{"id":552399,"date":"2026-07-21T14:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/552399\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:16:16","slug":"la-liga-chief-claims-fifa-is-destroying-football-industry-and-calls-for-infantino-to-quit-gianni-infantino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/552399\/","title":{"rendered":"La Liga chief claims Fifa is \u2018destroying football industry\u2019 and calls for Infantino to quit | Gianni Infantino"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Liga\u2019s president, Javier Tebas, has accused Fifa of \u201cdestroying the football industry\u201d and called for its president, Gianni Infantino, to quit. Tebas spoke out as the dust settled on the 2026 World Cup with suggestions that the 2030 tournament could be increased from 48 to 64 teams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasing the number of national teams makes no sense,\u201d Tebas said in an interview <\/a>with the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. \u201cThe football industry is not just the World Cup, which is the most important event. Not everything can revolve around the World Cup. It is national competitions that support this sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are destroying the football industry, which generates tens of thousands of jobs, for an event that lasts 40 days and involves a minority of players. 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 said Infantino should leave his position. \u201cHis time is up. However, he has the support of the system, of the federations, so there is not much more to add, is there?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no opposition candidate, nobody wants to stand just to lose. This is the system and it is a system rotten at its core.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese past few days here in America I have heard many people who are against Infantino, who disagree with what he does. They say it, but then they do nothing. I don\u2019t know if silence or complicity is worse, because those who are silent are perfectly aware of the damage football is suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino has been a controversial figure during his 10 years as Fifa president. He is poised to be re-elected<\/a> for a fourth term in Fifa\u2019s March 2027 congress, although Tebas believes Infantino might have been brought down by the Folarin Balogun affair if the USA had beaten Belgium in their World Cup last-16 tie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Scandal-proof:Scandal-proof: why Infantino’s Fifa power can’t be touched \u2013 video<\/p>\n

The USA striker\u2019s one-match ban was suspended by Fifa\u2019s disciplinary committee, allowing him to play against Belgium, after a phone call to Infantino from Donald Trump<\/a>. Infantino said the decision to revoke Balogun\u2019s ban was taken independently by the 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 managed to bury the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut these things are just the tip of the iceberg. Fifa arranges things as it wants, for what it wants, for its own interests, certainly not for football. So, if they need a 27-minute half-time break<\/a>, they\u2019ll have it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHydration breaks are a lie. We have them in La Liga<\/a>, but when it\u2019s genuinely hot. Here, the pitches in Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta had air conditioning; I had to put on a jumper in the stands. It was a lie, a break for advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifa has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Liga\u2019s president, Javier Tebas, has accused Fifa of \u201cdestroying the football industry\u201d and called for its president,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-552399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}