Infantino's Under-15 World Cup madness

T

TopScorer88

Community Member
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Feb 28, 2025
That headline reads like a parody and somehow it is apparently real. An Under-15 World Cup for all 211 FIFA nations, with Disneyland ceremonies and even talk of an Israel-Palestine opener, is beyond bizarre.

It feels like the kind of idea that should be laughed out of the room the second it is mentioned. FIFA really does manage to make every ridiculous concept feel one step closer to being signed off.

Even by Infantino standards this is properly unhinged. The commercial obsession, the tone-deafness, the sheer scale of it all... where do you even start with this?
 
Honestly this is the exact sort of thing that makes people think football has completely lost the plot at the top because how do you even get to the point where you are discussing children playing in a giant FIFA circus with Disneyland ceremonies and war zone openers like its some clever branding exercise its absolutely deranged and the worst part is you know there were probably suits in a room nodding along because they could smell the money and the exposure and all the rest of it while pretending its about unity or growth or whatever bollocks they use to dress up greed
 
I know everyone is laughing at it and fair enough because the whole thing sounds completely absurd, but the part that annoys me is how quickly people jump to the conclusion that every big idea around youth football is automatically evil just because it came from FIFA. The actual concept of giving more nations a chance to play at that age is not some outrageous crime, and if it were handled properly it could be a decent platform for kids from smaller countries. The problem is not the existence of the tournament, the problem is the way Infantino and these investors always turn everything into a circus and then make it sound like the most important thing in the world when really it is just another commercial vanity project dressed up as progress
 
mate this is exactly why nobody trusts fifa anymore they always manage to take a half decent idea and turn it into some grotesque money printer with all the subtlety of a brick through a window and then act surprised when everyone calls them ghouls
 
The idea of a wider youth tournament is not crazy on its own, but the branding and the proposed opener make it sound wildly insensitive. If the goal is development, the whole thing should be about football first and not about spectacle or private investors. That is where it completely falls apart.
 
At a basic level, you can see the logic of wanting a global youth event that includes every federation, and that part alone would not be shocking if it were framed as development rather than entertainment. But once you add Disneyland ceremonies, private investors, and especially the idea of putting countries at war into the opening fixture, it stops being merely misguided and becomes grotesque. It shows such a total lack of judgment that you almost cannot believe it came from a serious football organisation and not some late night parody account, and the more you think about it the worse it gets because there is clearly a room full of adults somewhere who thought this was a normal conversation to have and that is genuinely frightening
 
fifa always finds a way to make something for kids sound like a corporate fever dream with disney branding and war propaganda and somehow theyll still call it unity
 
I dont buy the idea that this is just one mad man either because there are always loads of people around these plans who are happy to sign off on the nonsense as long as they get a cut or some publicity and thats the bit that really stinks not just him but the whole gang of yes men
 
From a football perspective, a youth tournament could be valuable if it were kept simple and development-focused. Once you introduce corporate tie-ins, gimmicks, and politically explosive fixtures, the whole point is lost. It becomes a branding exercise rather than a sporting one.
 
If you are going to single out one person in all this it has to be Infantino because he keeps proving that he will push anything if it gives him another headline and another photo op and another chance to pretend he is reshaping football when really he is just turning the whole sport into some grotesque marketing machine and now he is apparently looking at children and war and Disneyland all in the same breath which is so beyond the pale it is hard to even process without getting angry because what on earth is wrong with him and how does nobody around him tell him to shut up and sit down and stop embarrassing the game every five minutes
 
The scale makes it look ridiculous, but the real issue is the tone-deaf framing. A youth competition should not be sold like a theme park product.
 
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