Bread and Circuses – 10 Years of Infantino: Too Much Money, Too Little Control

Blog (EN)

Exactly ten years ago, Gianni Infantino was placed at the helm of FIFA – as the face of a "new beginning" that was urgently needed after the arrests, charges, and moral total crash of the Blatter era. The texts from NZZ and FAZ from this moment (February 2016) read today like a protocol of a system that wants to reform itself – yet reflexively keeps landing on the same fuel: money.

Even then, the basic direction was recognizable: There is too much money in football – and precisely that makes it politically buyable, structurally corruptible, and susceptible to PR.

2016: Reform Promises – But the Bait Remains the Same

The NZZ describes Infantino's rise as an astonishingly fast sprint from fallback candidate to president – and reveals what he uses to catch delegates: the prospect of larger distributions and development payments. This logic is not "charity," but power technique: whoever distributes, organizes loyalty.
Source: NZZ E-Paper / Archive (Issue 27./28.02.2016 – therein: "Mit Infantino kehrt die Uefa in die Fifa zurück")

The NZZ commentary becomes even clearer: reforms did not emerge from inner purification, but under massive pressure (including from investigative authorities). And even after a reform congress, the decisive question remains: Will the system really be changed at its foundation – or just repainted at the top?
Source: NZZ E-Paper / Archive (Issue 27.02.2016 – therein: "Die Fifa ist noch nicht aus dem Schneider")

The FAZ records the same day: a major reform package is adopted, structures are reorganized, terms of office are limited – but at the same time, a motif emerges in the debate that overshadows everything to this day: expansion (more teams, more games, more markets).
Source: FAZ: "Gianni Infantino ist neuer Fifa-Präsident"

Main Criticism: Corruption Is No Accident – It's a Consequence of the Money System

The FIFA crisis was never just "a few bad apples." The US Justice Department explicitly called the corruption systemic in 2015 – a decades-long pattern of bribery, kickbacks, and bought rights.
Source: US DOJ: "Nine FIFA Officials and Five Corporate Executives Indicted…" (27.05.2015)

Building football politics with billion-dollar rights, TV deals, and distribution pools creates incentives:

  • Decisions become more valuable than principles (awards, votes, positions).
  • Loyalty becomes a commodity (benefits instead of control).
  • "Reforms" become a PR layer – as long as the distribution logic remains untouched.

That these shadows are not simply "historically settled" is shown by ongoing proceedings and aftereffects from the FIFAGate complex.
Example: US DOJ EDNY: "Full Play Group & Hernan Lopez convicted…" (09.03.2023)

"There's Too Much Money in Football" Today Means: More Tournaments, More Pressure, More Cynicism

Infantino's presidency stands for growth in sports politics: larger World Cup, new mega-formats, ever-new revenue streams. The result is a calendar that creaks – and a debate in which players, associations, and fans increasingly seem like extras.

This is the "bread and circuses" moment of the present: ever-bigger shows – and ever more actors wondering whether the sport still follows the business or vice versa has long since taken over.

The Embarrassing Pandering: Infantino as Stage Figure from Putin to Trump

When money drives the system, proximity to power becomes currency. And precisely here it becomes particularly unsavory under Infantino: not diplomatically distant, but often demonstrative.

Putin

Infantino met Putin in the Kremlin – officially as a conversation about football. Symbolically, it's a photo of proximity that can always be read as legitimation in authoritarian systems.
Source: Kremlin.ru: "Meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino" (23.05.2019)
Supplementary (FIFA's own presentation): FIFA: "Infantino and Putin discuss World Cup legacy…" (20.02.2019)

Trump

With Trump, the staging is even more open: task force politics, Oval Office photos, mutual PR.
Source: White House: "FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force"
Currently, criticism escalated when Infantino appeared prominently at a Trump "Board of Peace" event – and even the IOC felt examination/evaluation pressure.
Sources: AP: "Olympic body to look at Infantino's political neutrality…" (20.02.2026) · Reuters: "IOC chief Coventry… will look into matter" (20.02.2026)

One can sell this as "realpolitik." But one can also simply call it embarrassing: FIFA as a global spectacle whose president docks onto strong men because power always also means protection, access, and stage.

Conclusion: Bread and Circuses Work – But They Poison Football

The NZZ and FAZ texts from 2016 show a turning point: reform will, new structures, new faces. Ten years later, the fundamental problem is unchanged and visible:

  • Too much money creates incentives for corruption.
  • Too much money drives expansion, overload, and alienation.
  • Too much money makes the president a lobbyist for the show – and susceptible to political pandering.

If FIFA really wants to "restore its reputation," reform PR isn't enough. Then it would have to limit the money logic itself: transparent awards, genuine independent control, less tournament inflation, clear compliance – and above all, distance from the power stage.

Otherwise, football remains what "bread and circuses" always were: a spectacle that stabilizes, distracts – and collects the price elsewhere.

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