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Why is FIFA is 'selling' the World Cup · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Global News podcast from the BBC. Hello,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm Oliver Conway and we're joined by our chief Football
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: news reporter Simon Stone to talk about that controversial FIFA
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: plan to sell steaks in the World Cup to private
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: investors and Simon, there's been a big backlash to this,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: quite a lot of criticism, not least because of the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: involvement of the wider Trump family. Before we get into
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  Speaker 1: all that, though, tell us about the plan itself.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Basically, the plan is to create a subsidiary organization to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: FIFA responsible for developing the commercial aspect of FEFA, so
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  Speaker 2: Jelly and Fontino has made it quite clear that over
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  Speaker 2: the ten years that he's been FIFA president, the commercial
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: value of the organization has increased hugely, partly or mainly,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I suppose to do with TV right for the main competitions,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously FIFA have expanded a club World Cup, so
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  Speaker 2: that's part of it. They've expanded the Women's World Cup,
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  Speaker 2: so that is also part of it. But mainly this
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  Speaker 2: is because of revenue that's generated by the World Cup,
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  Speaker 2: and the World Cup has in this cycle gone up
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  Speaker 2: to forty eight teams playing in the finals, which has
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  Speaker 2: driven commercial revenue. So basically, Gianni and Pantino feels as
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  Speaker 2: though there's more value to be made around FIFA's rights
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  Speaker 2: and therefore feels, along with many other sporting organizations, that
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  Speaker 2: the best way of tapping into that finance is to
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  Speaker 2: sell part of itself to private investors. And this is
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  Speaker 2: where we've got the brother of Donald Trump's son in law.
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  Speaker 2: His investment vehicle is listed as one of the main
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  Speaker 2: kind of protagonists who can buy into FIFA and basically
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  Speaker 2: help shape FIFA's commercial entity for the next few years.
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  Speaker 1: And tell us in more detail about how this could
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  Speaker 1: affect the game, the game in Europe and the game
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  Speaker 1: and the rest of the world.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the whole idea feels quite complicated. But the
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  Speaker 2: issue around that is, once you allow private equity into
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  Speaker 2: any organization, then the idea is to maximize income. The
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  Speaker 2: way of maximizing income, if we're going to be broadly
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  Speaker 2: kind of speaking about FIFA, is to have a bigger
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: World Cup, more often the club World Cup, bigger more
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  Speaker 2: often men's and women's.
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  Speaker 3: But clearly we already have a situation at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Where the players, the leagues, the associations are screaming about
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  Speaker 2: the lack of lack of space in the calendar for
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  Speaker 2: the traditional competitions that everyone values in every country. I suppose, well,
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  Speaker 2: if you suddenly have a bigger World Cup more often, well,
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  Speaker 2: where is the space going to be for that to
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  Speaker 2: be played? And almost what has got to give to
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  Speaker 2: allow it to happen, Because, for instance, in England the
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  Speaker 2: Premier League, you're not going to say, yeah, FIFA, you
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: can have your your competition that will develop, will will
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  Speaker 2: generate money globally, and what we'll do in return is
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  Speaker 2: reduce our competition to our clubs get less so we
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: have less money to distribute to the English game.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: That's not going to happen.
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  Speaker 2: The League Cup, for instance, that competition generates most of
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  Speaker 2: the football leagues and that's an institution that's been going
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: for over well million, one hundred and fifty years, so
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  Speaker 2: that's not going to give either. So I think the
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  Speaker 2: main issue is where does the space come from to
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  Speaker 2: hold these tournaments that people generally feel will be an
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  Speaker 2: inevitable consequence of what FIFA is announcing now.
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  Speaker 1: The latest report suggests that Johanni Infantino has given countries
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  Speaker 1: around the world a deadline of less than two months
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  Speaker 1: to sign up for this or or miss out on
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  Speaker 1: some of the money. Are nations likely to turn down
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  Speaker 1: the prospect of extra cash?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're playing a numbers game here.
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  Speaker 2: So there are two hundred and eleven member associations in
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  Speaker 2: FIFA and this is a straight majority to pass this,
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  Speaker 2: and you're right. The deadline is the nineteenth of September,
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  Speaker 2: so that's just an there under two months to decide
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: whether to accept what is essentially a payment of twenty
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  Speaker 2: million dollars that will be paid by the first of January,
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  Speaker 2: and then a further twenty million dollars that will be.
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  Speaker 3: Paid after that.
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  Speaker 2: Now, for many associations or some associations in FIFA, twenty
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  Speaker 2: million dollars is really not that much, so the FA
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  Speaker 2: in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, USA, maybe most countries, twenty
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  Speaker 2: million dollars is not that much, but for a lot
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  Speaker 2: of countries it dwarfs the amount of money that they
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  Speaker 2: make from football. Basically that if you're in Papua New Guinea,
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  Speaker 2: you don't, you know, not selling media rights, global media
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  Speaker 2: rights for a billion pounds in the way that the
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  Speaker 2: Premier League does. So the numbers game falls to whether
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  Speaker 2: there are enough countries and enough confederations who think, actually
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  Speaker 2: it's a good idea to spread the money that's in
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  Speaker 2: the game more globally, so everybody gets a share, everybody benefits.
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  Speaker 2: There's a secondary element to it, which is how the
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  Speaker 2: FIFA know how this money is going to be spent,
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  Speaker 2: because they say it's for the development of the game.
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  Speaker 2: For who is going to be across how this money
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  Speaker 2: is going to be spent. But if there are enough
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  Speaker 2: countries who decide that's in their interests and in fairness,
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  Speaker 2: there's already the Czech Republic are already coming out and
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  Speaker 2: saying they think it's a good idea and take republica
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  Speaker 2: clearly from UEFA. UEFA having a meeting tomorrow to discuss
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  Speaker 2: their reaction, but they've already said it's step too far.
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  Speaker 2: That is the organization that's got globally the leagues that
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  Speaker 2: generate the most television revenue. So if one of those
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  Speaker 2: countries is already speaking in favor, you can imagine that
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  Speaker 2: there may be a number of smaller countries or countries
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  Speaker 2: with less developed football infrastructure in different parts of the
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  Speaker 2: world who will definitely think it's a good idea. And then,
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  Speaker 2: as I say it becomes a numbers game.
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  Speaker 1: Conversely, the confederation conquered calf and also the one in
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  Speaker 1: Asia have expressed reservations about this. Is that more about
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  Speaker 1: the process than the idea itself.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that's a good word that you use there,
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  Speaker 3: and it's a word that's coming up quite a lot. Process.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting really because we've seen during the World Cup
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  Speaker 2: the relationship between Jianni and Fantino, the fief president and
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  Speaker 2: also the United States President Donald Trump. And I referred
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  Speaker 2: before to the brother of Donald Trump's son in law
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  Speaker 2: being part of this kind of grand plan. But we're
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  Speaker 2: used to as well that people who cover politics in
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  Speaker 2: the United States saying that Donald Trump is a president
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  Speaker 2: who acts in a way that presidents just don't act
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  Speaker 2: and therefore convention no longer applies. Well, in this instance,
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  Speaker 2: you could argue that Janny and Fantino has done exactly
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  Speaker 2: the same thing, because there is a process.
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  Speaker 3: The process is that someone comes forward with an idea.
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  Speaker 2: This then gets communicated to the confederations and the FEEFA Council,
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  Speaker 2: and then those confederations go away to discuss it with
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  Speaker 2: their national associations who are part of the confederation. Then
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  Speaker 2: they come back and decide on mass whether or not
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  Speaker 2: it's a good idea or not. It feels as though
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  Speaker 2: in this instance, Gianna and Fantino has ridden rushshot over
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  Speaker 2: all that convention, because numerous people that I've spoken to
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  Speaker 2: have said the first they knew about it was when
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  Speaker 2: the press release landed all the reports started to emerge,
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  Speaker 2: you know, an hour or two before that. So broader terms,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know whether what con CAF is saying. And
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  Speaker 2: bearing in mind, they've got some big associations the United States,
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  Speaker 2: Canada and Mexico have just held the World Cup, but
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  Speaker 2: they've also got a lot of smaller countries who would
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  Speaker 2: certainly fit into the category of being a country that
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  Speaker 2: doesn't really generate huge amounts from its domestic football. We've
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  Speaker 2: got Comnon the Ball, who have the ten South American
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  Speaker 2: nations UA for Asia with a huge number of members,
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  Speaker 2: big and small. It's whether they are really annoyed over
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  Speaker 2: the fact that they've not been consulted and it's a
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  Speaker 2: slide against them, or it's whether they're really annoyed about
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  Speaker 2: the proposal itself and they're going to try and do
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  Speaker 2: something about it. Because ultimately it's difficult to know what
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  Speaker 2: you can do about it without basically threatening to boycott
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  Speaker 2: PIFAs competitions.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Our chief football News reporter, Simon Stone.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear more from the Global News podcast,
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  Speaker 1: click the link below, but thanks for watching.