"FIFA is so badly governed that all we can do is continue to highlight the rottenness"

“FIFA is so badly governed and resistant to change that all we can do is continue to highlight the rottenness.”

So argued Nick McGeehan, co-director of pressure group FairGame, at a session at Play the Game which highlighted a long list of alarming examples of bad governance in international football.

The failure of the governance reforms pushed through at FIFA in 2016 has created a ‘system of patronage’ and a deeply problematic business model’, said McGeehan.

Detailing how the political capture of ‘FIFA 2.0’ since Gianni Infantino became president in 2016, McGeehan illustrated how the global body’s business model aligns with questionable regimes simply to generate cash to keep members happy and Infantino in power.

“We think about Infantino’s clownish behaviour around [US president Donald] Trump, but it’s symptomatic of their business model, which is about getting as much out of World Cup hosts as possible,” said McGeehan.

This money from World Cups is helping FIFA spend 1.6 billion US dollars on development between 2023 and 2026, with much of this money having a sizeable impact on poorer national associations, who then become unwilling to question the global body’s direction.

“FIFA is pumping money into places where there is a complete lack of transparency and corruption is endemic. There’s no transparency about how [this development money] is spent, even if you go looking for it – and we did,” said McGeehan.

Infantino’s creation of the Bureau of the Council also allows the FIFA president - with the support of the presidents of the six regional football confederations - to dispatch normalisation committees to take over the running of the game at any associations deemed troublesome.

Panellist Philippe Auclair gave the example of Trinidad & Tobago, where a candidate not supported by Infantino won the presidential election, which prompted FIFA to dispatch a normalisation committee. 

“The result was that people were hounded out of their own democratically elected organisation,” reflected Auclair.

This endemic corruption also extends to the six regional confederations. Lúcio de Castro, a journalist at Brazilian outlet Jornal Lance, detailed a sorry list of transgressions by CONMEBOL’s Paraguayan president Alejandro Dominguez, which ranged from his family’s long links with the Stroessner dictatorship that ruled the South American country from 1955 to 1989 to more recent problems with cigarette smuggling over the border to Brazil and the sale of World Cup TV rights.

International problems also present at club level

The political capture of major clubs and repression of fans’ freedom of expression were also included in this glut of alarming stories about the sorry state of football.

Jill Thomson, a researcher from Scottish Sport for Palestine, produced extraordinarily detailed research into how Zionist influence at Celtic that conflicts with the supporters’ pro-Palestinian stance began nearly a century ago.

The club’s first Zionist links were traced back to 1932 using archive research and the Glasgow Jewish Institute, and it continued in subsequent decades with fundraisers for the Jewish National Fund (JNF) at a game with Real Madrid in 1962.

This involvement continued included meetings with the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council which have shaped the club’s current stance on Palestine, said Thomson.

This boardroom stance contrasts with the Glasgow club’s own supporter base, particularly the Green Brigades ultras, which have been showing support for Palestine for more than three decades.

“The board has betrayed its fans with support for the JNF, which goes against the ethos of the club,” said Thomson.

“This is a watershed moment for the club. They need to take responsibility for their ethical failures and pay reparations.”

Celtic are unlikely to be the only football club infiltrated. Questioned later by a member of the audience, Thomson said: “I would suggest that this model exists with other clubs.”

The struggles of fans at SK Brann to express their opinions at the Norwegian club’s games was the basis of a stimulating presentation by Canadian journalist Justin Fiacconi.

After fans at Brann games chanted ‘UEFA mafia” at a women’s Champions League game in January 2025, the European governing body took action and fined the club €5,000 the following month.

Brann appealed and lost so took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on the basis it compromised their fans’ freedom of expression. The appeal was upheld without considering the freedom of expression argument.

“It’s still not clear if other clubs will take this up, or how lasting the chilling effect will be,” commented Fiacconi.

"Football is a prism to understand what is going on in the world"

Challenging the direction and policies of those organisations that run the game is harder than ever, said Auclair, who highlighted how Infantino’s introduction of the Bureau of the Council now means any challenge to the FIFA presidency must come from someone within the organisation.

Norway’s outspoken president Lise Klaveness ‘stands alone’ in seeking change, said de Castro, and the solutions lie outside of the game.

“FIFA is so badly governed and resistant to change that all we can do is continue to highlight the rottenness,” said McGeehan, who suggested the European Union and Play the Game’s Clearing Sport initiative could have some impact.

Auclair suggested that the current state of football governance reflects wider political mores and that solutions should start at the national level.

“Football in late capitalism is a fabulous prism to understand what is going on in the world,” added Auclair.  “We need to question leaders of our own national associations about what they are doing.”