Irish Examiner view: We need to stop Gianni Infantino's Trumpification of football

Fifa president's proposal to sell a stake in the commercial rights of the World Cup should be a line in the sand for all who love sport

Fifa president Gianni Infantino and US president Donald Trump with the trophy at the Fifa World Cup final on July 19. File picture: Bradley Collyer/PA

There was a time when a prominent part of Fifa’s brief was to protect football from politics and commerce. Increasingly, it seems to believe its job is to protect politics and commerce from football.

Uefa’s extraordinary statement opposing Gianni Infantino’s proposal to sell a stake in the commercial rights of the Fifa World Cup should be read as far more than another spat between football’s competing power brokers.