November 26 – Sepp Blatter may be yesterday’s man but from time to time the former FIFA president still gets on his soap box to decry everything that is wrong with the organisation under its current leadership and says the game is being sold out.
In his latest interview, with the Swiss media outlet Watson, Blatter, who served as FIFA boss for 17 years until his removal in 2015, says he regrets the vast amounts of money controlled by FIFA.
“I created a monster,” Blatter admits. “FIFA was poor when I started there as director of development programmes in 1975. Sponsors like Adidas didn’t pay any money, they just gave balls and shirts.
“The first sponsorship deal that really brought in money was the one with Coca-Cola in 1976. Then there was public television, which suddenly allowed advertising. Football became a super product for television, a super show that could be sold for a lot of money. The first World Cup that really brought in money was the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.”
Blatter blames his successor Gianni Infantino for taking an autonomous position at the top of the organisation and showering it with even more cash.
“When Infantino became president in 2016, he sat in a ready-made nest; the money machine was running. Now he is fuelling it more and more,” said Blatter. “He wants to be able to control everything.”
Now 88, Blatter described the awarding of the 2030 World Cups (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) and 2034 (Saudi Arabia) as a “farce”, while expressing a desire for football to regain a “human face”.
“We are witnessing the sell-out of football,” he said. “Take the European Association, UEFA. There used to be a cup for the champions, one for the cup winners, and another for the trade fair cities. Today there is a Champions League with 36 teams, a Europa League with 36, a Conference League with 36. And then there is the Nations League.”
The next World Cup, meanwhile, will feature 48 teams whilst Infantino’s pet project, the expanded Club World Cup in 2025 will have 32 sides.
While these innovations are set to accrue massive revenues, Blatter warned that they risk alienating fans.
“Forty-eight countries are already taking part in the next World Cup in 2026, which is almost a quarter of all FIFA member countries. In addition, from 2025 there will be the FIFA Club World Cup with 32 teams. Everyone applauds because there is a lot of money. But this oversaturation is leading to a dwindling interest in football, I notice that myself. Quo Vadis, football?”
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