By Paul Nicholson
April 23 – Suspicions are multiplying that the hand of FIFA president Gianni Infantino was present behind the scenes in the encouragement of the 12 breakaway European Super League clubs.
In truth, his presence in the various iterations of European Super League discussion (Infantino is referred to in documents seen by various media as WO1) has never been doubted by insiders in UEFA or within the continent’s leading leagues. Yesterday Laliga’s Javier Tebas again asked the question of Infantino saying: “I have serious doubts about Infantino, his role worries me.”
“It is not what he actually says,” said Tebas, “I would like him to speak more clearly on what he thinks and means to do about all this.”
On Monday FIFA issued a statement calling for “unity” and “balanced dialogue”, but as the anti-ESL tsunami of public and football opinion grew, Infantino looked like he was falling horribly on the wrong side of the growing outrage. This prompted him to change his address to the UEFA Congress on Tuesday to one decrying the ESL clubs and telling them they would have to accept the consequences of their actions.
As clubs pulled out of the ESL in the wake of protests, there was comment from a number of them that they felt pressured to join. Whether there was institutional pressure to join, or just a fear of their club missing out on a new league, remains to be fully clarified.
Le Monde newspaper today points to a document it has seen that was circulated earlier this year between club leaders and outlining that 12 clubs from the Super League would participate, from the 2023-2024 season, in a new 32-team format of the Club World Cup that would be held for three weeks annually in January.
The document details that “a list of qualified teams has been agreed with WO1 (presumed to be Infantino).” Le Monde reports that it further states that there is a solidarity fund of €1 billion and that could allow the Super League teams access to a pool of €320 million.
That Infantino has access to Europe’s big clubs has never been a secret, and he is certainly much closer to some than others.
In November 2019 Infantino hosted the inauguration of a new club organisation at FIFA HQ Zurich. The World Football Clubs Association (WFCA), to be based in Switzerland, was launched as a new ‘stakeholder’ in the discussion around the Club World Cup.
Real Madrid’s FIFA-friendly president Florentino Perez was put in as chair of the new organisation and said in a statement: “This new association will propose a credible and serious counterpart to FIFA to discuss all aspects related to clubs, starting with the Club World Cup.”
The founding clubs were AC Milan (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain), Boca Juniors and River Plate (Argentina), Club América (Mexico), Guangzhou Evergrande (China), TP Mazembe (DR Congo) and Auckland City (New Zealand).
Those clubs grouped don’t really move the commercial. media or public interest needle on a mass global basis. The ESL’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ –a roll call of football clubs seemingly ranked by their social media connections rather than historical achievement – do.
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