Andy's Sting In The Tale (12/12/25) "Monetisation, Manipulation and Long Term Power"
- Andy Smith
- Dec 12
- 7 min read
The last week has seen ’Jahnnie’s’ vision for his very own Fifa, now and into the future, defined.
And it all played out in full sight.
Yes there was a bit of media noise and faux surprise after the reality of the World Cup cash grabs were announced.
Hey ho.
But in the cold light of reality there have actually been very few surprises.
Infantino has engineered and delivered dollars everywhere he can because he knows its dollars that secure his power base.
The European Fans Group, FSE called it “A Monumental Betrayal” accusing Fifa of “ignoring the contribution of supporters to the spectacle”, and for what it’s worth I agree with them.
How did this all come to pass and what does it mean for the game and future World Cups?
For Now, let’s stick to our known knowns.
- Mr Infantino, known as ‘Jahnnie’ to his bestie, King Donald, doesn’t just see himself as lawyer who got lucky and took the chance to become head of a football member countries association.
He sees himself as much more important than that.
- Before he helped overturn Sepp Blatter and his corrupt cabal, of which he, Jahnnie was or was not part, he learned how the Fifa organisation actually worked and more importantly how it could work for him.
Power comes with votes in this pseudo-democratic organisation and votes come from friends.
He will always need votes and quickly has demonstrated that with some planning they are there to be bought, especially in confederations outside Europe.
- Jahnnie is protected by favours and alliances, mostly unwritten.
- There is no real mechanism for holding to account because votes trump it all.
- The World Cup is the major source of funding for his egotistical wish to become a World Leader with ‘friends’ at the highest level. Jahnnie controls, nay owns, Jules Rimet’s coveted prize. Not the cup, the tournament. And has the gift to award it to countries.
Look at who he has delivered it to, Russia, USA, Qatar, a temporary and messy compromised bump for the 100th anniversary, but soon enough Saudi and who knows where next.
All finagled and delivered by Jahnnie, Fifa’s master deliverer to the elite.
World Cups in my lifetime have always had the soul of football in their hearts.
I think the difference going forward is World Cups have sold their soul for dollars.
And believe it or not I am pro the fact that monies come in from centralised Fifa and indeed Uefa tournaments into all associations, not just the elite.
But the fact is the obscene prize money in Jahnnie’s recent reworking of the old ‘Toyota Cup’, into the ‘Fifa Club World Cup’ was in reality just an obscene bribe to the top clubs to be there as well as a thank you to some pals.
And am I the only one who remembers the vast number of empty seats after Fifa’s first Dynamic Pricing modelling was proved to be dodgy.
My Biggest Frustration
The silence from the UK Football Associations, all close to Fifa via the ifab connection has been deafening.
And our media hasn’t thought to report on what other countries associations have been saying and doing.
I can only assume that our FAs are collectively staying as close as they can to the man.
Why?
Because that leads to enhanced favours and maximum shares of the future Fifa bounties.
It all reminds me of Michael telling Sonny in The Godfather, “It’s not personal, It’s strictly business”.
This Week’s Sting
1. The Wrong Decision in Glasgow?
2. The Wrong Mercenaries
3. World Cup Stuff
4. Time to Add Breaks?
5. It Just So Happens
1. Hindsight Asks Why?
Martin O’Neill had an amazing few weeks at Celtic.
It's an over-used word in the game but deserved in his case, the man is a legend and demonstrated that from the moment he arrived.
With 3 really important games imminent against Hearts, Roma and St Mirren I’d love to know who decided that a newbie with a wee plastic chart was the immediate answer.
And why at that time?
The Frenchman had no time to get to know the players by anything more than the names on their bibs and their numbers on his wee tactics board.
I’d have had two preferred options.
1. Appoint Mr O’Neill till the end of the season.
2. Keep the Irishman there till after the Cup Final working with the newbie.
In the Beeb today Tom English said, “If Celtic lose to St Mirren, the sky will fall in for Nancy”.
2. Three Bloody Awful Results
Three games.
Three defeats.
Rangers (1) central defenders would lose goals in the Inverness Welfare League.
Celtic (2) didn’t seem to know what they are/were/are doing.
Aberdeen (4) at least were not outplayed.
(The numbers are the Scots players in Thursday’s starting 11s).
It doesn’t take Albert Einstein’s famous but misquoted phrase, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
If we want to be at more World Cups into the future we need to think seriously about the deep changes we need in our game. The number of Scots in our teams and the results don’t need a genius to tell us all that our kids system isn’t working.
Add that to the fact that we are constantly buying badly and you can see we’re now trapped in a declining circle of our own making.
3. Not a Fan Friendly World Cup, Jahnnie
-The USA bid document back in 2018 promised tickets from $21. Tickets that have not materialised.
- It didn’t tell us anywhere that countries like Scotland would be engineered into groups with cities 1500 miles apart and create needless travel for fans: 32 Hours by train, 33 hours by bus, 25 by car, nearly 4 by plane and don’t think about walking, like you did to Germany, young Craig Ferguson.
-Back then, in 2018, Dynamic Pricing was a nasty airline-wheeze that hadn’t yet infected football.
- Yes there was always going to be Corporate Prawn-Sandwichers stealing fans seats, we get that, but Fifa were also expected to sell substantial tickets at normal price levels to ordinary fans.
- Also, ask yourself, why would Fifa overcomplicate a simple time-respected sales process?
Why are they also trying to re-engineer as many re-sales as they can where I think they get 15% from both seller and buyer?
(The answer to all the above is found in the title of a well-known Abba song only it’s not funny in the particular Rich Men’s World we are trapped in)
-The derogatory Fifa allocating of circa 4000 to the SFA for their flourishing Travel Club speaks volumes to their disregard for doing the right thing for ordinary fans.
Fans and our spends actually add up all to Infantinos macro numbers, and his wee deals and promises for votes.
-And finally, it’s a fact of life: We’re being treated as Mug Punters, a term I used on Nicky Campbells BBC Radio 5 show on Wednesday morning.
You’re a Mug Punter, I’m a Mug Punter, we’ve all been herded into the “Mug Punters” queue.
Taking advantage of our love for the game and our countries.
Abuse on a Machiavellian and unprecedented scale.
Everything about this World Cup comes down to money.
And the power that brings to the wrong men.
4. Extra Valuable Commercial Airtime to Sell
Even with 13 Kick Off Times some of the games from Toronto down to Monterrey will be played in unsuitably hot and humid stadia.
I remember Big Jack invading the parks to hand out water in USA 1994 to his dehydrated players.
The bollocks was it was somehow against Fifa rules.
Outrageously, he was fined.
It won’t all be like that and I remember a mid-summers day in San Francisco in a cool mist.
But, just, just for a moment let’s think like Jahnnie.
How can we commercialise a climate led issue?
What if we could squeeze in a formal break midway through each half and dress it up as something for the players?
Let’s make it long enough, say two and a half minutes for really valuable advertising.
The kind of slots that are gold dust to advertisers.
And as a by-product the players can rehydrate without Big Jack style scenes.
5. Sleepless Nights in Seattle?
This is a wee boil that will not go away.
Somehow the Gods conspired to schedule the Egypt v Iran match at the wrong time in Seattle.
Two Islamic countries in one of the USA’s wokest cities on a date with significance to the flourishing gay community.
The date celebrates The Stonewall Riots of 1969 and informed commentators think the local organisers will relish the chance to use the match as a celebration.
Maybe the fact that homosexuality is banned in Egypt and outlawed in Iran is a red flag to the Seattle organising committee.
Egypt has already ‘absolutely rejected’ the idea of any gay rights activities in or near the stadium using the words, “Cultural incompatibility”.
I don’t know what Iran thinks and so far nobody has asked The Village People, who got King Donald dancing last Friday if they will be in Seattle.
And a final thought for now on the Washington draw last week.
Like a pastiche of a pastiche of all that is wrong when egos mutate inside power vacuums.
Horrendous, horror TV and just a taste of more to come,
Sting is Andy’s Weekly Blog
I just try to dig into some of the stuff that needs a little more digging.
I’m a fan and played football for free until I started playing for Spartans in my early 20s.
Those days had issues but back then our teams were full of talented Scots players.
We need to learn from our own past.
And as always feel free to write to me about anything in football or beyond.
Andy’s Album of the Week
Boston born, Jonathan Richman: Roadrunner
One of my pals bought ‘Beserkley Home of the Hits’ back in ‘76 after hearing it playing in the Other Record Shop in Union Street.
It was my introduction to Mr Richman and his unique version of garage/rock/indie music.
The funny thing was the particular ‘Greatest Hits’ album was full of hits that weren’t and was all a bullshit poster for a new label with no stars, hits or history.
Brilliant marketing.
Roadrunner is still a great track even if it was only played on two chords, and I can’t hear Egyptian Reggae with stopping what I’m doing, and smiling.
It shouldn’t work but does.
Maybe an insight to America.
Upfront bull and confidence but with hidden talents and longevity.
Next week I’ll find something from Miami in my pile and share that.
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