Critique about FIFA behaviour after Egypt & Argentina match Tusday, 7/07/26
John Churchilly
I’m not going to talk to you about technicalities — mistakes happen. I’m going to talk about your wrong assumption that FIFA is a competition where the hardworking team wins, not the “best seller.”
Gianni Infantino took office in 2016 with direct support from the White House, after the massive corruption and bribery scandal that hit FIFA and forced Joseph Blatter to resign just three days after being elected. The scandal took down his whole team — twenty years of corruption, bribes, shady marketing deals, broadcasting rights, money laundering, hosting bids, and more. Some FIFA officials were literally arrested.
One of the most famous hosting scandals was in 2002, when the Olympic Committee took gifts and money to award the Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City in the U.S. Ten members of the IOC were expelled because of it — and that was the least of it. The corruption exposed by Chuck Blazer, the CONCACAF secretary who cooperated with the FBI, was far bigger and implicated everyone.
In 2015, after all this chaos, FIFA recorded a financial deficit of $550 million. They brought in American consultants to fix the crisis and proposed a package of reforms. The main question was: how do we bring back the sponsors who fled because of all these scandals? That’s when the idea emerged: turn football itself into an advertising machine. Money would come from ticket prices, ads, and sponsorships — and here came Messi’s role.
According to the theory of subjective value, the value of anything is determined by individual preferences. When Messi joined Inter Miami, ticket prices jumped from $29 to $477, and on the secondary market to $2,500. The club’s valuation reached $1.45 billion. Followers increased, bringing more ads. Miami hosted the Copa América final in 2024 and the Club World Cup. It became a money‑printing machine for FIFA and a source of influence for the U.S. — even FIFA’s new headquarters is in Trump Tower. And look at how ticket prices dropped 60% after the U.S. and Portugal were eliminated.
Before the World Cup, it was rumoured that knockout‑stage tickets — especially the final — skyrocketed. First‑class seats officially cost $7,875, and unofficially $38,000. Ads during the water break were insanely priced. The more globally popular the teams, the more ads sold.
So, if you put France against Argentina in the final, tickets, sponsorships, broadcasting rights, jersey sales, hotel bookings — everything explodes. But Egypt knocks Argentina out in the Round of 16? How will they sell anything? How will Trump’s real‑estate company sell and build? Who gets the sponsorship rights? The World Cup — the biggest advertising platform in the world — is supposed to place ads on a match between Egypt and Colombia? Are you joking?
American betting platforms, which bet on everything, made around $4 billion — more than the amount bet on predicting the winner of the U.S. presidency in 2024. All platforms combined reached $50 billion as of yesterday. Do you understand that number? Messi had to continue. His team — the most popular — had to continue. That’s capitalism, which corrupts everything.
American betting platforms, which bet on everything, made around $4 billion — more than the amount bet on predicting the winner of the U.S. presidency in 2024. All platforms combined reached $50 billion as of yesterday. Do you understand that number? Messi had to continue. His team — the most popular — had to continue. That’s capitalism, which corrupts everything.
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If you want, I can also **polish it into a more formal op‑ed style**, or **shorten it for social media**, or **make it more academic**.