Rogue agent Gianni Infantino and the unfinished World Cup plan that enraged his allies | OneFootball

Gianni Infantino’s outlandish plan to privatise the World Cup has been in the works for over a year, going back through last year’s Club World Cup in the United States, senior football sources now insist. It is nevertheless claimed the project was so secret that not even Infantino’s inner circle or closest advisors at Fifa knew, to the point it has actually aggravated allies in key strongholds like the Asian Football Confederation.

Many in football suspect that this plan was developed with financial interests connected to the wider Donald Trump family over the last year, explaining current Josh Kushner’s proximity.

Fifa has been approached for comment.

Either way, the plan is being described as a “unilateral Infantino project”, to the point of Fifa president “going rogue”.

Those are the words now being used by stunned and furious football administrators, some of whom had previously sought to be politically pragmatic around Infantino.

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The plan to privatise the World Cup is being described as a “unilateral Infantino project) (PA Wire)

Other high-level football sources have expressed some scepticism at all this, pointing to how there are “a lot of people working on this and a lot of money behind it”.

It was ironically through that financial sphere which the initial details of this first leaked out. New York’s Waldorf-Astoria represented the centre of the football world on the weekend of the World Cup final, and the many decision-makers there started to get a sense that something was happening. There was even an expectation something "big" would be announced on the eve of Spain-Argentina.

The initial feeling was that this would be the announcement of a 64-team tournament. People did try and put Infantino on the spot that Sunday at the MetLife Stadium but he said nothing.

With word then starting to seep through the financial community, Uefa was able to gather concrete details and start briefing other Fifa Council members.

It is said that this - and the publication of the plan in The Times on Tuesday afternoon - rushed Fifa into an announcement when the project actually required much more work.

By the time of that, Infantino had still not discussed the proposal with any of the Council. Germany’s Bernd Neuendorf publicly articulated the fury of many at having to find out through the media, alongside how Infantino just sidestepped the usual protocols in putting it together.

Among the basic questions that Council members are demanding answers to are how it was decided, who the preferred financial partners are, and who gave Infantino this mandate.

Even beyond that, there’s the elementary question of how this very idea was raised. Did it come from private equity, from the Trump world or from Infantino himself? The previous plan to make the World Cup biennial, after all, was at least suggested by a Fifa-friendly association in Saudi Arabia. Normally, even new sponsorship deals have to go by committees.

With this, it's all come to light fully formed.

Infantino similarly speaks about “fiduciary responsibility” as if he is a chief executive answerable to shareholders, when Fifa are actually a not-for-profit, and he doesn’t even seem to have any concern for his own Council.

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Infantino doesn’t seem to have any concern for his own Council (AFP/Getty)

It speaks volumes that European Football Clubs, who Fifa has to develop a relationship with for the Club World Cup, are stunned at how their Memorandum of Understanding has apparently just been “bypassed”.

This deal going through would require a complete renegotiation of how players are provided.

Some talk of how all of this is the president’s “governance by fiat” taken to logical extremes, where he may have even been emboldened by the Folarin Balogun controversy. The only real repercussions, after all, seemed to be two days of mostly European criticism.

Except, other insiders point to how feeling in a position of extreme strength - right up to a sense of invulnerability - may actually go hand in hand with a growing political weakness.

The Balogun affair is said to decisively turned multiple long-time allies against Infantino, after growing disquiet about everything to do with the 2026 World Cup. The feeling was that he would have a “lame duck” final term, struggling to get any major ideas through. This plan instead looks an outright evasion of all of that, to create a path to new powers.

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Infantino seems to have been emboldened by the Folarin Balogun affair (AP)

That can arguably be divined in the unorthodox ratification process.

Fifa released a video of Infantino on Wednesday evening - perhaps showing the pressure is getting to him - where he pleaded that this was only an “offer” as well as “an opportunity not an obligation”, and that it just “kicks off the consultation process”. There was another appeal to democratic ideals, too, with talk of how it was subject to approval by the 211 member associations and the Council.

Except it’s a funny start to a consultation process when the fine details of the plan have already been decided upon, and you give those same members a mere 53 days to agree, with extra financial reward for doing so. Associations who do not sign up will receive 75 per cent less funding.

This is all in the knowledge that Fifa’s broken political structure is one of clientelism, where money redistributed just serves as a vote-returning mechanism, and was supposed to be reformed when Infantino succeeded Sepp Blatter.

The threshold for approval has also been lowered from the usual 75 per cent to 50 per cent plus one.

It is for all these reasons that stakeholders know that Fifa would win any vote. Enough current leaders will just see the money coming in now.

Even Uefa's Thursday emergency meeting will be held in the knowledge that many of their smaller members fully support Infantino.

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Uefa is planning an emergency meeting with its members but many smaller nations will fully support Infantino (PA)

That is despite the obvious problem that introducing private investment will just incorporate financial incentives that work against the smaller nations in the long term. Such investment partners would inevitably have an interest in core parts of the game, like the calendar, and all guided by the sole motivation of raising revenue.

Football’s major stakeholders are consequently determined to ensure that this never actually gets to a vote.

It was already reported by The Independent on Wednesday that Uefa's meeting would see federations discuss the threat of a boycott, in the manner that instantly killed Infantino’s plan to keep Russian teams in competition, as well as consultation with the European Commission. Sporting bodies are generally given exemptions from competition law by the EC due their cultural role, but private interests fly in the face of that.

It’s also precisely because of the attractiveness to smaller nations that some of the bigger powers feel they have to tread more diplomatically. They are fully aware of perceptions of major forces dictating everything to the rest of the game.

That is why a “deeply concerned” English Football Association is currently more intent on building alliances, despite a lot of pressure to take a stronger public stance.

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FA chief executive Mark Bullingham (left) next to Infantino (centre) (PA)

That alliance is growing, with most of the game’s major stakeholders having released critical statements.

As one football executive said, however, “someone ultimately has to take the lead on killing this for the greater good”.

Otherwise, the great global good of the World Cup looks like it will become another great illustration of how the world is going: billionaires buying up everything for obscene self enrichment.