Nobody asked us
Nobody ever asks us, and that ends now.
Reform FIFA launches today to organise the people who love football into a force FIFA can't ignore.
This is not a reaction to one bad week. It is a response to a World Cup that laid FIFA's failures bare, and to ten years in which the organisation has accumulated power while shutting supporters out.
On Tuesday, FIFA announced plans for a $20bn company that would control the World Cup's commercial operations and sell a minority stake to private investors. By Saturday morning, the plan was dead.
Good. The World Cup should never have been on the market.
For once, the old boys' network stood up. UEFA's 55 associations voted to boycott FIFA competitions for as long as the plan stood. CONCACAF and the AFC refused it. The Times counted 137 of 211 associations opposed. Carlos Cordeiro, senior adviser to Gianni Infantino and former president of US Soccer, resigned, calling it "a bad deal for football".
We got lucky. But where have they been? A made-up peace prize. Exorbitant ticket prices, with pricing practices now under subpoena from two attorneys general. A World Cup referee deported. Fans and players treated differently depending on their passport. A red card ban set aside after a presidential phone call. None of it crossed the line. Selling the game did, because this time the cost to them was a loss of power.
The one thing not being reported or discussed enough: investors don't hand over billions without expecting a very large return. FIFA has one source of money: us. Without us the cash flow disappears. Tickets, streaming subscriptions, TV rights, kits and sponsorship all dry up. And still, the most senior people in football never once thought of asking supporters for their sign-off.
Why? Because they never have. It is simply not part of FIFA's DNA.
FIFA calls us the football family. But we are the children, sent out of the room while the adults decide. And the adults turn out to be 211 association presidents behind a closed door.
Changing the president will not reform FIFA
Sepp Blatter resigned in 2015. FIFA introduced term limits, published salaries, rewrote its statutes and elected Infantino on a promise of transparency.
Eleven years later, Infantino tried to sell the World Cup. A brand new low.
He may not survive March's election. If he goes, we'll likely be told the game has been cleaned up. Then the same 211 associations choose the next president, leaving the opaque and dysfunctional system that produced him exactly where it was.
It doesn't have to be this way.
What we demand
FIFA exists for supporters. We demand that it operates that way.
Surveys and non-voting advisory panels offer consultation without power. That is not representation.
We demand unlimited access, and representation inside FIFA proportional to supporters' role as the lifeblood of the global game. A real vote on operations, investment and governance.
Twenty-three million people already tried
During the tournament, 23,316,108 people in around 170 countries signed a petition demanding FIFA ban Argentina from future World Cups. Whatever you make of the demand, one of the largest petitions in history got not one reply. The organisers closed it with the words "FIFA ignored us".
Despite being ignored, 23 million signatures that fast prove football supporters are ready to act.
Now imagine those 23 million had the support of a permanent, well-armed organisation to keep applying a multi-front pressure campaign.
Luck is not a strategy
This week, normally compliant associations across Europe, Asia and the Americas moved FIFA in 72 hours, because they organised and had something to withhold.
But luck is not a strategy.
FIFA elects its next president in March. Organise before then and we shape who runs football for the next decade. Leave it, and 211 presidents pick another one of their own.
The good news? There are billions of us!
Signing up takes ten seconds, and it is the first step in a passionate, coordinated effort to reclaim the game.
