Infantino warned that players like Cristiano Ronaldo would be banned from the World Cup if they join a breakaway league.GETTY IMAGES
The idea of "a World Cup without Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo" is being "openly discussed among the sport's highest authorities," leaks of behind-the-scenes discussions indicate, according to Tariq Panja of the N.Y. TIMES. A collective breakaway league, "seemingly the brainchild" of Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez, would "render the teams and players in it as pariahs" to the rest of the football world, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said. Infantino: "You are either in or you are out." The planned breakaway, "essentially a cash grab" by football's "richest and most popular teams, is one of a number of revelations to have been made public" in what seems to be a "coordinated attempt to obtain confidential data" from within the football industry. Without the support of football authorities, "any such league would effectively be considered a rogue competition." Infantino said, "If there are players who don't play in organized football they don't play organized football, and that encompasses everything -- national leagues, confederation competitions, the Euros and the World Cup" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/7). The AP's Graham Dunbar reported the breakaway from FIFA would allow officials to ban players from major competitions. FIFA Legal Dir Alasdair Bell said, "The idea is if you break away, you break away. You don't keep one foot in and one foot out. That would be the general approach we would follow, but of course lawyers can debate this for a long time" (AP, 11/7).
'NATURAL EVOLUTION': REUTERS' Alan Baldwin reported former Man City CEO Garry Cook said that a breakaway European Super League would be a "natural evolution" of the game and "may be inevitable." He said, "I think we're watching the natural evolution. ... The supermarket industry was built out of the fact that you combined the greengrocer, the butcher, the baker, and they rationalized to create one big, super size. I think there's always going to be a demand to watch that very fine, elite level in all walks of life and consume at that level at the very top" (REUTERS, 11/7).
