Johan Ö

[Len @celery_v2]

Watching the Mourinho documentary makes you remember how much better football was 15–20 years ago. The characters, rivalries, managers, players, atmosphere, unpredictability. Barely recognisable from the snooze fest it's become

[Ben Jacobs @JacobsBen]

🗣️ BREAKING: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham tells reporters in Sheffield that Gianni Infantino is “the wrong man to lead the organisation.”

[Vfynn_🥷🏼 𐙚 @Vfynn_]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic on to Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup:

🗣️ “Listen 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 it’s democracy.

That is not structure. That is a magic trick for lawyers. FIFA keeps the majority. FIFA keeps the board. FIFA keeps “exclusive authority” 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 “nothing changes.”

I have seen this movie before. Nothing changes… until the numbers start talking. Once private money owns a permanent piece of the World Cup’s 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 “gift” 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 “gentlemen’s agreement” that suddenly appeared when it was convenient. The Ethics Committee, the indictments, the years of “we are cleaning the house.”

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.

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

European nations have agreed to boycott the World Cup over FIFA’s plans to sell stakes in the tournament to private investors.

The decision was taken at a virtual meeting of the 55 national associations which are members of UEFA, the European football confederation, on Thursday, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting.

The next World Cup in the calendar is the women’s edition in Brazil next summer, followed by the men’s tournament in Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 2030.

More from @JamesHorncastle & @megan_feringa

🔗 https://t.co/HHwiQGw5mr

[Ben Jacobs @JacobsBen]

BREAKING: UEFA sources tell @talkSPORT all 55 Member Associations have decided to boycott the men's and women's World Cups in protest at Gianni Infantino's Fifa Forward Enterprise plans.

UEFA members agreed on an emergency call that began around 2pm today that they will not support any FIFA-run tournament.

🎩 @martynziegler, who first broke the story.

[Andy Burnham @andyburnham]

Let me say this very directly.

Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine.

The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone's to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.

Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will.

[Cycling on TNT Sports @cyclingontnt]

💛 MATHIEU VAN DER POEL MAKES HISTORY IN PARIS 💛

This might just be the most dramatic and iconic of Van der Poel's glittering career 😲

[Lukáš Ronald Lukács @lucxsronald]

THIS IS THE TOUR DE FRANCE ❤️ #TDF2026

[Man City Brazil @ManCityBrazil]

O comentarista suíço David Lemos, encerrou a transmissão resumindo com precisão os problemas desta Copa do Mundo, ele foi perfeito.

🗣️"Não há dúvidas de que esta foi a Copa do Mundo mais comercial da história e também uma das mais politizadas."

"Não esqueceremos os preços que pessoas sem grande poder aquisitivo tiveram de pagar para viver sua paixão pelo futebol."

"Em alguns casos, sequer puderam entrar no país por causa de sua nacionalidade, fossem torcedores, jornalistas ou até árbitros, como o somali Omar Artan."

"Também lembramos do tratamento inaceitável dado à seleção do Irã, que não pôde defender suas chances de forma adequada durante o torneio."

"E há ainda o caso de Folarin Balogun. Vimos um presidente se vangloriar de ter ligado para o presidente da FIFA para conseguir retirar a suspensão de um jogador."

"A política se infiltrou no coração do futebol, embora a FIFA afirme querer mantê-la acima de tudo. Fica claro que isso só vale até certo ponto."

"Foi uma Copa do Mundo em que todas as partidas foram disputadas em quatro tempos, e cuja final teve um intervalo de quase 30 minutos."

"A crise tem dois nomes: dinheiro e poder. Hoje existe uma crise de confiança entre muitos dos envolvidos no futebol e a FIFA."

"Nas próximas semanas, muito dinheiro será distribuído a diversas federações e a muitos agentes do futebol, que serão educadamente convidados a permanecer em silêncio."

"Esperamos que tudo isso seja levado em consideração e que não volte a acontecer."

[Buvey @lawrence_bury]

World Cup 2026 half time show is the lowest point football has ever experienced. Doesn’t get worse than this.

[Jacob Steinberg @JacobSteinberg]

This doesn’t feel like the World Cup final. It’s all very weird. Just feels like some football is occasionally taking place around some random nonsense and shouting

[Out of Context Football Manager @nocontextfm1]

This is the least World Cup final feeling World Cup final that I've ever watched

[Liam Gallagher @liamgallagher]

This is like a bad trip

[eric sporrong. @erccyy]

Är beredd att betala vad som helst för att inte behöva se en inzoomad kändis igen när jag kollar en fotbollsmatch

[Arvid Wikström @ArvidWikst35484]

Längesedan jag var såhär stolt över att vara svensk. Så innerligt lycklig att vi är så jävla långt från den här skiten med VAR, kändisar och shower. Fyfan vad fotbollen har blivit slaktad. Länge leve Svensk fotboll! Länge leve 51%-regeln! Länge leve vi!

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

This could have been an all timer at the Azteca.

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

Can we get back to the bloody football, please….

[Leonard Jägerskiöld @LeonardJN]

När jag var på CL-finalen på Wembley för två år sedan buade Dortmund- och Real-supportrarna när Lenny Kravitz show presenterades. Sen sjöng de sina ramsor under framträdandet.

Så snälla FIFA och USA, den här plastiga och påklistrade showen är inget som fotbollen vill ha.

[⚡ @UTDCJ_]

“hydration breaks” out of my sport in 24 hours

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

It’s horrible that the US is doing this to football, turning it into a Super-Bowl-style commercial clown show, totally abusing a tradition they don’t care about or understand.