sell out at current prices and purchasing rates. As of Thursday evening, two weeks before the 2026 World Cup begins, there were more than 3,500 tickets available on FIFA’s primary portal for the June 12 match between the U.S. and Paraguay. There were also over 6,500 tickets listed on FIFA’s resale platform, meaning there are over 10,000 tickets available for the match, which was initially billed as one of the tournament’s most attractive games. …”
“FIFA’s 2026 World Cup is already surrounded by controversy before kickoff. From sky-high ticket prices and visa concerns to security fears, extreme heat, and fan backlash, critics say the tournament is becoming harder and more expensive for supporters around the world. With the biggest World Cup in history set across the USA, Canada, and Mexico, pressure on FIFA is growing fast.”
“New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has secured a rare concession from FIFA after negotiating 1,000 tickets to matches at the upcoming World Cup finals priced at $50, which will be distributed by ballot to local residents. The 1,000 tickets will be split across games played at MetLife Stadium in neighboring New Jersey, including five group-stage fixtures, a round of 32 tie and a round of 16 game, but not the final on July 19. It is the only citywide access program of this kind that has so far been announced for the tournament, which will be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico this June and July. …”
“World Cups are frequently remembered for magnificent goals, heroic performances and famous wins, but shock results play a huge role in our collective memory of the tournaments too. Here, then, is our attempt to quantify the five biggest upsets of all-time. USA 1-0 England, 1950 It’s difficult to fully explain the vast difference in expectations for England and the United States going into World Cup 1950. For England, this was their first World Cup appearance having boycotted the first three editions, but they remained convinced that English football was the strongest in the world. Their team included legendary players like Billy Wright, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen, all amongst the greatest in their position in the world, as well as defender Alf Ramsey, who would manage England to World Cup success 16 years later. Soccer in the United States was yet to take off, and they sent a hastily assembled side managed by William Jeffrey, a Scot whose day job was coaching the Penn State University side. The players were amateurs — some regular first-teamers couldn’t travel because of the demands of their day jobs. …”
From local grounds to vast modern arenas, stadiums remain places where communities gather, argue and celebrate together, including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup final. Brazil’s victory over Italy marked the first time the World Cup was decided on penalty kicks.
“It’s set to be hot in North America this summer. The 
“The once-outlandish idea went from private meetings to the highest levels of government, from Chicago to Washington, D.C., from France to Tehran. It began as a speculative proposal for a soccer match — Iran vs. the United States. It became a logistical behemoth, drawing scrutiny from the U.S. State Department and Islamic hardliners alike. After weeks of worry, though, on Jan. 5, 2000, for the first (and, so far, only) time, the Iranian national soccer team boarded a plane bound for the United States. A few weeks from now, it will do so again. The Iranians will come for the 2026 World Cup despite 
“Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and a sustained ‘Trump Slump’ of declining international visitation, the substantial World Cup bump U.S. hotels were promised may not materialize, according to CoStar, the industry’s leading benchmarking and analytics firm.”
“A coalition of more than 120 US-based civil society groups on Thursday issued a travel advisory ahead of the upcoming FIFA Men’s World Cup over what the ACLU called the “deteriorating 
“The 2026 World Cup is 50 days away. After nearly eight years of planning and promise, a tournament that could help shape American soccer for decades is near. And among the 
“The U.S. men’s national team hoped that these spring friendlies, the last before coach Mauricio Pochettino selects his World Cup roster, would reinforce the positive momentum of the fall. Instead, a deflating loss served as a warning for what can come against some of the world’s best teams and against the game’s attacking players. 
“Welcome to the final mid-season international window of 2025-26, the last chance for managers to work with players before naming their World Cup squads. Over the next 10 days, we will find out the identity of the final six of the record 48 qualifiers, with 22 nations still in contention via two play-off routes, one in Europe and the other playing out a rest-of-the-world mini-tournament in Mexico. So there are plenty of key decisions to make, while lots of players need to make a good impression now or risk missing out on the tournament altogether. We asked 20 of our writers to answer the key questions that will be addressed this month. You can use the tabs to scroll to the areas that interest you the most: European play-offs, inter-confederation play-offs, players, around the world (featuring key issues facing assorted managers), USMNT, England, Canada and how ready the co-hosts are off the pitch. Let’s start with perhaps the biggest question of all. …”
“The turbulent countdown towards this summer’s World Cup finals shows little sign of easing. A social media post from the 
Iran fans at Qatar 2022. They have been banned from entering the US for this year’s World Cup, while Iran’s participation is now in doubt after the US-Israeli bombardment of the country.
“I’ve been to the last nine men’s soccer World Cups, and the dominant mood is almost always international friendship. The same vibe usually prevails on the field, even after hard-fought matches. One of the tournament’s 
“Six days after FIFA president Gianni Infantino 
“FIFA says it is focusing on ‘everybody participating’ in this summer’s World Cup in the wake of the American military attack on Iran. The U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on major Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran, on Saturday after weeks of mounting diplomatic tension. Iran has retaliated with its own missile attacks on Israel and U.S. air bases in the Gulf region, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. 
“The 2026 
A protester wearing a placard and distributing leaflets against the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan and advocating for the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games
“At Trump Tower, the new home of FIFA in Manhattan, Gianni Infantino hailed the Club World Cup a ‘huge, huge, huge success’ on Saturday. The president of soccer’s world governing body later posted on Instagram that the tournament had ‘taken over the United States and united people in joy’. FIFA has been on a victory lap since Chelsea’s 3-0 victory against Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday’s final in front of an 81,118 crowd at MetLife Stadium, a few miles to the west in New Jersey. … Dynamic pricing and empty seats. FIFA adopted a dynamic pricing approach to tickets, where prices fluctuate according to supply and demand. For high-interest sports and music events, this can lead to prices skyrocketing in value but during the Club World Cup, where not a single game was a complete sellout, these costs often tumbled instead due to a lack of demand. … Similar deals emerged with different universities during the tournament as FIFA scrambled to avoid tens of thousands of empty seats becoming a regular occurrence. The group-stage games recorded an average of 35,000 spectators, but the size of the venues chosen — largely NFL stadiums with capacities of more than 60,000 — left big gaps in the stands. The dynamic-pricing market made for some absurd fluctuations. Standard admission pricing for the semi-final between Chelsea and Brazil’s Fluminense at MetLife was 
Empty seats were an issue at Club World Cup games
“As the realities faded from what this summer was supposed to be into what it was going to be, the goal of the tournament for the United States men’s national team never truly shifted. The Gold Cup was meant to be the month when Mauricio Pochettino and his staff finally got some time with the group that they would lead into next year’s home World Cup. … On Sunday night in Houston, a group of players who have used this summer to try to force their way into the World Cup picture will get that chance against rivals Mexico. After 
“This is where the Club World Cup gets serious. Football’s new-look global competition may not have convinced every sceptic so far, but the line-up for the last eight offers an intriguing mixture of European aristocrats, Brazilian excellence and even an outsider in 
“FIFA president Gianni Infantino has received a letter signed by over 90 civil society groups, the majority of which are based in the United States, expressing ‘deep concern’ about immigration policies and enforcement measures in the U.S. and their potential impact on the 
“As temperatures rose towards 90F at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium on Saturday while Borussia Dortmund played South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns, the German team posted on social media: ‘Our subs watched the first half from inside the locker room to avoid the blazing sun — never seen that before, but in this heat, it absolutely makes sense.’ The message was accompanied by a picture of players who would usually be pitchside instead sitting in shorts and T-shirts around a table stocked with drinks. Players, coaches and supporters were already concerned about high temperatures during matches in the opening week of the Club World Cup, and now 
“This is a public service announcement. You may think that this Club World Cup is an American affair. You probably looked at the list of host cities, saw FIFA president Gianni Infantino 
“The 
“Timothy Weah sounded like someone who felt he had been ambushed. ‘It was all a surprise to me, honestly,’ the United States national-team player told reporters of 
“FIFA’s latest attempts to fill Hard Rock Stadium for the Club World Cup opening match between Inter Miami and Egyptian team Al-Ahly involve offering students at an affiliated local college a single ticket for $20 — but with the promise of up to four complimentary tickets. The Athletic last week revealed the launch game, which takes place on Saturday night, still had tens of thousands of tickets unsold for a match likely to star Lionel Messi for MLS side Inter Miami. Hard Rock Stadium has a capacity of 65,326. FIFA denied that fewer than 20,000 tickets had been sold for the match — insisting the number was ‘much higher’ — but they did not specify the number. …”
“The Club World Cup begins on Saturday, June 14, when Inter Miami take on Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. How will Lionel Messi and friends get on? Are they likely to get out of Group A? And what about Real Madrid? The world’s biggest club have replaced Carlo Ancelotti with Xabi Alonso, their former midfielder, and signed Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen in the mini transfer window before the tournament. 
“Brace yourselves, the World Cup countdown officially starts…now. … Having 16 more teams means even more of the globe’s best players can showcase their talents on the biggest stage, but who do we expect to be the protagonists next summer? Some names might be obvious, others might not have even earned their first international cap or play for countries whose qualification hangs in the balance. It’s a tricky assignment, but it is fun to try. So, almost one year out, this is The Athletic’s shortlist of those predicted — or expected — to light up World Cup 2026. …”
“On Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a 
“European members of the FIFA council staged a dramatic walkout at the world governing body’s congress following the late arrival of President Gianni Infantino. The eight UEFA members of the FIFA council and several European delegates did not return to Thursday’s conference centre in Paraguay, including UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and the English Football Association (FA) president Debbie Hewitt. The exit followed a three-hour delay to the congress, because FIFA president Infantino was late arriving for his own event on Thursday morning, having prioritised meetings with United States president Donald Trump in Doha and Qatar this week. This included rescheduling the FIFA council, which should have been in person in Paraguay on Tuesday, but was instead held virtually last Friday. …”
“It was referred to as the darkest period in Mexican football history. Following Mexico’s exit in the group stage at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mexico lost to the U.S. 2-0 in the semifinals of the Concacaf Nations League in 2023. Before that, El Tri had lost to the Americans in the 2019 Nations League final, and also suffered a defeat in Cincinnati in 2021 during the World Cup qualifiers prior to Qatar. Shortly before the 2022 World Cup, then-Mexico federation president Yon de Luisa fired his entire sporting department in what was viewed as a last-gasp effort to change the national team’s direction prior to the tournament. Yet Mexico crashed out, snapping a streak of seven straight knockout-stage berths, while the U.S. escaped its group. El Tri were no longer the Kings of Concacaf. Instead, they were forced to look up at their most bitter rivals, as the U.S. celebrated an unprecedented run of success against their neighbors to the south. …”
“Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States between 2007 and 2013, is recalling the earliest conversations that took place over a bid for the United States and Mexico to co-host a men’s soccer World Cup. … Sarukhán’s logic? This would be a World Cup with no need for the construction of white-elephant stadiums. His underlying reason? To make a powerful statement to Mexicans and Americans. The ambition extended further when Canada was invited to join the 2026 ‘United’ bid that in 2018 secured hosting rights for 2026. Seven years on, however, and 15 months out from the tournament’s opening game, Sarukhán is alarmed by the geo-political situation that has gripped North America and its neighbors since Donald Trump began a second term as U.S. president in January. …”
“One of the most successful and lucrative commercial rights partnerships in football is ending. On Tuesday, it was announced that 
“Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the US captured global attention, signaling a monumental shift in both American and international politics. Sitting among some of the wealthiest people on the planet was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and his presence has raised eyebrows. In the weeks following the inauguration, Infantino has posted about Trump on Instagram more than any other world leader. Under normal circumstances, this might not seem unusual, given that the US is set to host the FIFA Club World Cup later this year and will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico. …”
Scissors Kick 