New Scandalous Revelation: Infantino Had a Grand Plan for the Failed Super League

FIFA President Gianni Infantino held discussions to rebrand the ill-fated European breakaway tournament as a "FIFA Super League." These negotiations progressed to the drafting of a preliminary agreement that would have completely reshaped European football, as revealed by The Guardian.

The preliminary agreement, whose full contents are being disclosed for the first time, is dated October 2020 and proposed renaming any new competition under the FIFA brand. It outlines the extent to which Infantino's administration was involved in a scheme that sparked massive fan outrage and was rejected by clubs in April 2021. The document also reveals that FIFA was prepared to bypass its member associations to push through plans to reduce the number of international windows for national team matches. It details how the global football governing body would have received special governance and political rights through a "golden share."

In a week where football is reeling from the fallout of Infantino's failed plan to sell parts of the World Cup to private investors, the document shows that FIFA's leadership was deeply involved in another attempt to place major sporting competitions under corporate control. It envisioned a partnership of at least 12 years between FIFA and the Super League and proposed the creation of a joint venture to manage commercial operations.

The document also proposed a version of FIFA's expanded Club World Cup, referred to as a "global club competition," to be held annually within a specific three-week period and directly linked to the Super League. This tournament would have featured direct eliminations rather than a group stage format. Although the preliminary agreement stated that the new tournaments would need approval from FIFA's annual congress and the FIFA Council, it is believed that federations worldwide were bypassed in the plan's formation.

Infantino was among several FIFA officials involved in the project and is understood to have been fully aware of its development. The preliminary agreement states that the founding clubs "wish to negotiate the terms of a partnership" between the Super League and FIFA, leading to the creation of both competitions. This followed an initial proposal to FIFA from the breakaway clubs, also seen by The Guardian, which outlined the framework for a potential agreement. While non-binding, a preliminary agreement typically precedes a final contract and suggests that discussions between FIFA and the Super League creators were close to finalization at the time.

It remains unclear whether Infantino and FIFA continued their involvement in the project beyond the preliminary agreement stage. After a version of the scheme was controversially launched without FIFA's direct participation in April 2021 and ultimately collapsed following widespread protests, Infantino addressed the UEFA Congress in Montreux, stating that his organization could "only strongly disapprove of the creation of the Super League." Multiple sources suggest that an earlier conversation with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, facilitated by a third party, accelerated the FIFA President's distancing from the new venture. Infantino is believed to have subsequently told associates that he did not wish to work against football's established institutions.

Nevertheless, evidence of FIFA's preliminary agreement with the Super League, coupled with Infantino's disastrous "Football Forward Enterprise" scheme, casts doubt on this claim and suggests repeated attempts to reshape the game without consulting its most important stakeholders. The league would have included 15 permanent members and five clubs qualifying from existing competitions. It also committed to creating a women's equivalent with the same clubs by an unspecified date. In the preliminary agreement, FIFA was codenamed "WO1," the same designation used in the British army for a high-ranking officer.

A section outlining the key components of the agreement states that the Super League "is open to discussing the naming of the WO1 SL competition." It also confirmed that FIFA would be "granted a privileged share in the Super League," giving it decision-making powers regarding format changes, calendar amendments, distribution of solidarity payments, and the appointment of the competition's CEO.

High-ranking figures in European football are believed to have been shocked by the plan to drastically reduce the number of international windows, shrinking them to two two-week periods each year. Member associations, many of whom Infantino has courted for support in his battle to save his position this week, could have lost commercial opportunities arising from the increased visibility of their national teams and found themselves dependent on a privately run club tournament.

A separate point in the earlier proposal also noted "a reduction in the number of leagues" as a topic for discussion.

Under the terms of the deal, a "new international match calendar," developed by FIFA, the Super League, and "other stakeholders," was to be reviewed and introduced with the consent of the global football governing body.

Clubs participating in the Super League were to join the World Association of Football Clubs (WAFC) – a short-lived representative body established by Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez in 2019. Real was a key driver of the Super League project and only closed the door on it when it announced an agreement with UEFA in February of this year.

FIFA's close ties to the Super League proposal add to the growing number of privately backed ventures proposed by Infantino during his decade-long tenure. In 2018, he pushed for a $25 billion offer from the Japanese institution SoftBank to create an expanded Club World Cup and a global Nations League. Close allies within FIFA are believed to have warned him to abandon the plan, which failed to gain support after resistance from Europe.