Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jamie Rudd. Johnny and Fantino tried to turn
the future of the World Cup into a private equity pitch.
The football world answered with a boycott threat, and now
FIFA has backed down. Infantino has scrapped the proposal to
bring private investors into the commercial future of FIFA's biggest competitions.
The plan, reportedly built around a new commercial subsidiary and
a potential twenty billion dollar investment, is no longer going forward.
That is a stunning reversal and it is the clearest
defeat of Infantino's presidency. This was supposed to be a
giant financial expansion. FIFA said private investment could unlock more
money for football development. The proposal would have allowed outside
investors to buy minority stakes connected to the commercial operation
of events, including the World Cup. But UEFA's fifty five
member associations saw something very different. They saw the possibility
that football's most important tournament could be treated like an
asset on a balance sheet. UEFA's message was direct, the
World Cup is not an investment product and it is
not for sale. Then UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA competitions
if the plan went through, not just the Men's World Cup.
The proposed boycott covered FIFA competitions more broadly, including the
Women's World Cup and the Club World Cup. Conker caff
rejected the proposal too. The Asian Football Confederation raised its
own concerns about the lack of consultation and the way
FIFA was trying to move the plan through on a
short timetable. A senior FIFA adviser also resigned in protest,
adding another crack inside the organization. At that point, this
was not Infantino against a few unhappy executives. It was
FIFA against the people who actually make the tournament's work.
The threat was powerful because UEFA could have taken Europe's
biggest football nations out of FIFA competitions. Germany, France, in Spain,
Italy and the rest of Europe would not have been
a small part of the World Cup. They would have
been the World Cup. And the timing made the fight
even more dangerous. The Women's World Cup in Brazil is
next summer. Nobody involved in that tournament wanted the players
and supporters to become collateral damage in a battle over
governance and money, so FIFA blinked. The proposal is gone,
at least in its current form. The money has not
disappeared as an issue. FIFA still has enormous commercial ambitions
and there will still be arguments about how much of
its revenue should go toward development around the world. But
Infantino has learned a very public lesson. You cannot announce
a plan to sell a stake in the future of
football and then act surprised when football objects. The biggest
question now is not whether FIFA can find another investor.
It is whether Infantino can rebuild trust with the confederations
he needs to govern the sport. Because the World Cup
belongs to football, it does not belong to a private
equity spreadsheet. Now let's go from FIFA headquarters to South Korea,
where the fallout from the World Cup has moved into
national politics. South Korea went out in the group stage
after losing one nill to South Africa. That result was
bad enough. The decision that became the national argument was
what happened to Sun Hung Min. Coach Hong Yung Bo
benched Sun before the decisive match and brought him on
too late to change the game. When you leave your
captain and one of your country's most important players out
of the starting lineup. In a match that can decide
your tournament, you had better have a very convincing explanation.
Hong and Korea Football Association chairman Chung Mongu were called
before South Korea's parliament. Both apologized, both denied nepotism, But
the hearing was not just about one line up decision.
It was about how Hong got the job, whether the
proper selection process was followed, and whether the federation had
become too closed and too comfortable. Reports say candidates including
David Wagner and Jesse Marsh were part of the wider
coaching conversation, while the process that led to Hong's appointment
bypassed parts of the normal structure. That is why this
story has become bigger than Sun being benched. It is
a story about who gets to make decisions for a
national team and whether those decisions are made in public
or in a back room park. G Sung is now
leading a government reform panel examining the KFA. One proposed
change would dramatically expand the number of people with voting
rights inside the federation from fewer than two hundred football
figures to ten thousand. That is not a minor administrative
adjustment that is a referendum on the way the federation
has been run for years. And Chung's own comment that
the hearing was revealing. He said the parliamentary session would
not have happened if South Korea had danced further in
the tournament. That tells you how much football results can protect.
Institutions win and the questions weight lose and every decision
gets pulled into the light. For Sun, the damage is personal.
He is the face of South Korean football and he
was put in a position where the team needed him,
but the coach chose to wait for the KFA. The
damage is structural. The next question is whether this becomes
a real reform movement or just another round of apologies
after a disappointing tournament. Now to Brazil, where Neymar has
officially closed the international chapter of his career. Naymar is
Brazil's all time leading scorer with eighty goals for his country.
He was the player Brazil expected to carry the next
generation after the era of the Old Guard. He gave
Brazil brilliance, drama, injuries, joy and frustration, sometimes all in
the same night. But after Brazil's disappointing World Cup. Neymar
has confirmed that his time with the national team is over.
He leaves without the World Cup title Brazil wanted from him,
but he does not leave without a legacy. He was
the number ten, the creative center, and the player opponents
built entire defensive plans around. The sad part is that
Neymar's international career feels like it was always being interrupted.
Injuries interrupted the momentum, expectations interrupted the fun. Every Brazil
tournament became a referendum on whether he could finally carry
the country all the way. He did not get that
final storybook ending. Instead, he leaves as Brazil's record scorer,
one of the defining players of his generation, and a
reminder that greatness and fulfillment are not always the same thing.
Now for the lighter story, because Earling Hahland is having
the kind of summer that sounds like somebody wrote it
for a sports comedy. Hahland led Norway to its first
World Cup quarter final in history. He scored seven goals
in five matches, including a win over five time champion
Brazil in the round of sixteen. Norway eventually lost to
England in Miami, but Harland had already become one of
the defining stars of the tournament, and then he stayed
in the United States, played golf from a boat, posed
for a photo with Michael Jordan, and continued looking like
a man who had discovered that the American summer was
built specifically for him. The numbers say Harland generated more
than five hundred seventy seven thousand global mentions during the tournament,
putting him among the most talked about players in the world.
The point is that Harland is not just a striker anymore.
He is a global character. He is tall, funny, unpredictable
and completely comfortable, looking like he is enjoying himself. That matters.
The biggest football stars are not only measured by goals.
They become part of the culture around the sport. Hah
Land has crossed that line, and finally, Paris Saint Germain
are adding another major young attacking talent. PSG have reportedly
agreed a fee of fifty million euros with Monaco for
Magnus Akliuche, along with terms with the player. The deal
still needs the medical so this is not the moment
to call him officially presented in Paris, but the direction
is clear. Akliushe is a French international who made one
hundred and thirty nine appearances for Monaco, scoring twenty three
goals and adding twenty eight assists. PSG see him as
an important part of the next version of the team.
The move also shows the pressure inside Paris. The club
is trying to stay at the top of Europe while
continuing to build a squad that is younger, deeper, and
less dependent on one superstar. Akliuche is not being signed
just to add another name to the bench. PSG expect
him to become part of the next cycle. So that
is today's episode. Infantino backing away from a twenty billion
dollar World Cup investment plan, South Korea questioning the people
running its national team, neymar ending his Brazil career, Hahland
becoming a full blown crossover star, and PSG moving for
one of France's brightest young attackers. The World Cup may
be over, but the consequences are still coming. For the
Messy Effect, I'm Jamie Rudd. Quick note. This show is
produced with the help of AI