Money Sleepless Club World Cup has moved UEFA Cake. The war between UEFA and FIFA has become obvious

May 23 The FIFA General Assembly was held in Asuncion last week, but the conference did not seem to be successful. The contradiction between UEFA and FIFA seems to be obvious. The Athletic wrote an article about the conflict of interest between FIFA and UEFA. The war seems to continue for some time...

TA wrote ↓

Is FIFA and UEFA trapped in a permanent war?

If we are looking for a story to summarize the tension between FIFA and UEFA, we might as well start with an episode of the Club Cup bonus this summer.

As the brainchild of FIFA President Infantino, he calls the upcoming Club World Cup, which will be held in the United States, a new expansion to 32 teams, the "most coveted" trophy at the club's football level.

According to several people familiar with FIFA event planning, Infantino is determined to create a sensation, and nothing can cause a sensation like money. He tried to make the Club World Cup champions surpass the Champions League and hoped to release a number that immediately attracted global attention. In the end, this goal was not achieved by a slight difference.

According to data released by FIFA, the Club World Cup champion may receive up to US$125 million (about £93.5 million). This is slightly lower than the $154 million prize received by UEFA's recently announced 2024 Champions League champion Real Madrid.

Infantino's ambition itself highlights how the two most powerful organizations in the world football world have fallen into an eternal battle in the battle between global football economy and political dominance.

This tension escalated again in Paraguay last week. Eight European members of the FIFA Council led by UEFA President Cheferin collectively left the court halfway through the FIFA General Assembly. They said the reason for the exit was that Infantino seemed to prioritize meetings with leaders from multiple countries, including U.S. President Trump, with the itinerary involving Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He then arrived in Diasuncion too late, causing the conference to be delayed by three hours due to its flight problems. UEFA condemned Infantino's agenda for "convenient private political interests" in a follow-up statement. This week, a UEFA spokesperson told The Athletic: "We value the strong and respectful relationship we have established with FIFA on the basis of mutual trust and shared enthusiasm for football. Recent events are only isolated cases and do not reflect our ongoing partnership. We are still committed to working together for the best interests of football."

However, through dialogues with many relevant people in the football world over the past week, another picture of UEFA's relationship with FIFA has gradually become clear. The so-called "strong and mutually respectful relationship" is actually so fragile that it cannot withstand the slightest shock.

A senior executive in European football believes that last week's congress could be a "turning point." He added: "The fragile truce reached based on common interests has now been broken, and the seeds of dissatisfaction against Infantino will eventually take root." FIFA declined to comment on the specific content in this report, but emphasized good relations with all parties. FIFA Secretary-General Grafström insisted after the conference that FIFA maintained an "excellent cooperative relationship" with UEFA.

The increasingly strong feeling in European football is that FIFA is trying to erode UEFA's dominance and revenue stream. FIFA has long played the role of World Cup organizer, at least in name the most authoritative institution of the sport. But it has rarely entered the field of major club events.

Europe occupies a dominant position in the football economy. UEFA's revenue scale can reach more than twice that of FIFA through extremely successful club competitions in the Champions League and the quadrennial national team competitions in the European Cup. FIFA is expected to achieve revenue of US$13 billion in the four-year cycle from 2023 to 2026 (with the US, Canada and Mexico World Cup as the end). In the 2023-24 fiscal year alone, UEFA's annual revenue reached 6.8 billion euros (about 7.64 billion US dollars). European countries have won 16 European teams in the last five World Cups.

Since Infantino took office as FIFA president in 2016, he has continuously emphasized the need to promote more effective globalization of football. Supporters believe that expanding the World Cup between the Men's and Women's Football World Cup to 48 teams will increase the event's revenue and then benefit the world through the FIFA member association. This move will help the associations develop football locally and give more countries the opportunity to participate in this top-level event.

By expanding FIFA's business territory to the club competition field, Infantino has reduced FIFA's dependence on the men's World Cup. As of now, the World Cup still contributes most of FIFA's revenue. He highlighted a pain point that many fans feel deeply: even within European football, there are always a few clubs that have long dominated.

At the FIFA Club Management Course Seminar in 2022, Infantino told club managers: "There is indeed a gap between a few European countries and the rest of the world. What we need to do is to narrow this gap. It is not by suppressing European giants, because these giants also need to continue to develop. But the rest of the world also needs to grow to ensure that we have a more competitive football world."

On the surface, this argument is quite convincing. But in UEFA's power corridor, this is more regarded as a plunder of power and funds, which will not only weaken UEFA's own income-generating potential, but also break Europe's dominance.

On Monday, UEFA insisted that its relationship with FIFA was "very good" and was based on "open communication and mutual respect". For those who witnessed half of European leaders leaving the FIFA conference, this statement may seem ridiculous..

is also indirectly arguing that Cheferin also left early at the FIFA conference held in Bangkok last year. At that time, UEFA was pushing for the joint bid of the 2027 Women's World Cup by Derby and the Netherlands, and at that time, Brazil was generally expected to win.

European football is becoming increasingly frustrated that it is difficult for it to bid for the Men's World Cup alone. Assuming FIFA abides by the principle of continental rotation, Europe will not be able to host the Men's World Cup alone, except for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The 2030 World Cup will be co-organized by six countries including Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The conflict between Cheferin and Infantino intensified for the first time in 2018. At that time, Infantino tried to promote a $25 billion agreement with SoftBank Group supported by Japan's Saudi capital, planning to create a new global club and national team event system. It was disclosed that the agreement will inject approximately US$3 billion into each new version of the Club World Cup, and at the same time create a global version of the National League.

National League was originally a pioneering move by UEFA, and UEFA hopes to authorize this model to football federations of all continents. UEFA is concerned that SoftBank’s cooperation with FIFA may lead to the value of the Champions League being diluted, the schedule is disrupted, and emerging global events may erode the existing market share of broadcasters and sponsors.

In the controversy over the change of the World Cup to a two-year session, UEFA took the lead in launching a boycott. Although FIFA has not formally supported the proposal, the General Assembly did agree to start consultations.

Chefelin said that European countries would boycott each other and claimed they had received support from the South American Football Federation. Since the first World Cup in 1930, Europe and South America have won all men's World Cup championships. UEFA formed an alliance with South American Football Association to resist FIFA's expansion plans, and even jointly established a shared office space in London in April 2022. As one of the cooperation contents, the two sides launched the "European and American Super Cup" event, with the European Cup champion vs. the American Cup champion. The subtext of this joint venture project is very clear: if FIFA continues to promote proposals that harm Overam’s interests, the two continents will operate independently to achieve their own goals. They have successfully blocked the idea of ​​a two-year World Cup, but recently, South American Football Federation has increasingly moved closer to FIFA, especially after Brazil won the right to host the 2027 Women's World Cup. South American Football Federation hopes that FIFA will expand the 2030 Men's World Cup to 64 teams to commemorate the 100th birthday of the World Cup, and more specifically, to ensure more competitions are held in South America.

Now, UEFA's cooperative alliance with South American Football Federation in London has been put on hold. People familiar with the matter revealed that the scale of the institution has shrunk significantly and may even be completely disbanded. In Paraguay, the move by the South American Football Team headquarters and the Bourbon hotel chain named the building after the FIFA president highlights their growing relationship with Infantino.

At the time when UEFA's conflict with FIFA was the most acute, both sides had publicly revealed tensions. At the 2020 UEFA Conference, Infantino called for reform of the men's football matches in his speech, Cheferin responded on the spot: "No football manager, no matter how pretentious he is, should not think he is the protagonist of this drama..." In the spring of 2021, as the "European Super League" planned by European giant clubs quickly went bankrupt within three days, UEFA's suspicion of FIFA's prior knowledge and secretly supporting the European Super League has not been completely eliminated, and FIFA denied this.

All these historical grievances surfaced again at the FIFA conference in Asuncion last week.

In a statement issued by eight council members after they left the court, UEFA said: "From the grassroots on the street to the podium, the purpose of all of us is to serve the cause of football."

The departure and condemnation of UEFA members undoubtedly angered some FIFA people. Arriving in Infantino, Asuncion on a Qatar private plane, there are many similarities between them and Cheferin, who travels through the German European Cup stadium on a special plane. Shortly after UEFA senior officials left the council, a private plane was witnessed leaving Asuncion. When asked whether Cheferin left the country by private jet, UEFA did not comment.

These UEFA key players who have left the court receive generous rewards from their work in FIFA. As President of the Continental Football Federation and Vice President of the FIFA Council, Cheferin is eligible for an annual after-tax salary of $300,000. When asked whether he accepted the FIFA salary, neither UEFA nor FIFA responded.

As FIFA enters the field of club events through the Club World Cup, Cheferin and Infantino may need to discuss how to deal with the demands of the wealthiest and most fans in Europe. In addition to Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​these giants are usually represented by the European Club Association (ECA).

Although Infantino talks about the globalization of football, the Club World Cup will once again become a victory for European giants. European clubs will have a prize of $12.8 million to $32.8 million, while South American teams can only earn $15.2 million. North American, Asian and African teams will receive $9.6 million, while Oceania teams will receive $3.6 million.

Given its strong financial strength, European teams are likely to win most of the prize money. Coupled with the possible bonus pool of tens of millions of dollars, the Club World Cup may further consolidate and expand the "monopoly situation of a few European clubs" criticized by Infantino.

However, Infantino reiterated in Asuncion last week that he firmly believes that football's potential is beyond Europe. He said that with "relatively small investments" between Saudi Arabia and the United States, global football GDP is expected to grow from US$270 billion to US$500 billion a year.

By then, the swarms of bees flying around the honeypots may eventually get their place.