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Posted by dickfickling 3 hours ago

UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions(www.uefa.com)
491 points | 299 commentspage 3
mgianluc76 2 hours ago|
Good calls. Honestly, the last World Cup already had way too many unwatchable matches before the quarterfinals. And the hydration pauses to sell more ads. And that halftime show during the final.
padjo 45 seconds ago||
Yeah it was a disaster really.
jimbokun 2 hours ago||
It was incredibly entertaining and I watched as many games as I could.
paxys 2 hours ago||
Football/soccer is one place where Europe can easily flex their muscles against American capitalism and corruption. Good on them for saying it loud and clear.
tremon 1 hour ago||
I'm not convinced. There's plenty of large clubs in Europe owned by foreign capital and those clubs have already tried to push a pan-European league for themselves. I can see the FIFA using those teams as leverage to gain a foothold in Europe without UEFA.

* e.g. Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Paris SG, AC Milan and Inter Milan -- in Spain, individual clubs can't be owned by private equity but the La Liga corporation is)

jimbob45 2 hours ago||
This is a joke, right? I can’t think of any league as blatantly corrupt as FIFA on any level.
jotajota24 2 hours ago||
What are you on about? FIFA is not a league and certainly not in charge of european football
einrealist 2 hours ago||
Yes, but isn't football already overly commercialised? Why is advertising for sports betting or alcohol any better than the FIFA issue? UEFA should take a look at itself, too.
jimbokun 2 hours ago|
You can be against more than one thing.
blahblaher 3 hours ago||
Good to see some "balls" can still be found
scaredreally 3 hours ago||
ELI5? What are the factors and implications?
jimbokun 2 hours ago||
FIFA made ludicrous amounts of money as a non profit running the last World Cup and want to transition to a for profit corporation to make even more.

UEFA representing the European nations with the most competitive teams and many of the biggest stars, just told them good luck running a World Cup without us.

xenospn 3 hours ago||
There is no World Cup without UEFA.
coffeebeqn 3 hours ago|||
UEFA is Europe basically. So like the nexus of modern football
ahartmetz 2 hours ago||
7/10 of the currently top ranked national teams are UEFA members.
overfeed 2 hours ago||
UEFA's reach affects the remaining 3/10 and beyond. Nearly the same fraction of world cup players (68%) earn their livelihoods playing for European league teams- including many players representing non-European countries at the World Cup.
xxs 1 hour ago|||
An even funnier fact is that players who play for clubs in Europe (UEFA) won't be allowed to represent their countries.
j45 1 hour ago||
I wonder if this might lead to UEFA and othe similar orgs simply banding together to create their own FIFA.
whateveracct 2 hours ago||
CONCACAF too
t0mpr1c3 2 hours ago|
Right, IIRC they basically banned everybody in Trinidad from FIFA and relocated the HQ.

It didn't help that Chuck Blazer just looked like a pedophile. Not sure if it's a coincidence that he lived in Trump tower. He had two apartments there, one for his cats.

rsynnott 2 hours ago||
Okay, got to admit I did _not_ have “Trump breaks the World Cup” on my bingo card.
verdverm 2 hours ago||
E is for everything TTD
baggachipz 1 hour ago||
I mean he breaks everything, so....
ratelimitsteve 1 hour ago||
like so many corrupt organizations lately, FIFA has been getting away with it for a long time and they overplayed their hand. this was a long time coming and i'm really glad to see it.
baalimago 3 hours ago|
It seems like Europe, yet again, have to stand up for ethics, morality and try to deflect corruption. It's so tiresome.
hdgvhicv 3 hours ago||
It’s standing up for football. Far more important.
t0mpr1c3 2 hours ago|||
This is UEFA we are talking about.

Remember that when (FIFA president) Blatter was investigated for corruption, (UEFA president) Platini was also banned.

tremon 1 hour ago||
...and Infantino was the UEFA secretary under Platini before taking Blatter's place as head of FIFA.
t0mpr1c3 1 hour ago||
It's almost like you cut the head off a snake, and it grows back a slimier and more poisonous head.
cccbbbaaa 3 hours ago|||
Well, FIFA is also an European organization. Swiss, to be exact.
dgellow 2 hours ago|||
It’s located in Switzerland, but it’s a global organization and has really close ties with the US president
Carbon1603 2 hours ago||||
You don't understand, good things come from the EU, bad things come from those filthy non-EU Europeans.
Barrin92 1 hour ago||
International companies and institutions parking their money in Switzerland genuinely have as much to do with Europe as Russian Oligarchs in London have with the United Kingdom. The country's always been a financial haven for oligarchs, it doesn't tell you much about the rest of the continent.

Infantino who seems to oscillate between Qatar and Switzerland I assume has a rather strenuous connection to the rest of Europe

secretsatan 2 hours ago|||
Sorry to be a pedant, while switzerland is in the european landmass, it is not a member of the EU.
triceratops 2 hours ago||
Sorry to be a pedant too but no one said EU.
javier2 3 hours ago|||
Maybe. But we take football quite seriously.
jkingsbery 3 hours ago||
Isn't Infantino European?
efdee 3 hours ago||
Swiss.
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