John Salter

proorisménos • designing the dream !

[George Jarjour @GeorgeOnTap]

FIFA reportedly offered every member association up to $40 million to vote yes, and $10 million if they voted no. Today, all 55 European nations chose zero.

This afternoon, on an emergency call, every UEFA member approved a boycott of FIFA competitions, men’s and women’s, until the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan dies.

Now run the numbers on what each side is holding.

FIFA’s position: a $20 billion valuation on the new entity, a $4.2 billion raise this year through J.P. Morgan, Thrive as proposed lead investor, and a September 19 vote it needs 106 of 211 members to win. UEFA and Concacaf, which says it was never even informed of the plan, control 96 votes between them. The math was already tight. It just got worse.

UEFA’s position: the product itself. Europe has produced six of the last eight World Cup winners. Spain just won the 2026 tournament, and three of the four semifinalists were European. A World Cup without Spain, France, England and Germany is not a diminished World Cup. It is a different, much cheaper product, and every investor being asked to value this thing at $20 billion knows it.

And the 2030 World Cup is co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Two of the three host nations just voted to boycott the tournament they are hosting. There is no version of that event that survives its own hosts refusing to show up.

Here is why the threat is credible, and why Infantino knows it. In 2021 he proposed a World Cup every two years. UEFA threatened a boycott. FIFA abandoned the plan. This is the second time in five years Europe has pointed the same weapon at the same man, and the first time, it worked without a shot.

So look at what the $40 million offer actually was. FIFA cannot win this vote on the merits against the confederations that produce the product, so it priced the vote instead, aiming the money at the 150 plus smaller associations for whom $40 million is transformative and a European boycott is someone else’s problem. Infantino called it a democratic consultation process. It is a tender offer with a deadline.

The investor math is the part nobody is saying out loud. The $20 billion valuation assumes the World Cup as it exists, with Europe in it. Anyone wiring money into that raise is now buying a tournament that its champion, its finalists and two of its next hosts have publicly refused to play in. The asset changed materially between Tuesday’s announcement and Thursday’s call.

FIFA spent the week trying to sell the World Cup. UEFA spent one afternoon demonstrating who actually owns it.

[Save Our Citizenships @LetsStopC9]

The absurdity of humanity, you can fly off, join the IOF terrorists in killing innocent children with impunity, fly back and sleep easy, but demonstrating against the genocide of Palestinians is punishable by a custodial sentence.

They don’t fear violence, they fear accountability.

[Biggest Mack @Big_Mck]

When you start hanging out with Donald Trump, all kinds of schemes will start creeping into your head.

FIFA president, Infantino, now wants to sell part of FIFA to private investors.

Joshua Kushner, Jared fvcking Kushner’s brother, is already named in the deal, alongside JPMorgan.

Nothing comes as a shock anymore in 2026.

[Amara Nwankpa @Nwankpa_A]

What Infantino is proposing is interesting. In principle, it makes sense to separate the commercial business of football from the regulation of the game. That is generally regarded as good governance.

The problem is that there is no independent regulator to insulate. FIFA is its 211 member associations. And those same members have been offered a share of the proceeds from the sale they are being asked to approve.

FIFA's defence is that investors will hold only a minority, non-controlling stake with no operational role. That may be true, but it misses the point. A fiduciary interest does not have to intervene to shape decisions. It constrains them. Every future decision on the calendar, competition frequency, tournament format, or even how much a safeguard is allowed to cost, will now have to account for a stakeholder whose financial interests carry legal weight. No direct interference is required.

Now consider who does not have standing. Not FIFPRO. Not the fans. Not the residents of host cities. Not even the players, who represent their countries for honour rather than as employees, cannot be transferred between nations, cannot negotiate the terms under which they play, and cannot realistically refuse selection. Yet it is their unmarketed commitment that is being valued at twenty billion dollars. This structure creates the only stakeholder in football with a legally enforceable claim on the game: American Investors.

Every other stakeholder has relied on representation rather than enforceable rights. FIFA represents its member associations, and the member associations are expected to represent the interests of the game. That chain has always been imperfect, but it was the closest thing football had to accountability.

Now that chain of representation has been priced. Forty million for a yes vote. Ten million for a no vote. The duty a federation owes its own players is placed in direct tension with a financial payment contingent on approving the transaction. That is not a conflict of interest FIFA must manage. It is one FIFA has deliberately created.

Finally, consider the sequence. The vote takes place at Congress in Morocco in March but the funding commitment must be made by September. A conflicted decision-maker is being asked to decide quickly. That should concern everyone.

[John Salter @iamsalter_]

Christianity was and is deeply intertwined with colonialism. The missionaries established the earliest schools that taught european languages and western values to young minds; over the years it has led to the erosion of indigenous culture and knowledge. There’s no conflation.

[Godswill Chibueze @Godswill5278]

@Big_Mck I think you are conflating Christianity with the Colonisation project. They are different. It’s true that one has been used to justify the other but that is the abuse of it.
We are better off sticking to the economic survival and revolution of African people.

[The Spearhead @Spearhead_Af]

Somalia Moves To Digitize 75 Years Of Its History

In a move which the rest of Africa would do well to learn from, Somalia is preserving its national history by digitizing the archives of its fabled Pan-Africanist radio station, Radio Mogadishu.

In this report, The Spearhead dives into this inspiring development, which kicked off officially in 2012.

[Blessing 4 Arsenal @ArsenalBlessing]

🚨🚨 According to Diario AS, Vini's commercial value is so massive that he practically "pays his own salary" at Real Madrid.

💰 The club owns nearly 50% of his image rights and earns huge revenue through his 16 major sponsorship deals.

Imagine Madrid owns 50% of Vini's commercial money, but Mbappe keeps 100% of his own money.

Now you understand why Vini who has won Madrid UCL trophies, is fighting for some equality or he leaves.

Additionally, Mbappe's weekly wages are higher than Vini Jr.

Meanwhile, in Arsenal and England, the player owns 100% of their image rights.

NB: Vini Jr wants his 100% image rights or he will move to England.

Welcome to Arsenal Vini Jr.

COYG

[Unite For A Workers' Economy @UniteEconomy]

Today marks 40 years since Thatcher sold off British Gas.

Remember the “Tell Sid” campaign? Turns out Sid took us all for a ride.

Thatcher called it creating a share-owning democracy. In reality, it was selling off the family silver – public assets built by generations of working people, handed over so private companies could make billions.

Forty years on, British Gas and Centrica have made obscene profits, while millions of people have struggled to keep the heating on.

That’s what happens when you run essential public utilities for private profit instead of the public good.

Energy isn’t a luxury. It should be run in the interests of the people who rely on it, not shareholders looking for bigger dividends.

Enough is enough. Time to bring our energy system back into public hands.

#TellSid #PublicOwnership #WorkersEconomy #FuelPoverty

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

1989: Margaret Thatcher, "Water privatisation I believe will go very successfully indeed. It will go very successfully indeed"

2026: BBC News, "Both terminals at the UK's second busiest airport, Gatwick, are without running water.. Toilets can't be flushed"

Bonus clip, Neil Kinnock in 1989, "When is the Conservative government going to stop asset stripping the country?"

Hi @andyburnham any answer to Neil KInnock's question? Are we renationalising water companies any time soon?

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

A study of 7,676 former professional footballers found defenders died of neurodegenerative disease at roughly 5 times the rate of the general population. Goalkeepers, same clubs, same training grounds, same 20 year careers, came in at population baseline.

Same sport. Same lifestyle. One group heads the ball.

The Glasgow FIELD study matched those players against 23,028 controls by age, sex and deprivation, then followed the records for 18 years. Outfield players ran about 4x. Forwards about 3x. Defenders about 5x. Alzheimer's specifically was 5x, motor neurone disease 4x, Parkinson's 2x. And it scaled with exposure. Shortest careers roughly double the risk, longest careers roughly five times. Dose response is what turns a correlation into a mechanism.

Careers in that cohort ran from 1930 to the late 1990s. Wet leather in the early decades, modern coated synthetics by the end. The risk never moved. Ball technology was never the variable, and that is the excuse that dies hardest in every argument about this.

Those same players were healthier than the public in almost every other way. Less heart disease. Less lung cancer. About half as likely to be hospitalized for anxiety or depression. They died at lower rates than the general population right up to age 70, then higher after it. Fitness bought them the extra decade and the head impacts took it back.

The damage comes from the headers nobody counts. Twenty or thirty in a single youth training session, thousands across a season, fifteen years of it before anyone signs a professional contract. None of it gets logged. None of it produces a symptom on the day.

Como's rules go straight at that. No heading under 11, so academy corners get taken as throw-ins played along the floor. From under 12 it returns with a light rubber ball, once a month, five headers in a session. Over-inflated balls banned across every age group.

Varane reported abnormal fatigue and eye strain after a heading-heavy match at United, was told to sit out, and missed the next game. He has told his own son not to head the ball. He played center back for fifteen years at Madrid and United. Of every position on the pitch, his is the one carrying the 5x.

Goalkeepers were standing on the same pitch for all of it. Their brains came out matching everyone else's.

[Rilwan @Real1_balogun]

This is how lived experience influences policy direction. He kept knocking and repeating what it did to him until he influenced the club’s position.

Great man. There’s no value in kids heading the ball if we are keeping it a buck. Keep it to the ground and let them enjoy it.

[Zeca @ZecaReserva]

os caras do TikTok estão em outro nível nos edits

[Robbo @utdrobbo]

A frankly terrifying evolution for Benji.

[Walter Ude @Udewalter_]

Reintegrated without accepting a pay cut, it sends a message to the rest of the dressing room.

Right now, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount and Matthijs de Ligt are among United’s highest earners, with Rashford reportedly on around £325k per week, Bruno around £300k, Mount around £250k, and De Ligt over £200k.

That’s where the problem starts. How do you convince the next player to take a performance based contract when someone earning over £300k a week can disappear for months and simply walk back into the squad.

I’m all for second chances but they have to come with accountability.

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

This is a prime example of that uniquely East African brand of commercial anti-imperialism that @wmnjoya is always referring to.

If you don't listen carefully, you will think this lady is critiquing the empire's systematic extraction of African knowledge and its subsequent weaponisationagainst Africans.

She is doing no such thing.

She's actually criticising the fact that after the knowledge is extracted and weaponised, Africans do not get *credit* for it, and are thus not able to receive compensation as "knowledge partners".

She has no problem with the system designed to extract endlessly from Africans. She just wants a shiny label and a bigger cut of the revenue.

[Typical African @Joe__Bassey]

Those beautiful traditional African fabric designs.

[sam ⛷️ @sambrazy]

Not enough people remember this. Infantino hand selected Inter Miami to participate in the Club World Cup. Not the MLS champions, but Inter Miami.

They’re the only team that didn’t have to qualify

[Typical African @Joe__Bassey]

He is right, Europeans didn’t just colonize Africa; they came as straight-up parasites, sucking out our minerals, art, technology, and knowledge, then slapping their names on it like they invented it. The pyramid on the dollar bill is the ultimate receipt of cultural theft! They even whitewash our own heroes in their movies and history books to keep us feeling small.

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

"We have platformed."

And that right there is where your problem starts. You still believe that YOU platformed Peller and his fellow creatures of the Nigerian brainrot swamp. Let me break the news to you:

THE. ALGORITHMS. ARE. BLACK. BOXES.

You do NOT know what goes into them and how they work. That story you heard that "the algorithm only shows you more of what you engage with" is a completely false statement, right up there with "crypto is decentralised and outside the state's control."

People have actually tried to take the platforms to court to open up their algorithms to public scrutiny, and the US court ruling which you can Google and read by yourself said that THE ALGORITHMS ARE PROPRIETARY. In other words, they are protected by IP law and you legally are not allowed to know how they actually work!

You did not platform any of these people! White guys in Silicon Valley did! You are not the one "making stupid people famous". Larry Ellison, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg are the ones deciding who becomes famous in your society.

That is exactly why western social media platforms are banned in China and Russia - they want to retain the power to determine their own internal conversation. And by the way, China was accused of using TikTok to engineer US society the same way, which is why TikTok USA was forced to sell a controlling stake to Larry Ellison.

Stop misdiagnosing your problem, which is lack of sovereignty. "Nigerians are stupid and like stupid things" is not an intelligent explanation of how the world works! Only a simple minded person takes everything at face value even when superior information is so readily available.

[THEE ALFA HOUSE @thee_alfa_house]

Maponga Marara offers a thought-provoking perspective on Xenophobia in South Africa. Is the white man dividing black brothers and sisters when it's actually them that have the economy and the means of production?

"Is it not interesting that they are fighting for jobs? Jobs? Not ownership of industries. They are not fighting to own the businesses. They are fighting for the jobs. So maybe the real question to ask is: who is giving the jobs? "