Explained: Has Gianni Infantino reached tipping point as opposition grows to World Cup stake plans

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has given football associations a deadline to back his plans to sell off part of FIFA to private investors.A letter has revealed there is an incentive to accept.It comes as the FA say they are deeply concerned about the proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup.Right, let's get more on this.We're joined by our chief correspondent, Carvey Solicol.Carvey, good to see you.

Just break this down for us.What is going on and why is Infantino doing this?

I mean, it is shocking how nothing is shocking anymore.I should be surprised.I'm not surprised at all.I've just come back from the World Cup in the USA, Canada, Mexico.According to FIFA, it was the most successful World Cup ever.They made more money than they know what to do with.

The stadiums were full.There were 48 teams playing in it for the first time.Fans were paying outrageous prices for tickets.Billions of people were watching it on TV.Now, Gianni Infantino and people close to him have looked at this and said, this is the future.We want more of this.

How are we going to guarantee having more of this?And one way to make sure that you have more tournaments like the tournament we've just had in the USA, Canada and Mexico is to set up a new company, a subsidiary of FIFA, which will look after all FIFA's tournaments and to invite private investors to invest in that company as well, which means that in the short term, there is going to be a big pot of money potentially available for all the 211 member associations of FIFA to share.Now, the big question is, are they going to accept what Gianni Infantino is proposing?And also, I think the interesting question is, what happens to Gianni Infantino if these plans collapse?Are we seeing a tipping point on the horizon.a lot of people in football, not just fans, not just journalists, not just pundits, not just ex -players and ex -managers, are now saying we don't like the way Gianni Infantino has been running football for a long, long time?

And could this be the tipping point towards a future for FIFA without Gianni Infantino?I wouldn't get too excited about that prospect because he's going to stand for re -election next March.And he already has the backing of more than 200 of the 211 member associations.

So with this plan, with these proposals, do you think Gianni Infantino will succeed?

I mean, you're putting me on the spot.I think there is such a groundswell of opposition to these plans that I think if I had to put money on it, I would say they're probably not going to succeed.Because it reminds me of what happened with the European Super League, where the plans were leaked, they came out, there was outrage, and pretty quickly the plans didn't come to fruition.What's interesting, of course, is that Gianni Infantino knows that everybody has a price.So what's emerged today is that FIFA have written to all the member associations of FIFA, 211 of them, and basically said to them, You have until September the 19th to accept this plan.If you accept this plan, there is going to be a pot of £7 .5 billion for us to share.

If you don't accept the plan, that pot will drop from £7 .5 billion to £2 billion.billion pounds.And he's promising them more and more and more, which comes back to the point I was making in my first answer.Have we reached the tipping point?where people say enough is enough, we don't even need all this money.I mean how many grassroots pitches can we build?

You know we've already got Cate Verde and Curacao in the World Cup, when are we going to say enough is enough?When people are paying £5 ,000 for tickets to World Cup games, well everyone seems to have accepted that.When we're going to have a 60 -14 World Cup next time around, People have accepted that.Well, fans haven't, but I think that's the direction of travel.We're having World Cups in three different continents.Are we going to have World Cups every year, every two years?

Are we going to have an expanded Club World Cup?You know, I think we're reaching the point where I think Gianni Infantino is just pushing his luck.I think most people in football, administrators, when you look at them, You think, what are they motivated by?OK, power, money, football.I think most people in football have a deep love of football.I think we've got to the stage with Gianni Infantino where the ordinary fan looks at him and says he's motivated by power, money and then football.

Football does not appear to be his main priority.That is just the general feeling of most football fans.

You said those three words, enough is enough.That's been the reaction from some FIFA member associations already, hasn't there?

Yeah, I mean, we've had a statement today from the FA, some of the confederations have come out and released statements, and I think basically what they're all saying is we're deeply concerned about what has gone on and we're disappointed about the fact that we were not consulted.How can it be that we're finding out about these plans from reading about them in the media?You see there, Mark,the Chief Executive of the FA, Debbie Hewitt, the Chair of the FA.She is a FIFA Vice President.How can we be in a situation where a FIFA Vice President has not been consulted about this?

Where she finds out about it from reading about it in the Financial Times or the Times yesterday.So these statements that we're getting today, what they say basically, all of them, is we're deeply concerned and we're disappointed that we weren't consulted and we want to look at the plans in full and then we will give you our considered response to them.I think what's interesting is so far there's six FIFA confederations.So far, UEFA have come out strongly against these plans.We've had a statement from CONCACAF, who run football in North and Central America.They appear to be against the plans as well.

And just in the last hour or so, we've had a statement from the Asian Football Confederation, who normally are rock solidly behind Gianni Infantino.They've come out and said, we're really concerned and we're also disappointed that we weren't consulted and we need to see these plans in full.So we've had statements from three of the six confederations already.And don't forget, Gianni Infantino's tried this kind of thing before.He doesn't always get what he wants.A few years ago, he tried something very, very similar involving a Japanese bank, a soft bank, and money from Saudi Arabia.

And he tried to have a World Cup every two years, and he was stopped.I think he can be stopped, but it's going to take football coming together and saying to him, enough is enough.We're not going to take this anymore.

You mentioned the other two words, tipping point, whether that could be the tipping point as far as Infantino is concerned.Could it get to the point where a load of associations say, yes, this is a tipping point.Yes, enough is enough.And we might even see a breakaway World Cup.away from what Gianni Infantino organizes.

I think a lot of people would like it.I think the World Cup is no longer the World Cup.I go to, you know, I'm privileged enough to go to a lot of major tournaments.There's a big difference between a World Cup and a European Championships.When you go to a tournament that's organized by UEFA, The first thing you notice is they're real fans at the games, and the tickets are much, much cheaper, and it's usually in one or two countries close to each other, so you can travel around and you feel like you're at a major tournament.The World Cup under Gianni Infantino, and actually before him, has become something totally different, where ordinary fans are totally priced out.

Now, everybody in football knows what Gianni Infantino is about.What they have to decide over the next 53 games days and also in the election for the FIFA president next year is if they're going to carry on supporting him.That is the big question.I think a lot of people think that FIFA would be best served by having a different president.I'm not saying that is going to happen because Gianni Infantino has a lot of support and he can carry on for as long as he wants.We've seen him change the rules before when it comes to how many terms he can serve.

So I'm not saying this is the end of Gianni Infantino but I think a lot of people around the world have seen the way he behaves, his relationship with President Trump, The fact that instead of being a football administrator, he almost sees himself as a sort of oligarch or a statesman, a world leader.And I think some people are looking at him and comparing him to somebody like Alexander Shefferin.Alexander Shefferin has got his faults, but you have to say he loves football.He has the best interest of football at heart.UEFA are very, very understanding.They, not always, but they have made some really, really controversial decisions.

You know, fans boo the Champions League anthem before games.So I'm not saying Alexander Shefferin is perfect, but I'm saying most football fans, especially in Europe, if you were given the choice of who you would have running world football, Infantino or Shefferin, I think most football fans in Europe would choose Shefferin.

Intriguing story.Carvey, thanks for now.Look, former FA Chief Executive Mark Paglios believes UEFA's influence could force an end to Infantino's proposals.

UEFA have a real card to play and that is if they don't turn up at the next World Cup, that's going to be an absolute financial disaster for FIFA in the sense that you're not going to get the sponsorships, the eyeballs and so forth and so on.If you don't have the Spains, the France, England, Germany, if you don't have those nations there then it's not going to be anything like the spectacle that it normally is and as a consequence that's the major card they have to play and I hope they do play that.I actually think that what will happen with this is that Infantino will get his consolation prize and he'll get through the vote on 64 clubs at the next World Cup.

It's typical, I think, of many actions that we've seen from large organisations in the last five, ten years.It's not surprising anymore, some of the things we saw in the World Cup.You're trying to paint a picture always that's positive about football because there's so much to love and there are great games, but then you see some of the things that happen from a governance perspective and from a leadership perspective and it falls well short of the standards that, to be fair, football fans would expect and anybody would want for the game.

Now this summer fans were hit harder than ever with sky -high ticket prices at the World Cup and Palios believes the new proposals will continue to have a negative impact on supporters.

When you looked at the way fans were treated, the way we were treated as customers in the last World Cup, they were expected to travel the length and breadth of the States and Mexico and Canada.And of course, you then got ticket prices, dynamic prices, and you then got also actually FIFA allowing a secondary market in tickets as well.So you can see there the sense that commercialization of this type and bringing in a stakeholder like this is going to really rock to the foundations.The fans in the game, the clubs in the game, forget player health because that's also an issue here in terms of the number of games you'll see because they will increase the content.

Who do we want the game to belong to?The World Cup doesn't belong to this man Infantino.The game belongs to Rodri and that great Spanish team.It belongs to football fans.It belongs to you and me.You know, it doesn't belong to venture capitalists.

You know, this is the World Cup we're talking about, the greatest prize in sport.And we're effectively allowing a bunch of venture capitalists to invest in it as if it's some ball bearing factor in Baltimore.It's not.It's the World Cup and it needs protecting.