"It's not today, it's not here." That was Gianni Infantino's answer when asked whether he regrets the last six weeks — which is a polished way of saying he'd rather not talk about one of the most embarrassing retreats in FIFA's recent history.
The FIFA president attended the opening match of the Under-20 Women's World Cup in Katowice on Saturday — the first tournament FIFA has hosted since abandoning his plan to sell a stake in the commercial rights of the World Cup and other FIFA competitions. The package was valued at $20 billion. It died in late July under a wall of opposition, with UEFA leading the boycott threats and several other regional governing bodies following suit.
The plan that fell apart
The backlash was blunt. Europe's governing body called the proposal a threat to the structure of the game. Infantino's FIFA fired back on Thursday, accusing UEFA of running a smear campaign and suggesting their opposition was really about protecting European football's grip on global power. Neither side sounds like they're about to shake hands.
In Katowice, Infantino kept things warm and vague. He talked about opportunity, dignity, giving every corner of the world a chance. Classic Infantino register — expansive enough to mean anything, specific enough to mean nothing.
He was flanked by Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom and refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin — who had previously ruled out challenging Infantino in the March presidential election — didn't show up.
An eye on the election
That election shapes everything here. Infantino's positioning is already visible: he frames himself as the man redistributing wealth to smaller nations, the administrator who levels the playing field against European dominance. It's a coherent platform, and it'll likely work in the 2025 vote given where FIFA's broader membership sits.
But the $20 billion proposal has complicated that image. The plan was meant to fund development. Instead it handed his critics the clearest argument they've had in years that FIFA's commercial ambitions outrun its governance.
"There will be a right place and a right time to say this," he promised. The March election probably just became that place.
