Dangerous Game - World Football Caught Between Politics, Money and Pride

World football has reached the point where it must decide what is more important, the game itself or all the retinue that accompanies it, where money and influence are in the foreground. A gesture that, on the surface, could have passed for a simple protocol delay turned into a new tense episode in the relationship between UEFA and FIFA. The president of the world football forum, Gianni Infantino, arrived two hours late at the 75th FIFA Congress, held in Paraguay, citing flight difficulties. However, his explanations were not enough for European officials, who saw in this gesture a clear signal: personal political interests seem to have overtaken the interests of football. Infantino was on a tour of the Middle East in the days leading up to the Congress, accompanying former US President Donald Trump on an official visit. The FIFA president stressed the importance of his presence in Qatar - the host of the 2022 World Cup - and in Saudi Arabia, the country that will organize the final tournament in 2034. However, for UEFA, these arguments were not convincing. "The last-minute changes to the FIFA Congress program are deeply regrettable," UEFA said in an official statement. "Changing the program at the last minute for what appears to be a matter of private political interests does not do football any service and seems to put its interests on the back burner." The protest gesture by European representatives, including UEFA President Aleksander Èeferin, who left the room at the beginning of the event, was an unequivocal reaction to what they consider a serious deviation from the real priorities of the sport.

• Rising Tension

This situation once again brings into question the fragile balance between sport, politics and economic interests. In recent years, world football has been marked by an increasingly evident interdependence with political power and financial influence. The choice of hosts for World Cups, expansion strategies in wealthy regions and the relations between football officials and political leaders are just a few examples that outline a landscape increasingly distant from sporting values. The question that looms over the international scene is a very clear one: is football still run in the interests of the game and the fans, or has it become a flexible instrument in the hands of those who hold power - be it political or economic? UEFA seems to have drawn a line, at least symbolically, with the protest in Luque. It remains to be seen whether this gesture will produce a change of tone in relations between the two forums or whether it will further deepen an already visible gap between visions and interests. This situation reignites the debate about the autonomy of sport in the face of political power and about the risk that major international competitions become simple tools of global influence, rather than spaces for clean and meritocratic competition.