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Eamon Dunphy column: Football versus Gianni Infantino, Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump is a fight to the death

Liverpool and the World Cup have turned into frontlines in the battle to save the beautiful game

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Eamon Dunphy

12:57, 18 Aug 2026Updated 12:58, 18 Aug 2026

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino and US President Donald Trump(Image: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

The row between Gianni Infantino and the rest of the football world is a massive threat to the beautiful game.

Infantinos attempt to hijack the World Cup and to sell it off - with the support of the Donald Trumps of this world - remains a mortal threat to football, because it will turn the game into an even bigger money-making racket than we saw this summer.

All the values we cherish about football will be gone. Decisions will be made on how certain interests and investments are best served.

It is true to say football has never faced anything like this particular threat.

And I honestly cant believe it took the FAI so long to come out with a statement withdrawing their support for Infantino and his re-election bid.

While it is claimed that the sell-off plan is off the table, football is in grave danger while Infantino remains in charge.

Trumps intervention in the World Cup, for example, when the US player Folarin Balogun was rightly suspended, is a clear example of the direction in which the game is heading.

The ad breaks, turning the match into quarters, and the World Cup final half-time show - these should never have happened. But what's to stop them happening in the future?

Half-time in the World Cup final was nearly 30 minutes long.

If you have ever played the game as an amateur or a pro, you will know that if you stop for so long in the middle of a 90-minute game, your muscles will seize up.

These people have no respect for football history, no knowledge of football history and no awareness or concern for the consequences of their actions. Its all about making money.

Are we going to see hydration breaks creep into schoolboy leagues here, the League of Ireland and the Premier League?

Will we have a half-time show for big games like cup finals?

The World Cup final half-time show was rubbish, by the way.

Football is being taken away from the people who love it, the people who understand it and the people who dream of playing it. Powerful people are messing with the dreams of ordinary people.

Football is a game for ordinary people. We all grew up dreaming about playing this beautiful game. Its what Lionel Messi grew up dreaming about, just like all the greats, stretching back to Bobby Charlton and George Best.

Now we have people that are determined to change it and improve it - but what they are really trying to do is change the game so they can make more money.

This really hit me last week. Im a Liverpool supporter and the fact that Jeff Bezos has taken a 30 percent stake in the club is very bad news.

There are all kinds of safeguards, they say. Tell that to the staff at the Washington Post.

Bezos bought the Washington Post, behaved himself for a while and then before the US presidential elections things got messy.

He blocked the newspapers editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris and the newspaper lost 200,000 subscribers. Many of its staff resigned in protest.

This is the newspaper that broke Watergate, that brought down the Richard Nixon presidency.

This man, with his obscene amount of money, took it over and in one fell swoop he wiped out the traditions and ethos of the paper.

The Washington Post is effectively a shell of what it once was.

Whats to stop him doing the same to Liverpool Football Club?

His consortium has a minority stake now, but they have the option to purchase a controlling stake within 12 months.

So they can say he has no power, or he is not going to do this or that, but lets not kid ourselves here.

Bezos will be a big player and he has enough money to buy Liverpool Football Club 50 times over.

At the moment he is just happy to be there, but what happens if they start losing matches or if players need to be bought or sold?

Will we see dynamic pricing come into the game, pricing ordinary fans out of watching their team? I wouldnt rule anything out.

Look at Chelsea under Todd Boehly. They signed a bunch of players they didnt need and ended up with a squad that was far too big.

They went last summer to play in a Mickey Mouse tournament, the Club World Cup, came home and couldnt buy a win in the Premier League. Now this great club is in recovery mode.

Americans are different, they see sport differently to the rest of us. They will interfere not for the benefit of the game, but to make more money.

They see sport as a spectacle, but football is not a spectacle, its passion. Its the greatest game in the world and they have finally cottoned onto it.

We are in a battle now and people need to speak up - players, supporters and traditional club owners.

Everyone who loves the game should be aware that we are in a fight to the death.

If people like Bezos and Infantinos and Trump win, the game will soon be unrecognisable, with ad breaks, hydration breaks, half-time shows and all kinds of rackets.

To hold a position of power in football you have got to love the game and understand it, and the game has to love you back.

Football is the greatest of all sports and thats why I love it, its why I wanted to play it. But it is in grave danger. We must understand that and be prepared to fight.

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