World Cup 2026: Page 174 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

World Cup 2026

daredevil

So if he has an interest in developing the game at the grass roots level in undeveloped nations - which alternative organisation should he work for to achieve that objective?

You're shockingly incapable of being able to differentiate between the roles and accountabilities that exist within an organisation and a regulatory one at that. Why you feel compelled to paint every FIFA member with Infantino's brush is beyond me.

What corruption are you aware of that Wenger has personally overseen in his role as head of global development? We already cleared earlier that you don't actually know, so why you're determined to continue criticising him, I have no idea.

How does investing in grassroots infrastructure, building academies and coaching development programmes across the world be bullshit? How is that not a positive development?

I don't doubt that he maybe financially motivated - who the hell isn't - but again I suspect your expectations aren't aligning with reality. I love the man but I've never pedestalised him, but I've noted a lot of people going sour on him because they did.

awooga83

daredevil I can assure you I never pedastalled Wenger either. I think he showed some pretty poor traits at the end of his time with us but he's a human being he's good and bad line anyone.

My problem is if you say, as he did, that integrity and transparency are important to you, that is inconsistent with working at FIFA which has neither if those attributes. It's similar to me with Southgate at England, he made a big point about eggs stand up for diversity we'll always stand up for it until it became a problem in Qatar and they were told they can't and it became we just want to focus on football.

It's very easy to say you believe it stand for things when everything is fine, the real test is what du you do when there is a threat to you do you still stand for them. People will do what they want but spare me that they still believe in those things because when it counted they didn't. If you don't pretend to be this way I think people will care less but go on the record saying it matters and people will say you're a hypocrite.

Do you think FIFA is an organisation that acts with integrity and transparency then?

awooga83

daredevil What corruption are you aware of that Wenger has personally overseen in his role as head of global development? We already cleared earlier that you don't actually know, so why you're determined to continue criticising him, I have no idea.

He works at FIFA that are undeniably corrupt, he said that integrity and transparency are important. Nobody can be unaware that it's not what FIFA are. If you say that matters and the organisation your work for actively works against that I think you are a hypocrite and I don't believe that you care about those issues. So I would say host don't say anything and take the money as you've been doing rather then make such stupid statements.

awooga83

Rohit if you are a public figure and make public statements about things you believe in that aren't consistent with what your doing you can work where the want but people can say your full of shit and you should probably not make those types of statements because they are dishonest.

RowJimmy

FIFA is a deeply corrupt organization, working for it is compromising. It's also more or less unavoidable.
Should FAs refuse to take FIFA's money because it's dirty?
Should they refuse to participate in the WC because it the engine that drives the corruption?
I'd love to see a boycott that brought FIFA down but I don't think it's going to happen.

Claudius

FIFA is just like any large bureaucracy. They have a positive mission that attracts lots of people who are enthusiastic about football. I have friends who have worked there many years who have done good work. But it’s a bureaucracy that wields a lot of power. It has leverage over affiliates, and naturally bad actors abuse that leverage. We could get rid of Infantino and find ourselves in the same place.

The other thing about corruption is that it’s not a one way street. It requires willing or proactive actors on the other side of the transaction. Most recent World Cup hosts, including Germany, Qatar, Russia have been involved in dodgy deals. Saudi, USA also clearly corrupting - because all these countries value the prize. And they all have access to way more money than any of these fifa bureaucrats earn. A clean fifa is a pipe dream

awooga83

Claudius that's the thing about corruption it's taints everybody innocent or otherwise when it is present.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/05/gianni-infantino-scrambling-for-his-future-in-morocco-with-colombia-next

It was obvious he'd never have the integrity to refect and step down, he's a Trump like character who never will be held accountable for his actions. Nobody can claim ignorance as to what he is.

Burnwinter

Well, it's not down to Infantino, we can say that much.

For what it's worth Arsenal probably wouldn't be league champions if not for the introduction of FFP during Infantino's tenure leading UEFA.

All these organisations that administer top-flight football have complex incentives brought about by trying to maximise profits from the sport. Maximising those profits is not maximising football values. The hydration breaks at the World Cup just gone exemplify this: they degrade football as an event, but they make advertisers more money.

There are a multitude of these extractive detriments going on in football. Most of them are more subtle, matters such as sportswashing, clubs running cover for talented rapists, media outlets monetising refereeing controversies. The sport is structured by entrenched club advantages, but as Arsenal fans we don't complain.

How could there be reform at FIFA without overturning some of these conditions in an implausible way or even a way I wouldn't want? Some unlikely global fan movement to take back football? Football has obtained the administrators we deserve as fans, and complicity with FIFA begins in the stands and on the sofa.

awooga83

Burnwinter the other issues you raise I also disagree with I don't take a it's my club so I defend it I take a position based on my own view of those things and would really condemn them.

I mean your point about fans you can make but by the same token Wenger then it's absolutely complicity and to a much higher degree which was what the original point was about.

As for widespread complicity then that surely applies to any bad thing in the world for all of us by that logic because we are participating in the societies that are enabling and tolerating them. So cannot hold a position that this or that thing is wrong?

An ordinary person faces difficult choices with having to work as make minor decisions they won't change the world that's all you do. But a wealthy public figure has a lot more power and freedom to see through their own beliefs, if in fact they hold them. The financial aspect that constrains a lot of people isn't really present.

Burnwinter

awooga83 the other issues you raise I also disagree with I don't take a it's my club so I defend it I take a position based on my own view of those things and would really condemn them

Would you condemn the structural financial advantages Arsenal has that push the club we support towards the top of the Premier League each season?

If you go into specifics about the corruption and complicity you're on about, you won't get far before you hit some sort of inconsistency in your thinking. Nor would I ...

awooga83

Burnwinter yeah I probably would the modern structure of football is not something I think is good and if I had that information and you could start out I would advocate a different way for football. You can't if often change the world but you can take individual acting that reflect what your underlying beliefs are. Wealth often gives you greater freedom to do what you want in a way an ordinary person may be but be able.

Burnwinter

awooga83 if I had that information and you could start out I would advocate a different way

This is how the complicity you're shouting about works though. Under different circumstances with a clean slate, I'd do something different. That's what Wenger tells himself about FIFA ... not just Wenger, probably Infantino as well. The problems with the organisation are evident but the re-organisational program isn't obvious.

awooga83

Burnwinter well I meant the foundation of modern prem. I certainly wouldn't work for the guys corrupting things but I know for some people they are happy to do that as well. Wenger used to rant about the evils of money in football when he was with us was that all rubbish? We shouldn't have been critical because that's just the reality of things.

Burnwinter

awooga83 Wenger used to rant about the evils of money in football when he was with us was that all rubbish?

I did just point this out: Infantino implemented FFP while he was head of UEFA and back when Wenger used to deliver those rants.

But how far to go with the "evils of money in football" when you're Arsenal? Clearly money's only evil for us when considering the small handful of clubs that have more … and that's exactly how Wenger used to criticise "financial doping" as well.

Let's say the Premier League underwent a grand transformation to a system of supporter-owned clubs. I'd support it, I'd probably even go in to fund Arsenal existing somehow. But it would lead to an immediate exodus of top football players from England for more money elsewhere.

I'm not having a pop at you but having worked for decades with the problems of getting large numbers of people to administrate some social object for its collective betterment, I've found some cases that appear corrupt or incompetent are no more than symptomatic of the inherent difficulty of the terrain of administration. After all there's no way to make FIFA a homogeneous and simple organisation, no more than you can the UN.

Meatwad

Burnwinter
he wasn't head/president of UEFA, he was general secretary. his successor is some greek guy.

awooga83

Burnwinter then Wenger is a hypocrite and not particularly a good guy? Don't sit on a soap box saying you care about this stuff but when you are in a position to do something you actually don't care or go along with the awful things. This is able an individual deciding what they want to do for me. I don't have to just say he's great because he was the former Arsenal manager.

Burnwinter

Meatwad Fair enough, but Infantino did take the credit for implementing FFP while he was in the uppermost echelons of UEFA, so it's the same point.

Mirth

Burnwinter

awooga83 I don't have to just say he's great because he was the former Arsenal manager.

You don't have to do anything.

Look, Infantino has just dropped his Bond villain plan to sell the World Cup, which everyone except a precocious few thinks was a terrible idea. With any luck the ongoing infighting will lead to him resigning.

Your charge has been that Wenger, as a FIFA executive, is complicit in this terrible idea, or at least in the ambient corruption whence it emerged.

I would've thought you'd have come up with some evidence about Wenger a bit more damning than the biennial schedule thought bubble.

awooga83

Burnwinter

I know I don't have to do anything it's just lots of the position seemed to be defending Wenger because of his links to Arsenal whereas we are happy to dismiss any other manager for making a stand if they are from a different club but I don't like to operate that way.

I think that's probably my miss articulation of my issue then. Fifa are a shit organisation who are doing numerous shitty things. Whist he may not have known this particular shitty thing he must know that's what they are going to continue to do so if he chooses to remain there and doesn't publicly stand against these things he is complicit in my view. He may not know next corrupt scheme will be but you can be certain there will be one. Infantino should be opposed by anyone who would stand for the good of football. Wenger says he believes in integrity and transparency I don't think these are compatible with FIFA as an organisation so what can I conclude? That he actually doesn't care about those things but just says he does because it sounds good.

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