Cod Almighty | Diary
You better free your mind instead
31 July 2026
What has FIFA got to do with Grimsby Town? What have hydration breaks and quartered games, political interference and suspended/not suspended players, presidential photo ops and nepotistic dealings got to do with the ongoing operation of a delightful slice of the east coast of England? How can we not be involved with the reputation and mechanics of the game as played, as expected, as overseen. It's a trust thing.
How much might we trust Joshua Kushner? Josh is a 41-year-old businessman and venture capitalist. A venture capitalist provides funds to start-ups that show particular inclination towards growth and profit potential. All a venture capitalist asks for in return is a slice of the pie. So, he's an American who helps others achieve their very American dreams while living his own.
You may be familiar with his surname. His father, Charles, was a very successful real estate developer and a prominent political donator who served time in prison for irregular donations, tax evasion and witness tampering. Or perhaps you've heard of his brother, Jared. Jared Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump, daughter of Gianni Infantino's best friend, and receiver of zombie-handed peace prize, Donald.
Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump's son-in-law, is the founder and owner of Thrive Capital, a venture capital company based in New York. TC specialises in funding software and internet investments, yet its latest investment idea is to help Infantino's FIFA to sell shares in the World Cup. Football as a start-up business venture? Who'd have thought it?
Greg Maffei, former head of Liberty Media who own F1, (also a donor for Trump) is the commercial consultant for the deal. He has said there is no plan to sell the World Cup; only 20% of a newly founded company to oversee commercial media rights to FIFA's competitions will be sold, meaning 80% will remain FIFA's alone. What's all the fuss about, he's basically saying. It's just an opportunity to make a bit of money. What's wrong with that?
This whole plot seems to have been cooked up by Infantino and a cadre of Trump's inner circle. Trump – the man who knows all about everything, especially sport and whether or not a player deserves to be suspended – has made monetisation an amoral pursuit. If there's profit, there's no question, only success or failure. Infantino has asked football associations and federations across the world which they want.
And he's asked it in a typically Trumpian style: say yes and you get $40m. Say no and you lose 75% of that. A promise and a threat all wrapped up and tied off with a bow. Sounds like another football leader we know all too well. Infantino's and Maffei's comments read like a Fenty statement. I expected to see the word "benign" in those quoted percentages.
Associations and federations have denounced Infantino's plans, UEFA going as far as promising to boycott FIFA competitions. Infantino and the rest will, Trump-like, double down for now and raise stories of the death of the game in smaller nations that desperately need this influx of cash.
We have a domestic comparison: the Football League Trophy. Forcing B teams into this established cup competition has effectively killed it. We don't even need to go into the practice of forcing never-going-to-be-in-the-first-team players onto experienced fans and pros, we can see the corruption of this 'competition' in the bloating of bigger teams' academies. The elite, in this case the Premier League, provide guaranteed cash prizes just for taking part. That dribble of pounds means enough clubs will say yes. And the elite maintain their ownership of an excess of young talent, reducing the sustainability and effectiveness of lower league academies.
Do we romanticise football's ownership? Do we sleep and dream, pillowed by that naive concept of the people's game? Andy Burnham has weighed in with comments about football for the fans. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is drawing lines in the sand. Easy political points scoring or words that are more than truisms and hold some facts? The former, sadly, in my view. We trust Stockwood and Pettit's insistence that they are custodians of a thing that belongs to fans. We didn't trust the last guy. Will there be a next guy?
A trust thing? So much of it has been burnt. If UEFA stick to their guns, then the game is almost certainly up. But bear in mind this is the same UEFA who failed to push back against the super league. The same UEFA who have altered their competitions to allow elite clubs greater revenues and more excuses to complain about the numbers of domestic fixtures. FIFA, UEFA, the FA, the EFL, none of them have Grimsby Town in their strategies. Increasingly, the world of football is run by a robber-baron few whose only moral measurements are their stock market values. Remember Charles Kushner? His criminal record? Trump pardoned him and he's now the American ambassador to France. Nice work if you can get it.