FIFPro chief Sergio Marchi has launched a scathing attack on FIFA president Gianni Infantino, comparing him to Nero and accusing him of placing “economic profitability over human sustainability”.
Infantino’s latest brainchild, the Club World Cup, concluded last night with Chelsea beating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final in New Jersey with the head of world football continuing his charm offensive with Donald Trump by inviting the US president to hand out the trophy.
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The tournament came at the end of a long European season and with many players in need of a break before they go again next month in a 2025-26 campaign that ends with the World Cup.
It was also played during a northern hemisphere summer with sweltering temperatures imposing even greater physical demands on players.
There were ‘some negatives’, says Infantino
Prior the final, Infantino admitted there had been “some negatives” but still branded the Club World Cup the “most successful club competition in the world”.
Marchi, whose organisation was not invited to a pre-tournament briefing on player welfare, disagreed, and compared Infantino to Roman emperor Nero who was renown for lavish extravagance and his disregard for human life.
He said: “What was presented as a global celebration of football was nothing more than a fiction created by FIFA, promoted by its president, without dialogue, sensitibity, and respect for those who sustain the game with their daily efforts.
“A grandiloquent staging inevitably reminiscent of the ‘bread and circuses’ of Nero’s Rome, entertainment for the masses while behind the scenes inequality, precariousness, and the lack of protection for the true protagonists deepen.”
FIFA must learn the lessons from the Club World Cup – Marchi
FIFA has already revealed it will use indoor, air-conditioned venues for daytime fixtures at next summer’s World Cup that will also be staged in the US.
And Marchi is hoping other lessons will be learned.
He added: “What happened cannot be repeated under any circumstances at next year’s World Cup.
“We have been warning about the overcrowded schedule, the lack of physical and mental rest for players, and the lack of dialogue on the part of Fifa. This way of organising tournaments, without listening to the federation that represents the world’s professional footballers’ associations, is unilateral, authoritarian, and based solely on a logic of economic profitability, not human sustenability.
“We cannot continue to play with the health of players to fuel a marketing machine. There is no spectacle possible if the voices of the protagonists are silenced.”