Connect with us

Sports

‘No future for Gianni Infantino’: European Leagues president calls for FIFA reforms

Published

on

European Leagues president Claudius Schafer believes Gianni Infantino has “no future at FIFA” but says reforming football’s global governing body is more important than simply replacing its leader.

In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Schafer said the current crisis at FIFA has been building for years because of Infantino’s “increasingly centralised and personalised” approach to leadership and his total failure to consult with key stakeholders on decisions that impact clubs, fans, leagues and players around the world.

It was this refusal to consult that forced European Leagues, which represents the interests of 53 men’s and women’s professional leagues in 34 countries, including the so-called ‘big five’, to lodge a formal complaint with the European Commission against FIFA for alleged breaches of European competition law.

That was almost two years ago and Schafer, a lawyer-turned-football-administrator who also runs the Swiss Football League, is very confident that recent events will only bolster European Leagues’ case, making it almost certain that the Brussels-based commission will open an investigation into FIFA’s decision-making and governance in future.

In the meantime, Schafer is adamant: Infantino must go.

“We are deeply concerned about his leadership,” he said. “We question his suitability to continue as president.

“Here in Switzerland, we’ve had a close view of FIFA and it seems that the influence of the president has grown from year to year. Major decisions are taken without meaningful consultation with stakeholders who will be affected – that’s why we’ve lodged our complaint with the European Commission over the international match calendar.

“Now we have this situation with (FIFA Forward Enterprise) but we also had the case of the (FIFA) Peace Prize last year, which was done without any conversation with the FIFA Council.

The FIFA sell-off scandal, explained

Hannah Vanbiber and Reuben Pinder

“FIFA is an association under Swiss law and in this association you have rules. The president and the board members have to perform their duties with care. This is a legal matter. If you take such a decision (as the peace prize), without even informing the council, that, in my view, is a breach of law.

“And then, during the World Cup we all know about the red card issue (with U.S. striker Folarin Balogun). It was a real scandal. I can’t ever recall a political intervention of this kind relating to a sporting matter. Such acts call the integrity of the game into question.

“That’s why there is no future at FIFA for Infantino. There can’t be.”

Infantino faced an enormous backlash over his plans to privatise FIFA competitions, including the World Cup (Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

Infantino was forced to reveal his secret FFE project a month ago but only after it was leaked to the British media. The plan, which involved setting up a subsidiary to run FIFA’s competitions and then selling a stake in that company to private investors, caused a global storm that has split FIFA’s confederations and put Infantino’s 10-year hold on power in serious doubt.

The last month has seen Infantino withdraw the sell-off idea and apologise for working on the plan for so long without sharing the details with senior staff at FIFA, council members or the member associations. The 56-year-old Swiss-Italian, however, has made it clear that he has no intention to quit and will stand for a fourth four-year term next March at FIFA’s congress in Rabat.

He has also spent the last few weeks travelling the globe in an attempt to shore up his support ahead of an electoral showdown with his main critics – the Asian, European and North and Central American confederations – in the Moroccan capital.

Schafer said his members are “fully in line” with the rebels and is confident they will put up a candidate who will beat Infantino. But he is more concerned about what happens next.

“The role and responsibilities of the FIFA president need to be redefined,” he said.

“We we were promised some reforms at FIFA after the arrests at the Baur au Lac in 2015 but then Gianni didn’t follow through. Now, for us, getting these reforms is the most important task and they can only happen with another president.”

The reference to the Baur au Lac relates to the arrests that took place at the luxury hotel in Zurich on the eve of the 2015 FIFA Congress, where former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter was elected for a fifth term. The crisis sparked by those arrests forced him to resign six months later, paving the way for Infantino’s election as the organisation’s saviour.

When asked if Schafer was in favour of reducing the power of the presidency by rotating it between the presidents of FIFA’s six confederations – an idea which is gathering support – he said he was happy to let the current debate play out but added that there is a strong consensus “we never (a president) as powerful as this again”.

He said he is more interested in how FIFA itself will respond to the current crisis, particularly the 37-strong council that Infantino appears to have ignored for several years.

“I’m waiting for some action (from the council),” he said. “Where are they? Is there a meeting planned?”

Schafer believes FIFA’s refusal to deal with its very obvious problems are even more baffling when you consider the fact that the European Commission has been mulling over whether to open an investigation into the governing body since October 2024.

The catalyst for that unprecedented complaint from the leagues was FIFA’s decision to shoehorn an expanded the Club World Cup into an already congested international match calendar, over which it exerts complete control. For European Leagues, this was a clear case of FIFA acting as the game’s regulator but also as a competition organiser. And by favouring its competition over everyone else’s, it was abusing a dominant market position.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters was asked about this last week when he spoke to a group of reporters ahead of the new season.

“Leagues don’t have a meaningful seat at the table at all,” said Masters. “We’re not consulted on the big decisions.

“We think that’s wholly wrong and that’s why we’ve regrettably had to put in a complaint at the European Commission.”

Some might wonder why the commission has not already opened an investigation, given the seemingly ample amount of evidence that FIFA does not consult before making big decisions, but Masters took a more diplomatic stance.

“The European Commission moves at its own pace,” he said. “The European Leagues team is in pretty regular dialogue with the people there and at some point a decision will be made.”

Schafer believes that decision will be positive for the leagues.

“We’ve had constructive meetings with key people in Brussels who dealing with the complaint along with the Commissioner for Sport (Malta’s Glenn Micallef),” he said.

“We’ve exposed FIFA’s conflict of interest of being a regulator but also a commercial operator, and now everyone can see it. We have also had a series of decisions from the European Court of Justice that support our position.

“We wouldn’t have done this if we didn’t think we had a very strong case. I’m sure the commission will have followed recent events and see that FIFA has a conflicted position.

“It takes time because they have other issues to deal with, not just football, but there is now some urgency with this case.

“We will know more about the timeline when they open the investigation but it will put FIFA under a lot of pressure to reform its governance model. FIFA should be doing this proactively now because, if it delays and the complaints succeeds, it will be obliged to reform and could also face a fine.

“The commission can issue very high fines and that is money that belongs to FIFA’s member associations.”

While Schafer was reluctant to spell out exactly what a “meaningful voice” would entail, it is clear that the leagues want a much bigger say over matters that directly impact the domestic game and, ideally, would have a veto in such decisions.

“We expect to be part of the decision-making process,” said Schafer.

“We want to be at the table. What that looks like in the end is to be decided. We have to find agreements on those matters affecting domestic leagues.

“FIFA is still the global football regulator but, because of their double role, they must admit they need to include stakeholders in the decisions.”

Asked if he was worried that Infantino might be able to exploit the desire of the big clubs to play in the Club World Cup (perhaps even a bigger and more frequent Club World Cup) to put pressure on the leagues to back down, Schafer said: “I think this is worrying and it’s certainly something he has done in the past.

“But in this situation it’s not just an issue for the big clubs – it’s more about the functioning of the whole game. There are 1,300 clubs in our leagues. Domestic football is the basis of football.

“We are not against the Club World Cup. We are not against big clubs looking for ways to play international games. But it has to be in a fair and balanced way and FIFA has to take a more general view and play a more responsible role. It cannot pick sides.

“Let’s go back to FIFA’s statutes and look at its objectives. Yes, it should try to raise money for the associations so they can fund projects. But, first of all, you need the game as a whole to work together. You need to balance the different layers of the game.

“Who is at the bottom of the pyramid? The grassroots game, then it’s professional club football, then international football. We have lost sense of that pyramid.”

Schafer also worries about the increasing strain all these new international tournaments are placing on the best players.

“Rest is really, really important and I’m happy to work on this with (global players’ union) FIFPro,” he said. “These new and enlarged competitions which require more dates are becoming impossible. And if you enlarge the Club World Cup and World Cup again, I’m wondering where you are taking the dates from?

“Sometimes, they’ll say, ‘the leagues should play fewer games, the Premier League should go to 18 teams.’ But I’ll say, ‘you know the Premier League has been that size for decades, why is it fair for you to come up with new competitions but we have to cut ours?’”

The Athletic has contacted the European Commission and FIFA for comment.

>

Continue Reading

Sports

Omar Marmoush transfer news: Tottenham agree deal to sign Man City forward on loan with £60m obligation to buy | Football News

Published

on

Tottenham have agreed a deal to sign Omar Marmoush from Manchester City.

The Egypt forward is set for a medical ahead of completing an initial loan move with a £60m obligation to buy him permanently.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Take a look at Omar Marmoush’s goals for Manchester City in the Premier League and Carabao Cup.

Sky Sports News understands the fee is broken up into a £50m guaranteed payment plus £10m in bonuses.

Eintracht Frankfurt, who sold Marmoush to City in January 2025, do not have a sell-on clause, contrary to reports.

The German club received their desired guaranteed fee at the time, plus additional bonuses.

There were also very few instalments, meaning all payment obligations to Frankfurt have been fulfilled by City.

Marmoush now looks set to follow former City team-mate Savio to join Roberto De Zerbi’s squad, after the Brazil winger completed an £85m move to Spurs on Tuesday.

>

Continue Reading

Sports

What Omar Marmoush will bring to Spurs: Energy, imagination and a hunger to get in behind opposition defences

Published

on

Omar Marmoush arrived at Manchester City as a breath of fresh air; a much-needed pop of pace and energy to help revive a meandering 2024-25 campaign.

He is set to depart for Tottenham Hotspur just 18 months later as the latest forward dissatisfied with his game time at the club, simply too talented to accept a back-up role but not impactful enough to carve out a consistent starting spot of their own.

That is not an indictment of Marmoush’s ability. City are built around the freakish goalscoring ability of Erling Haaland, while wide players such as Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku have been specifically recruited to hold width and drive to the byline to create chances for the big Norwegian.

Meanwhile, the likes of Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki drift into pockets of space and pick up the ball in crowded central areas, their technical ability helping them to deal with possession under pressure.

Unable to dislodge Haaland in the No 9 position, the profile of Marmoush — a player at his best when he can attack the space in-behind — does not quite fit the profile of those other attacking roles.

It is a slightly awkward fit and has seen the Egyptian’s involvement dwindle following an early-season injury, racking up just 700 minutes in the Premier League last season. And though he was effective as the stand-in striker in domestic cup competitions, scoring five goals in six starts across the League Cup and the FA Cup in 2025-26, the 27-year-old clearly has more to offer for a team who better suit his skillset.

A move to Spurs, which will be an initial loan that includes an obligation to buy for a £50million with £10m due in add-ons, should suit both parties, offering Marmoush more opportunities to impress while Roberto De Zerbi adds proven firepower to his front line.

Omar Marmoush strikes the ball as he scores the Premier League goal of the season for 2024-25 against Bournemouth

Marmoush unleashing the shot that resulted in the Premier League goal of the season for 2024-25 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)


Marmoush joined City off the back of a storming start to the season for Eintracht Frankfurt, scoring 20 goals and registering 13 assists in all competitions by January. City, meanwhile, were emerging from a torrid winter in which they lost nine games in the space two months, dropping out of the title race with a series of sluggish performances with the ball.

Pep Guardiola’s side were struggling to control games and pen their opponents in with possession as they had in the past, increasingly hit on the break by more aggressive, fast-attacking teams. It led to more caution in possession, as City became more hesitant to make forward runs for fear of exposing their shaky defensive shape.

But Guardiola soon sought to switch up his strategy, employing more traditional high-and-wide full-backs in Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly to give City more box-to-box power. The arrival of Marmoush, a springy runner who is dangerous on the break and dynamic with his off-ball movement, helped to reinforce a bolder new approach.

On his debut against Chelsea, Marmoush made 12 runs in-behind according to SkillCorner, the most any City player other than Haaland had made in a game for over eight months.

Many of those were not targeted with a pass, but Marmoush was persistent to keep offering for the ball over the top, and happy to drop to receive to feet if it did not come his way.

“He made incredible movements that the players in the middle could not see,” said Guardiola after the 3-1 win. “But it’s a question of time, knowing each other. We don’t know his movements, the movement that he likes. It needs time.”

Marmoush was effective in his minutes as a sole striker for City or even alongside Haaland in a 4-2-2-2 shape, particularly when space opened up and he was able to attack quickly.

Here he is late on against Brentford, making another storming run behind the defence that is not picked out by Savinho.

Again, Marmoush stays alert despite not receiving the ball and continues to linger on the last line, eventually latching on to a Haaland through ball and finishing smartly into the corner.

Few players were as lethal on the counter as Marmoush at Frankfurt, where he formed a prolific partnership with Hugo Ekitike in a roaming centre-forward role. He had scored four goals from fast breaks by January, assisting a further two for his strike partner, able to use his pace to frequently get in behind disorganised defences.

Here against Bayern Munich, for example, we see his speed and his strength to battle with Dayot Upamecano, before stretching clear and laying the ball on a plate to Ekitike.

Three weeks later against Borussia Monchengladbach, his decision-making at speed is on show once more, twisting and turning as he leads a late breakaway and delaying his pass, before slipping it through for Ellyes Skhiri for a golden opportunity to score.

Though we saw flashes of that potential at City, Marmoush was not given the opportunity to tear into space as often.

Regularly facing deeper defences, his movements to receive through passes were turned down more frequently; around 63.6 per cent of his runs in-behind were targeted with a pass throughout that lethal half-season in the Bundesliga per SkillCorner, a figure that dropped to 51.1 per cent in the Premier League.

He was also more restricted by his positioning, often required to play off the left and to pick up the ball in crowded half-space positions, as illustrated by the heat map below.

Restoring a sense of freedom to Marmoush’s game will be key to unlocking his confidence and his best form once again.

That is not to say that Marmoush is completely nullified in a wider role; his desire to dart into dangerous positions and test the opposition goalkeeper from distance still makes him a threat.

Against Newcastle in February, Marmoush totalled five attempts on goal from the left wing while Haaland occupied the central role. His first came after he was released down the flank by Semenyo, carrying the ball forward before chopping inside and hammering a shot straight at Nick Pope.

Half an hour later, he almost restored City’s two-goal cushion from a more patient attack, receiving a pass from Rodri between the lines and turning, driving into the space created by his team-mate’s runs and launching a powerful effort just wide of the post.

Though not his preferred position, Marmoush is clearly capable of playing across the front line and continues to pose questions to the opposition defence.

That versatility will appeal to De Zerbi, a coach who wants his team to draw the opposition onto them with patient build-up play before breaking through with fast, vertical football.

Marmoush can drop into midfield and combine with his team-mates, but is equally devastating when the space does open up to attack.


Another area of strength for Marmoush is his long-distance shooting, consistently capable of striking through the ball with venom.

He scored three direct free kicks in the space of 10 days for Frankfurt, while he has struck four times from outside the penalty area at City, including his goal of the season winner against Bournemouth.

It is an exciting trait that should help to bring unpredictability to Spurs’ front line, the kind of ‘out-of-nothing’ player that De Zerbi’s side often lacked as they tried to break down stubborn defences.

He struggled to build relationships amid inconsistent game time at City, but more time on the pitch should allow Marmoush to regain some rhythm. He can be overambitious at times, taking aim too often or trying to force the forward pass or carry, but his potential to break games open with moments of magic makes the occasional bouts of wastefulness worthwhile.

Marmoush is arguably at the lowest point of his career since establishing himself in German football. And though football under De Zerbi should not as swashbuckling and carefree as it was when he ran riot at Frankfurt, this should be an opportunity for him to rediscover his sense of adventure with more of a starring role at the top of the team.

Tottenham need a player like Marmoush almost as much as he needs the fresh start.

>

Continue Reading

Sports

Ipswich 3 – 1 Leicester

Published

on

Marcelino Nunez scored a sensational goal from the halfway line to help Ipswich claim a hard-fought 3-1 win over Leicester in the Carabao Cup.

This had been a Premier League fixture only 15 months ago, but Leicester arrived at Portman Road fresh from a painful home loss to Burton in League One and yet under-fire Russell Martin watched the Foxes edge a goalless first half.

Sindre Walle Egeli showed Premier League quality for Gary O’Neil’s team with a smart left-footed finish to break the deadlock after 62 minutes before 19-year-old Olabade Aluko earned Leicester a deserved leveller five minutes later.

However, ex-Norwich midfielder Nunez fittingly had the final say in the meeting between two former Canaries team-mates.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Marcelino Nunez scores from near the halfway line in stunning strike for Ipswich against Leicester in the Carabao Cup.

Nunez rifled home off a post after 71 minutes to score for the first time at Portman Road since his move last summer and added a wonderful 50-yard lob in stoppage time to help Ipswich reach the Carabao Cup third round for only the second time in 11 seasons.

Martin was booed after Leicester lost to Burton and watched his team almost gift an opener inside 33 seconds, but Chuba Akpom could not profit.

Leicester, to their credit, quickly settled and Brighton loanee Tom Watson sent one shot wide before he tested Christian Walton with a curled effort.

Ipswich back-up goalkeeper Walton thwarted Christian McFarlane’s attempted chip in the 20th minute after a lovely Louis Page pass and at the other end Jakub Stolarczyk made a fine save from Dara O’Shea’s header.

However, Leicester finished the half strongly when Conor Chaplin’s curler was pushed wide by Walton.

Ipswich midfielder Kasey McAteer had a goal ruled out for offside two minutes after half-time before Chaplin was withdrawn to a standing ovation on the hour mark by Martin, who then watched the home side break the deadlock in the 62nd minute.

Akpom played through to Jack Clarke and he squared for Egeli to slot home.

Five minutes later, Leicester equalised when Page’s corner was flicked on by Bobby De Cordova-Reid and 19-year-old Aluko got a faint touch to score his first professional goal.

Nunez ensured there would be no upset when he fired in via a post after Woyo Coulibaly had given the ball away and after Akpom squandered a one-on-one chance, the Chile international grabbed a second.

After the ball dropped inside the centre circle, Nunez spotted Stolarczyk off his line and lobbed over the Leicester goalkeeper in incredible fashion to make it back-to-back wins for O’Neil.

The managers…

Ipswich’s Gary O’Neil:

“I didn’t think it was the best decision to be honest!

“Neither did Chuba (Akpom) or Sindre who were clean through on goal, but as long as you can put it in the goal no one can argue, so good decision in the end!

“The last two performances Marcelino has been excellent. Two great goals, unbelievable energy that he has, never stops and unbelievably humble kid that works and works.

“You need them in your group and two big moments of quality to add to that which changed the game for us.

“He is in a good spot and need to keep him going. We need to keep him going for the weekend and it is now a big push to get everyone going on Sunday (at Manchester United).”

Leicester’s Russell Martin:

“The players were amazing and I loved it. I loved the performance.

“We were unlucky to lose and definitely unlucky to lose 3-1, but after Saturday we spoke a lot about bravery, aggression and intensity. With and without the ball they showed so much.

“The only thing missing is we didn’t win but if we play like that, it is really exciting for us. We’ll have a lot of fun and win a lot of games.

“It is so early and that is why I feel really calm about it. The fans were amazing as well. Hopefully they felt a bit of energy after that performance.”

>

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.