{"id":265190,"date":"2026-08-05T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?post_type=snippet&p=265190"},"modified":"2026-08-04T19:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:29:20","slug":"not-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"snippet","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/snippet\/not-for-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Not for sale?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Infantino\u2019s \u201cshabby, opaque, backroom deal\u201d apparently prepared in secret with private capital is ditched after UEFA and others statement <\/a> that \u201cdemonstrated to FIFA\u2019s President that football is not for sale\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hang on!! Football was sold long ago and is increasingly organised to suit pay-to-view media. This explains why fans of EPL and EFL teams now \u2018benefit\u2019 from league matches on any day from Friday to Tuesday at kick-off times to suit the TV schedules (and bugger the away fans!). This is also why the mis-named Champions League has so much group-stage dross (similarly for the Copa Libertadores) to plug so many mid-week gaps.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the sport I love is now just an interlude between ads for bookies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-265190","snippet","type-snippet","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet\/265190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/snippet"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}