FAI and FIFA

Excuse the ignorance but if he’s running unopposed what exactly would be the point in saying you’re against him. I understand it’d be good political statement but it’s still meaningless until there’s someone running to challenge him. Or am I incorrect? 

I’m sure Delaney had 5 million reasons for giving the bold Sepp his vote.

The man was beyond humiliation especially when you see his 50th birthday bash.

Despite Blatter, Platini and Infantino all being European themselves, FIFA have long been at daggers drawn with UEFA, with CONMEBOL having recently rowed in on the latter's side over the former's proposal to stage the World Cup every two years (would clash with the Euro's and Copa America).

Ultimately, this comes down to European resentment over the fact that they generate by far the most money in the game, have most of the best teams and facilities etc, but don't feel they receive the credit they deserve from FIFA (eg World Cup qualifying places etc). While the European clubs sometimes forge an uneasy alliance with UEFA over FIFA demands on their players (World Club championships etc).

Of course, those three chancers mentioned above have long since calculated that with only 50-odd votes in FIFA, UEFA's Member Associations can always be outvoted by the 150-odd Members from the rest of the world, even after CONMEBOL's 10 Members are discounted.

While as we knoiw, many of those ROW Members can easily be, er, "influenced" to vote in the way which certain vested interests require.

The whole system is inherently and probably irredeemably corrupt, but then again, we always knew that.

And to get back to the OP's point, with Infantino already having a clear majority of Member Association votes in his back pocket, no other MA is going to put forward their own candidate for an election which they must inevitably lose, sjnce that would see their card marked by Infantino and bring down reprisals etc.

I can't help thinking President Infantino must have learnt his trade from President Xi of China.

Or do I mean the other way round?

I'm surprised UEFA and CONMEBOL haven't pulled the trigger before now to be honest. They hold the cards, without them FIFA is just a mish mash of second rate sides. If those two federations broke away it's inevitable that the rest would eventually have to go with them to survive, and FIFA would collapse. 

That would allow the two stronger confederations to take control of international football and allow the World Cup to be properly reformed, either back to a 32 team tournament with greater European and South American involvement than there is currently or by keeping the new 48 team format but having 20 to 24 European teams and 8 or 9 South American teams to keep the standards up, rather than the mess of mismatched qualifiers we're likely to see in 2026 as things stand.

Plenty of room for that alongside improving the standards with additional European and South American teams also. It's a nonsense that the likes of Italy can have a bad 90 minutes at the wrong moment in qualification and then don't go to the World Cup.

On the other hand Costa Rica qualified as the fourth ranked Concacaf team and were outclassed last night. At the next world cup there will be six automatic Concacaf spots plus a playoff spot. So, using the 2022 qualifiers as an example, Jamaica, who finished 14 points behind Costa Rica in qualifying, would also qualify automatically. Africa - 0 wins and 1 goal from five teams in the first round of group games - getting four additional automatic spots and a playoff spot next time around. As things stand, 2026 is going to be a disaster in terms of mismatched contests.