Selling Football by the Pound

“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross. UEFA takes it extremely seriously. So should every national football association. So should every stakeholder: leagues, clubs, players, supporters, governments and everyone who cares about the future of the game. 

“The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”

The above quote is from UEFA, in response to the latest hare-brained scheme from the increasingly ludicrous President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, namely to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors. This came a day after his seemingly unhinged rant directed at everyone who ‘complained’ about certain aspects of the World Cup, which was, let’s not forget (because Mr I told us), a gigantic success … unless you are a football fan who couldn’t afford to go because of the obscenely high prices and/or someone who finds that (allegedly) manipulating the rules to favour the President of the USA is just a tad naughty. Or, well, we could go on, but you know exactly what we mean.

Real fans, people like us who pay our £25 or £30, or whatever, to go to support our teams had better forget about FIFA tournaments in the future.  If you think the last one was expensive, wait till those US investors get their hands on it. Even those who would walk across broken glass in a burning kilt to see our national team must, surely, be having second thoughts if Scotland were to qualify for such a privatised World Cup in the years ahead.

We endorse every word of UEFA’s statement.  Moreover, we hope that, while they can’t admit it publicly, those in charge of our national game are of a similar mind.  The soul of football is at stake.  It may not be, as Bill Shankly famously said all those years ago, more important than life or death, but this is our game, not Gianni Infantino’s.  We would love to see UEFA’s constituent Associations withdraw from any FIFA-led competition until sanity prevails and Mr Infantino has been dismissed.  With no English or continental clubs, his World Club Championship is totally devalued, as is the World Cup without the likes of Spain, France, England and, yes, even Scotland. Otherwise, if the football authorities of the world roll over, then the game we’ve all grown to love is gone, not just in the sense of that cliché, but really, really gone for good. 

Football has always been about money, but it’s also always been about something more important; an almost indefinable quality that is very difficult to describe but we all know it when we feel it.  It’s the soul of the game, built on those Scotch Professors who first taught the world to pass a ball and nurtured through the generations, from all walks of life in our country who pass on their love, their team, their hopes and ambitions, to their children.  Now, if Mr Infantino gets his way, the next generation will have to pay mightily for the privilege.  He’s gone too far and must be stopped. We call on all fans of Scotland and Scotland’s clubs to make their feelings know.  If you care about our game, it’s time to make a stand.    

Stuart Murphy, CEO, the Scottish Football Union