Nick McGeehan

Substitute: FIFA not fit to govern world football, external reform essential to prevent future harm A major new report from FairSquare, published today, identifies serious structural flaws within FIFA, football’s global governing body, that have resulted in the organisation contributing to a wide ra...

Infantino is a symptom of the problem.
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FIFA is unfit to govern world football.
FIFA is unfit to govern world football.
FIFA is unfit to govern world football.
FIFA is unfit to govern world football.
FIFA is unfit to govern world football.
fairsq.org/substitute-r...

Gianni Infantino - "The Emperor of Football" As FIFA President Gianni Infantino strengthens his ties with the Trump family and other global autocrats, this question needs answering; Is now the time for FIFA Reform 2.0?

As FIFA President Gianni Infantino strengthens his ties with the Trump family and other global autocrats, this question needs answering; Is now the time for FIFA Reform 2.0?

Our latest substack long read.

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open.substack.com/pub/thepitch...

Trump and Infantino's bond shapes a 'MAGA' World Cup Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino agreed to hold the World Cup draw in Washington, D.C.

It's the "MAGA-FIFA World Cup", Infantino has said he supports Trump's agenda, and Trump may be awarded a new FIFA Peace Prize.

Why all this fawning?

Well one plausible explanation is that Trump knows the World Cup is a complete swindle.

A mini 🧵 to explain..

apnews.com/article/dona...

FIFA awarding Donald Trump a "peace prize" is an insult to every supporter/player/coach of the beautiful game who actually believes in justice and humanity.

Why won't LA28 support LA's immigrants? "An Olympics and Paralympics security plan that gives control to a federal administration that is already attacking immigrants in our city and across the nation puts our entire community at risk"

During the past six months, virtually every civic organization in Southern California has put out a statement denouncing ICE activity. Yet LA28, the private nonprofit that serves as LA's Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, and aspires to be a civic organization, has said nothing

Beyond parody

We reject the disastrous "climate change" and "Net Zero" ideologies that have so greatly harmed Europe, threaten the United States, and subsidize our adversaries.

This is how we all die.

Speaking as a former immigrant married to an immigrant (both NHS employees) I'm particularly revolted that a Labour MP is using protection of the service I work for to spread racist narratives about immigrants.

They’re killing people as a twitter joke. It’s depraved. Can’t let yourself lose the capacity to be appalled and disgusted and outraged by this.

If we want fascism to end in America, people like Alex Karp have to go to prison forever and palentir must be destroyed their databases erased, and its tools destroyed.

Anyone in a high level at the company must go to prison as well. This is bare minimum stuff for rebuilding democracy at some point

Great scoop from Daniel Boffey includes revelation that FIFA will formally institute the peace prize committee after it awards the first prize tomorrow. Is anyone within FIFA going to object to this procedural free-styling? Probably not

Revealed: Myanmar junta ‘crony’ given key role behind Fifa peace prize Inaugural prize expected to be handed to Donald Trump but ‘process’ for choosing future winners to be proposed by controversial tycoon’s committee It was the timing that set off the first alarm bells. With Donald Trump brooding over missing out on the Nobel peace prize, and shortly before Gianni Infantino, the president of world football’s governing body, Fifa, was due to meet the US president in Miami, an announcement was made. In a press release and a post on his personal Instagram account last month, Infantino said Fifa would launch its very own peace prize, to be awarded each year to “individuals who help unite people in peace through unwavering commitment and special actions”. Continue reading...

Revealed: Myanmar junta ‘crony’ given key role behind Fifa peace prize

Algerian court increases jail time for French journalist convicted of 'terrorism' A court in Tizi Ouzou, in eastern Algeria, on Wednesday announced a ten-year sentence in the appeal trial of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, accused among other things of "glorifying terr...

Awful, awful news from Algeria. The French government must act now, and we journalists must put pressure to ensure it does. @liberation.fr @lemonde.fr @lefigaro.fr @franceinter.fr @leparisien.fr

www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20...

US: ICE Arrest at FIFA Event Spotlights Dangers for World Cup The arrest and return of an asylum seeker who took his children to the Club World Cup soccer tournament final on July 13, 2025, raises serious concerns about the safety of noncitizens attending the 20...

@hrw.org has documented the case of a man who was arrested at the final of the FIFA Club World Cup, which he had been attending with his young sons, and deported. www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

Elon Musk X @elonmusk• 10h X If current trends continue, Whites will go from being a small minority of world population today to virtually extinct! Wall Street Apes & @WallStreetAp... • 13h White people are on the verge of extinction Global population of white people: 100 years ago roughly 35% 50 years ago roughly 20% 25 years ago 15% Today just 8% White people are the minorities and must take their countries back. No more tolerance. No more suicidal empathy

it should probably be a bigger story that the richest man on earth and leading Republican is a fucking Nazi

media needs to stop beating around the bush. this is Nazi shit.

a man in a purple suit and white shirt says that 's my offer ALT: a man in a purple suit and white shirt says that 's my offer

Are you an opinion page editor looking for a piece on why this will be the worst World Cup in history?

Let me know! I have an English language piece ready to go! Also available for translation into all languages but Swedish!

In Lebanon. Can hear the Israeli drone constantly now. I’ve only been back for a day but folks here deal with it 24/7, for months. It’s psychological torture. You can even see it, just flying around. The Israelis want to let everyone know that they can kill whoever they want whenever they want.

Substitute: FIFA not fit to govern world football, external reform essential to prevent future harm A major new report from FairSquare, published today, identifies serious structural flaws within FIFA, football’s global governing body, that have resulted in the organisation contributing to a wide ra...

4/ So Trump has leverage over Infantino - the power to grant or deny millions in tax exemptions. And Trump has been known to extract a very high price from people and organisations over whom he has leverage. For more info on how FIFA operates see @fairsq.bsky.social report fairsq.org/substitute-r...

3/ On top of taking ALL the revenue, FIFA demands tax exemptions from hosts, and in the bidding process for 2026, President Trump granted FIFA full exemptions on all this revenue. Of course Trump being Trump, he could reverse this decision at any moment.

2/ Men's World Cups are very expensive for host governments, which spend billions, and very lucrative for FIFA, which makes billions. See the basic business model below (courtesy of @sdwolfe.bsky.social, Martin Müller and David Gogishvili).

The USA will pay for the party and suffer the hangover.

Trump and Infantino's bond shapes a 'MAGA' World Cup Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino agreed to hold the World Cup draw in Washington, D.C.

It's the "MAGA-FIFA World Cup", Infantino has said he supports Trump's agenda, and Trump may be awarded a new FIFA Peace Prize.

Why all this fawning?

Well one plausible explanation is that Trump knows the World Cup is a complete swindle.

A mini 🧵 to explain..

apnews.com/article/dona...

We kept the receipts. These comments, taken together, paint a picture of the man he is today.

Shame on everyone who made this happen. Also, Woodcraft Folk forever.

When the World Cup Became America First By aligning with FIFA and steering preparations, Donald Trump has turned football’s global spectacle into a tool for his MAGA vision.

The World Cup will be marketed as a celebration of football. But at its core, it is a political pact: Infantino’s empire depends on Trump’s blessing, and Trump’s nationalist project finds the perfect megaphone in Infantino’s FIFA.

www.sportspolitika.news/p/trump-fifa...

Excellent piece 👏

I thought I could not be shocked by what prominent transphobes feel able to say about me. Turns out I was wrong.

Here is Richard Dunstan, a prominent commentator closely associated with the Sex Matters charity, speculating that I enjoyed being sexually assaulted as a child.

Human Rights Watch questions FIFA over ‘Peace Prize’, receives no response On November 5, FIFA announced that the organisation would introduce a new award entitled “FIFA Peace Prize — Football Unites the World”.

So many unanswered questions about the FIFA Peace Prize. @hrw.org asking very important questions about who will adjudicate and on what criteria, and @adamcrafton.bsky.social reports that the FIFA Council was not consulted on the institution of the prize. www.nytimes.com/athletic/685...

Oh

Conservatives Promote JCB's 'Revolutionary' Pothole Machine While Taking Millions of Pounds in Donations from the Company Senior Conservatives have repeatedly promoted a pothole repair machine made by a company which has donated huge sums to the party and its MPs

Jonathan Gullis defects to Reform saying his former party has "lost touch with the people it was meant to serve".

He should know. When he was in Government he took a five-figure donation from JCB, then stayed silent when it axed hundreds of his constituents' jobs just two weeks later

My bro-in-law and nephew are Rangers fans. But with the exception of those two (actually maybe just my nephew) yes they are.