The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has come in for heavy criticism from his predecessor, Sepp Blatter, and the La Liga president, Javier Tebas, with the pair united in the belief that he should stand down.<\/p>\n
As Spain celebrated their World Cup win on Sunday, Tebas accused Infantino of \u201cdestroying the \u00adfootball industry\u201d by \u00adprioritising the World Cup over national \u00adcompetitions. He claimed \u201chis time is up\u201d. Blatter has called for \u201cfans, players and national associations to reclaim football and bring it back to its roots under new leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tebas is particularly opposed to the Fifa presi\u00addent\u2019s enthusiasm for expanding the 2030 tournament to 64 teams from 48. \u201cIncreasing the number of national teams makes no sense,\u201d Tebas told Italy\u2019s La Gazzetta dello Sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe football \u00adindustry is not just the World Cup. Not \u00adeverything can revolve around the World Cup. It is national competitions that support this sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [Fifa] are destroying the football industry, which generates tens of thousands of jobs, for an event that lasts 40 days and involves a minority of \u00adplayers. We need fewer national teams and more protection for national football, at all levels. They don\u2019t realise they are making irresponsible decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tebas believes Infantino should resign, although he admits he finds it hard to envisage such a scenario. \u201cHe has the support of the system, of the federations. There is no opposition candidate, nobody wants to stand just to lose. It is a \u00adsystem \u00adrotten at its core.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 10 years at Fifa\u2019s helm, \u00adInfantino is poised to be re\u2011elected for a fourth term in March, \u00adpotentially standing unopposed for the third time in a row, but Tebas believed the Swiss was a World Cup win away from being forced out. He argues that had the USA defeated Belgium in their last\u201116 game Infantino might been mired in an unrecoverable scandal.<\/p>\n
The USA striker Folarin Balogun had a one-match ban suspended by the Fifa \u00addisciplinary committee, facilitating his involvement against \u00adBelgium. The decision was taken after a phone call made to Infantino by Donald Trump. Infantino said the \u00addecision to overturn Balogun\u2019s ban was made \u00adindependently by its disciplinary committee \u201cbased on the applicable regulations and the specific facts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tebas said: \u201cThe suspension of the American player\u2019s ban was absolutely serious. They were lucky Belgium eliminated the USA because a case could have arisen that might have cost Infantino his job. Since Belgium won they were able to bury the \u00admatter. But these things are just the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blatter, a controversial figure during his tenure as Fifa president, appears to regard the Balogun case as a tipping point. \u201cThe longest World Cup has come to an end with the right champions,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cBut on the way to the final whistle, the \u00adtournament lost its credibility. Politics must not be allowed to overshadow the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tebas feels much the same about hydration breaks and extended half\u2011time intervals. \u201cFifa arranges things as it wants, for what it wants, for its own \u00adinterests, certainly not football,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if they need a 27-\u00adminute half-time break, they\u2019ll have it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydration breaks are a lie. We have them in La Liga, but when it\u2019s genuinely hot. The pitches in Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta had air conditioning; I had to put a jumper on in the stands. It was a lie, a break for advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifa has been approached for comment. \u2014 Guardian<\/p>\n
World Cup Wallchart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has come in for heavy criticism from his predecessor, Sepp Blatter, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2956,42,43,40,38,41,39,4018],"class_list":["post-561794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fifa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}