Damn I just turned 22 but itโs the first one youโre not here to call or tell me Happy Birthday anymore, Lord knows what I would do just to get a call and hear you again, yโall appreciate the little stuff your parents do for you one day they wonโt be there to do that anymore๐
@UTDShem Oguchi Onyewu a Nigerian-American who has an imposing physique and actually caused Zlatan to suffer a broken rib during their brawl at an AC Milan practice in 2010
Zlatan Ibrahimovic on to Gianni Infantinoโs plan to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup:
๐ฃ๏ธ โListen to me carefully, because most of these people in suits have never understood the game and never will.
They create a subsidiary. Call it FIFA Forward Enterprise. Keep majority control on paper. Sell 20% to investors who have never smelled grass. Then wave $20 million in front of every federation and pretend itโs democracy.
That is not structure. That is a magic trick for lawyers. FIFA keeps the majority. FIFA keeps the board. FIFA keeps โexclusive authorityโ over governance, the calendar, the rules, everything that sounds important on paper. The investors get no operational role. They are only buying a slice of the cash machine. FIFA even says the investors are buying into the subsidiary, not into FIFA itself, so โnothing changes.โ
I have seen this movie before. Nothing changesโฆ until the numbers start talking. Once private money owns a permanent piece of the World Cupโs revenue, the pressure never stops. More tournaments. Bigger formats. Different calendar. Different priorities. Because investors do not care about the soul of the game. They care about return. And when the federations are already bought with the $20 million โgiftโ and the bigger Forward payments, who exactly is going to say no?
This is the same FIFA that spent decades selling the World Cup under the table. I remember the 2015 arrests. Swiss police walking into the hotel in Zurich and taking officials out in the early morning. Racketeering. Bribes. Money laundering. Hundreds of millions paid for television rights, for marketing rights, for World Cup votes. South Africa 2010. Qatar. The whole circus under Blatter. Jack Warner. Chuck Blazer singing to the Americans. Blatter and Platini banned for that $2 million โgentlemenโs agreementโ that suddenly appeared when it was convenient. The Ethics Committee, the indictments, the years of โwe are cleaning the house.โ
And now the house is cleaner, they say. Now instead of brown envelopes and secret payments, we have subsidiaries, minority non-controlling stakes, permanent capital vehicles, JPMorgan valuations, and carefully selected long-term partners. Same hunger for money. Same system of buying loyalty from the 211 associations. Only the language got more expensive.
Infantino stands there and talks about democracy and opportunity. I am Zlatan. I do not need the $20 million and I do not need the speech. Most of these federations do need the money. That is exactly why this structure is dangerous. You are not offering development. You are offering a transaction: take the cash, vote yes by September, and stay quiet while pieces of the World Cup become private equity assets.
Football does not belong to FIFA. FIFA belongs to football. The moment you put shareholders inside the commercial heart of the World Cup and call it progress, you have already admitted the game is for sale. They just found a prettier way to write the contract this time.
I played at the highest level. I saw real power and real money. This is neither. This is bureaucracy protecting itself while selling the one thing that still belongs to the people who actually love the game.
Keep your structure. Keep your valuations. Keep your minority non-controlling stakes. The World Cup was never meant to have owners in suits. It was meant to be bigger than all of you.
๐จ Infantino said he suffered for Argentina today:
FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed that he suffered tonight while following the Argentina match. ๐ฆ๐ท
But he quickly realized what he had said, so he backpedaled and added that he is neutral. ๐ ๐ปโโ๏ธ
Why isn't he sacked immediately? ๐ค
https://t.co/wE7icitCYP
@oliver2022_3@angelegarcias@giraltpablo Estรก bien hablar mal es parte del futbol pero es mejor decirlo con tu pecho no? Asรญ si no es algo racista no hay problema
@FirstTake@rogbennett Please no futbol fan wants to hear @stephenasmith talk about futbol ๐คฆ๐ปโโ๏ธ. Arenโt you busy bro? Your Knicks just win the chip please stick to that โ๐ผ
@Shaun_ZS @manafsinare Season 1 A-train would have but after the moral development heโs had he wouldnโt just run through somebody without a second thought like he did to Hughieโs gf
Bruno Fernandes is the Premier League Player of the Season โจ
An incredible campaign for Man Utd's playmaker which included equaling the record for most assists in a season (20).
๐จ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐: Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the first player to win ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ titles, ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐๐๐ง ๐๐จ๐จ๐ญ, and ๐๐๐ awards in ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ different countries across ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ continents. ๐คฏ
He doesnโt follow records, records follow him. ๐