That is the view of Gianni Infantino, the president of world football’s governing body, who espoused as much during a talk at the World Sports Summit in Dubai in late December.
Articles
Biography: Andrew Jennings
(1943–2022), investigative journalist and activist for ethics in sports governance
World Cup 2026: Is the US-Iran war an ethical tipping point?
The US is the main host of the 2026 World Cup. But it's currently at war with Iran, which has qualified for the tournament. The ethical conflicts of this soccer competition grow more complex each week.
Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino are ruining FIFA and football
Ahead of the World Cup this summer the relationship between President Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino, the boss of FIFA, has been under the spotlight. Alan Tomlinson describes how together the two men despoiled the beautiful game.
Review: The British, soccer and identity in the Caribbean: class, race and nation, 1908–1973
Roy McCree, Abingdon, UK, Routledge, 2025, pp. xv + 272, £116.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9781032259017 Published online: 13 Jan 2026
Who’s in charge of football? Understanding the complex legal framework that governs the beautiful game
Who governs global football and how can they be held to account?
(Mis)Governing World Football?Agency and (Non)Accountability in FIFA
EA Brett (London School of Economics) and Alan Tomlinson (University of Brighton) May 2024 This article has been accepted for publication in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, published by Oxford University Press The version to be published in the journal is an expanded form of the Authors’ Original Version (AOV) and has in part a revised structure, so providing further evidence to support the analysis and argument.
The Untold Story of FIFA’s Diplomacy and the 1966 World Cup: North Korea, Africa and Sir Stanley Rous
This article addresses the diplomacy practiced by Sir Stanley Rous, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) president (1961–1974), and the international history of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea involvement in, and the boycott by African nations of, the 1966 World Cup in light of a number of newly available primary sources. The new materials reveal… Continue reading The Untold Story of FIFA’s Diplomacy and the 1966 World Cup: North Korea, Africa and Sir Stanley Rous
Lennart Johansson
Lennart Johansson, who has died in June 2019, had a Vision that had he become FIFA president could have made world football a better place to be. See his manifesto for the FIFA presidential bid in 1998, based on his core Swedish principles of transparency and democracy Adapted from Alan Tomlinson, FIFA: The Men, the… Continue reading Lennart Johansson
FIFA and Ethics: Contradictions, Challenges and Corruption
FIFA and Ethics: Contradictions, Challenges and Corruption Introduction In an insightful overview of the capacity of sociological perspectives to enlighten us about the place of ethics in sport, Chas Critcher wrote, back in the early 1990s, that there are well-established “ways in which the organization of sport actually contributes to disorder, deviance and unethical behavior… Continue reading FIFA and Ethics: Contradictions, Challenges and Corruption
Professor Alan Tomlinson - Research 