Football

Football Australia has completed a spectacular exercise in fence sitting, belatedly condemning the controversial proposal to sell-off the FIFA World Cup.

Somewhat damningly, the FA move only came after the plan had already been scrapped by besieged FIFA President Gianni Infantino and, unlike strongly-worded rebuttals from national and continental associations around the globe, still did not reject the proposal — merely the lack of governance behind it.

“Football Australia welcomes FIFA’s decision to withdraw the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal,” FA Chair Anter Isaac said via a statement on Saturday.

“The discussions of recent days have reinforced an important principle of good governance: proposals of global significance should be developed through robust consultation, appropriate governance processes and meaningful engagement with Member Associations before they are presented for consideration.”

MORE: ‘Get out’ — Calls for Infantino resignation intensify after FIFA World Cup sell-off collapse

Isaac’s comments followed an earlier non-committal FA statement that was widely condemned by the Australian football public as FA clearly salivated over the $40 million carrot being dangled by Infantino with up to $20 million to be made available as early as January 2027 should the controversial sell-off plan be approved.

While undoubtedly such a cash injection would have instantly cleared the sport’s debt on these shores, the deeper question was a powerfully simple one: at what moral cost?

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