Norges eventyrlige VM har gitt oss en etterlengtet folkefest. Som underdogs mot verdenseliten har landslaget skapt entusiasme langt utenfor fotballmiljøet.
Samtidig har me
sterskapet gjort noe annet. Stadig flere har fått øynene opp for den voksende mistilliten til FIFA. Kontroversielle dommeravgjørelser, selektivt lange overtider, omgjorte disiplinæravgjørelser og en turnering der økonomiske og politiske hensyn stadig ser ut til å overskygge sporten, har fått mange til å stille spørsmål ved hvem fotballen egentlig er til for.
Dette kommer på toppen av en organisasjon som i årevis har vært preget av korrupsjonsskandaler, autoritære forbindelser og en ledelse som synes mer opptatt av makt enn av sporten selv. Gianni Infantinos nære forhold til Donald Trump og utdelingen av FIFAs egen «fredspris» tidligere i år illustrerer hvor langt organisasjonen har beveget seg fra idealet om at idrett og politikk skal holdes adskilt.
Det hittil drøyeste eksempelet på alles lepper er oppgjøret mellom Argentina og Egypt, som ville vært punktert om ikke sistnevnte fikk sitt siste perlemål tilbakekalt for en filleting lenge før, som dommeren i så fall burde blåst for med en gang. Det føyer seg inn i en rekke eksempler hvor VAR er mistenkelig mild mot storfavoritter.
Stjernepiller Messi er fotballens hellige sønn så lenge kameraet står riktig vei; snur man det litt, dukker både Panama Papers, offshore-selskaper og israelsk sportsvasking opp i bakgrunnen.
Når vi legger til at Argentina har en lang historie med rasialisiering av nasjonal identitet, omfattende diskriminering av urfolk og afroargentinere, fungerte etter krigen som tilfluktssted for en rekke nazister, og har en MAGA-vennlig ytre-høyre regjering, faller visse brikker på plass.
Derfor publiserer Gabriel Kuhns tekst fra tidligere i år, en teaser til den italienske versjonen av Soccer vs. The State. Kuhn er mangeårig fotballsupporter, forfatter og politisk skribent (se intervju i Gateavisa 203). Teksten er et forsvar for fotballen som folkets spill – og en oppfordring til å ta sporten tilbake fra FIFA.
Trump and Infantino: FIFA Sinking to New Lows
We are all familiar with the mantra of “not mixing sports and politics.” It is usually employed by the people in power who want to ensure that no sector of society, sports included, will become an arena for political protest. Needless to say, the mantra is mere hypocrisy. Everything is political, and the people in power have nothing against sports and politics mixing as long as it serves their interests.
If anyone needed final proof of this, there is no more striking example than the recent bromance between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and US president Donald Trump. We already got a taste of it when Infantino brought Trump along to hand out the trophy for one of the most useless tournaments in football history, the FIFA Club World Cup. Indeed, Trump was so excited 
that he didn’t want to leave the podium, beaming like a child in the middle of a celebrating Chelsea squad that he most probably doesn’t know a single player of.
But that was only the beginning. When, in early December, Infantino handed Trump the first FIFA Peace Prize, invented solely for him after missing out on the Nobel Peace Prize, he demonstrated what we suspected all along: he is a man who knows no shame. Trump received the prize while sending troops to American cities, bombing civilian boats off the coast of South America, and striking weapons deals with authoritarian regimes around the world.
The saddest part of it: We have gotten so used to these assaults on basic human dignity that there was hardly any outcry. Sure, most people find it ridiculous but shrug their shoulders. There are no consequences? Not for Trump, and not for Infantino. But how much longer will we accept that clowns like them turn everything that’s been created by people’s collective efforts into a travesty?
Football is not the world’s most popular sport because of FIFA. Football is the world’s most popular sport because millions of people around the world have been playing it for 150 years on improvised pitches, with pretty much anything that can technically serve as a ball, and with rules ad
apted to the situation they find themselves in. What unites them all is the joy of play, of motion and exercise, and of a communal experience that sometimes ends in strife but most often in making new friends, expanding one’s horizons, and learning more about yourself and the world.
Football truly is the people’s game, but it is under attack by the likes of Gianni Infantino who try to steal it for the only things they are truly interested in, that is, power and money.
It is high time to reclaim the game, to boycott FIFA, and to sabotage the modern football industry. Football associations, high-profile clubs, and celebrity players are, unfortunately, too caught up in the spectacle to be counted on. They will celebrate the 2026 Men’s World Cup despite all of the nonsense affiliated with it, from Trump’s shenanigans to an overblown starting field (well, good for Italy, I suppose) to a terrible ecological footprint with supporters being forced to travel thousands of miles between games. But there is a countermovement that has been growing for decades! It is expressed in “wild” and “colorful” leagues, tournaments such as the Mondiali Antirazzisti, calcio popolare, football fans protesting restrictive security measures, high ticket prices, and inconvenient kick-off hours (all for the broadcasters, of course). By tying these forces together, we’d create a movement to be reckoned with, not only in terms of securing a different kind of football but a different kind of politics. Today, overthrowing FIFA is more than just a symbolic political act, the ripple effects would be tremendous. Sports and politics are intrinsically linked, and we’ll have to make the best of it.
Sjekk også ut hjemmesiden hans: lefttwothree.org/