It will bring in outside investors, open the doors to global money, enrich a handful of inside executives and, perhaps most outrageously of all, might even involve the Trump family. The plans by Fifa, the governing body that controls the World Cup, to sell a stake in the competition, have drawn predictably condemnation, not least from the British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. But hold on. This is getting ridiculous. Football has become the preeminent global sport precisely because it has been so successfully commercialised – and it is too late to change that now. 

The argument that football ‘belongs’ to the fans is even odder. It is like saying Nestle belongs to me because I happen to like KitKats

The argument that football ‘belongs’ to the fans is even odder. It is like saying Nestle belongs to me because I........

© The Spectator