LA LIGA PRESIDENT BRANDS INFANTINO'S FIFA DEFENCE 'PATHETIC '

President Donald Trump (left) and Fifa President Gianni Infantino watch confetti fall at the conclusion of the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, July 19, 2026

GIANNI INFANTINO’S extraordinary Instagram post accusing Fifa’s critics of spreading “hate” has been dismissed as “pathetic” by La Liga president Javier Tebas.

The Fifa president’s 15-page message came before confirmation on Monday that Democrats in the US Congress were investigating him amid what they described as “mounting evidence of potential corruption and a possible quid pro quo between Fifa and the Trump administration.”

Infantino’s social media post had advised those “spending their time and energy hating us” to “meditate, pray, or watch a football match,” drawing a scathing response from Tebas.

“Gianni Infantino has written a pathetic message on his Instagram account and on the accounts of @FIFAcom,” Tebas wrote on his own X account.

“No-one disputes that football is emotion and unity. But transparency, good governance, and accountability are never hate; they are an obligation.

“Strong institutions do not discredit those who ask questions; they answer the questions. And a reflection Gianni: when a leader dedicates an entire message to disqualifying those who exercise legitimate scrutiny, it’s inevitable to wonder… why precisely now?

“Is there something that explains such a defensive tone? Is something happening that we don’t know about?”

The US house judiciary committee has called Infantino before it to examine what it describes as “Fifa’s sustained campaign to secure special favours from President Trump – including the dismissal of high-profile corruption cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars tied to Fifa – while American consumers were gouged by exorbitant World Cup ticket prices.”

The letter cited the introduction of the “hilariously fake” Fifa Peace Prize which was awarded to President Trump last December, the renting of office space at Trump Tower as examples of acts designed “to induce President Trump and his administration to make decisions in Fifa’s favour.”

The letter requests documents and information be sent to the Committee by 10pm BST on August 9.

Fifa has been contacted for comment.

- Morning Star

LA LIGA PRESIDENT ISSUES STATEMENT ABOUT FIFA BOSS GIANNI INFANTINO AFTER 2026 WORLDNCUP RANT

 La Liga president Javier Tebas has issued a stinging statement in response to Gianni Infantino’s 2026 World Cup rant.

Infantino has been accused of going ‘full Donald Trump’ with an unexpected statement posted on FIFA’s official website and across 15 slides on his Instagram account.

The under-fire FIFA president blasted critics of the 2026 World Cup, claiming they’ve been “consumed by hate” and urging them to “meditate, pray or watch a football match” in order to “find peace”.

Infantino claimed this summer’s tournament in North America featured “no violence, no incidents, 100% safety and security” - ignoring the fact four supporters tragically died during World Cup celebrations in Mexico City.

He defended the treatment of Iran’s national football team, issues over visas, and even the hugely controversial Folarin Balogun red card situation.

“Indeed, ‘arguable’ referees' decisions or ‘strange’ disciplinary rulings such as for instance potentially mistaken red or yellow cards or subsequent decisions not to ban players in certain situations are routine and widely accepted in some of the biggest leagues worldwide,” Infantino wrote. “It's curious that the same countries employing these practices are the ones criticising.”

La Liga President Responds to Infantino's World Cup Statement

REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

Rather than convince people that the 2026 World Cup was a tournament without any downsides, Infantino’s statement appears to have had the opposite effect.

The “lame-duck FIFA president” now finds himself under even more scrutiny, with La Liga president Tebas tweeting:

"Today Gianni Infantino has written a pathetic message on his Instagram account and on the accounts of FIFA.

"No one disputes that football is emotion and unity. But transparency, good governance, and accountability are never hate; they are an obligation. Strong institutions do not discredit those who ask questions; they answer the questions.

"And a reflection Gianni: when a leader dedicates an entire message to disqualifying those who exercise legitimate scrutiny, it's inevitable to wonder... why precisely now? Is there something that explains such a defensive tone? Is something happening that we don't know about?"

Infantino Called to Appear Before Congress Over Trump Ties

Reuters/Mark J Rebilas

Meanwhile, Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, has launched an investigation into Infantino, seeking documents that would detail the ties between FIFA and US President Donald Trump and his administration, per The Guardian.

“[Y]our election as FIFA president was supposed to mark a red-card break from a decades-long culture of corruption and scandals that dressed down world soccer’s reputation,” Raskin wrote to Infantino in the letter.

“Instead, at the start of your tenure, you dismantled FIFA’s ethical guardrails and disabled the organization’s ethics committee by pushing out most of its members. This lack of transparency and oversight has since paved the way for you to ingratiate yourself with the Trump administration via tactics that a New York University law professor and one of your former ethics committeemen described as ‘legal bribery’.”

Trump, who has close ties with Infantino, has reportedly lined up a potential new job for the under-pressure FIFA president.

- Rob Swan

LALIGA PULLS OUT OF MIAMI FIXTURE CITING 'UNCERTAINTY' IN SPAIN

 

October 21 – Spain’s LaLiga has officially cancelled its proposed Villareal-Barcelona regular season match in Miami on December 20 after “conversations” with its US promoter Relevent Sports, and citing “uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks”.

Opposition to playing the game in Miami had met with widespread condemnation from football’s stakeholders globally and in the last few days from the Spanish player’s union and individual players who said the match would have damaged the competitive integrity of the league in favour of Barcelona as Villareal is a tough away game for any team in the league.

In a remarkable attack on the governing bodies of countries outside Spain, LaLiga said: “The project fully complied with all federative regulations and did not affect the integrity of the competition, as confirmed by the competent institutions responsible for ensuring compliance, which opposed it for other reasons.”

The statement is at best a mis-leading half truth, in that the game was never fully sanctioned. While the Spanish FA (RFEF) meekly gave its sanction and UEFA ‘reluctantly’ did the same, neither the US Soccer Federation (USSF)or Concacaf, the two most important governing bodies covering the game in the US, where LaLiga and Relevent needed local permission to play, had not given their go-ahead.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas had said to the world’s media at a conference 10 days ago that getting the sanctions was purely an administrative process.

His comment was immediately met with a terse statement from Concacaf saying that the application had to go through due process and that it was conducting a review that involved consulting all of its stakeholders, as well as those in other regions. That process would be completed before any decision would be made, said Concacaf.

While the USSF had remained silent on sanctioning, Concacaf had neither declined or approved the application but had remained focussed on football’s eco-system both in its own region and member nation, where focus is on growing domestic leagues, their clubs and regional club competition. Thought was also being given to the impact and future consequences for stakeholders outside the Concacaf region.

UEFA’s decision to sanction the match was made on the basis that FIFA’s rules lacked legal clarity and hence felt pressured into sanctioning a game they didn’t want to. FIFA is currently undergoing a legal review of its statutes in this respect.

In its statement LaLiga also pointed the finger at the Premier League and UEFA and its Champions League (for which UEFA currently has Relevent as its new sales partner), saying that they “continue to expand their reach and ability to generate revenue, initiatives like this are essential to ensure the sustainability and growth of Spanish soccer.”

The difference is that neither the Premier League or UEFA are trying to play games in the US backyard for commercial gain. LaLiga is essentially admitting that it has been unable to compete on an equal footing commercially with its own product in the broadcast media market.

“Holding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global growth of the competition, strengthening the international presence of clubs, the positioning of players, and the visibility of Spanish soccer in a strategic market such as the United States…” said LaLiga.

“Renouncing such opportunities hinders the generation of new income, limits clubs’ capacity to invest and compete, and reduces the international projection of the entire Spanish soccer ecosystem.”

LaLiga had put tickets on pre-sale for the December fixture. No figures have been released on how many tickets have been sold, but the assumption is that it is not enough to continue to battle through the discontent of football’s North American and global opinion.

Renouncing such opportunities hinders the generation of new income, limits clubs’ capacity to invest and compete, and reduces the international projection of the entire Spanish soccer ecosystem.

In a separate statement, Relevent said it had informed La Liga of the need “to postpone” the match, arguing that the uncertainty in Spain had left “insufficient time to properly execute an event of this scale”.

For Relevent it is perhaps a fortunate end to what was increasingly looking like an uncomfortable problem, and a potentially growing conflict of interest, taking into account their new Champions League contract with UEFA

- Paul Nicholson 

LA LIGA PRESIDENT WEIGHS IN ON BARCELONA-ATHLETIC CLUB TIFF OVER NICO WILLIAMS - 'WILL HAVE TO COMPLY WITH THE REGULATIONS'

Photo by Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images For Sporte

Barcelona and Athletic Club are at a silent war over the Nico Williams saga. After all, the Catalans are close to signing the Basque superstar and Athletic Club are anything but pleased with the development.

At this point, they have done everything in their capacity to complicate the transfer but they crossed a limit earlier this week by meeting with La Liga representatives to express concern about Barcelona’s financial situation.

Tebas speaks on the case

Speaking to the media via Mundo Deportivo and clarifying the recent incidents in an interview, La Liga president Javier Tebas brought out the truth about the conversation Athletic Club had with him.

“Bilbao complained because Deco’s statement expressed his desire to sign the player,” he said, bringing out the intention behind the Basque club’s approach.

“According to FIFA regulations, he is in a protected period, and we have no authority to interfere with that,” he added.

Elaborating on the implications on Barcelona and what the club must be wary of, he said,

"What we will do, as we have always done, is that FC Barcelona will have to comply with the regulations in order to register players, whether it is Nico Williams, Haaland, Messi, whoever. And we will not change anything.”

Tebas also took an indirect dig towards the Athletic Club for releasing a public statement on the matter and how it was unnecessary.

“Athletic Club Bilbao doesn’t need to issue any statement. It’s our duty to clarify doubts about Financial Fair Play. We are transparent.”

"We don’t reveal the deep economic details of clubs, but it is known that there was a meeting of the Division Committee in February, in which the reasons for the salary caps were explained, and the situation of Barcelona was explained because we have the Olmo case,” he added on how Athletic Club knew of Barcelona’s situation.

Tebas also confirmed that Barcelona are still not in the 1:1 rule but that they are not far from reaching it.

“Barcelona doesn’t have a 1-1 rule, and I hope they achieve it as soon as possible. They already know what they need to do to be in the rule.”

“Bilbao also knows what Barcelona must do, because we were very transparent in February so that no one would question Financial Fair Play,” he concluded.

- Adithya Eshwarla

BALLON D'OR: LALIGA BOSS CRITICISES REAL MADRID FOR NO-SHOW

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has criticised Real Madrid for boycotting the Ballon d'Or ceremony in Paris on Monday.

Los Blancos cancelled their planned trip to the French capital after finding out that Manchester City midfielder Rodri would be announced as the winner of the prestigious award ahead of Real Madrid's Vinícius Júnior.

Despite Vinícius missing out, Madrid were named as the best men's club of the season and its manager Carlo Ancelotti won the award for the best coach.

"I am a Real Madrid fan," Tebas told L'Equipe.

"The most important values of this club are being a gentleman and shaking hands when you lose. I think Real Madrid lost that spirit a long time ago. They should have gone to the ceremony and not questioned France Football's system, which is transparent, with 100 journalists voting. Real's victimhood is unnecessary and exaggerated.

"I don't know where they want to go."

Former Real Madrid star Karim Benzema, meanwhile, felt Madrid's disappointment was justified as Vinícius was the best player last season.

Vinícius scored 24 goals and provided 11 assists in all competitions last season for LaLiga champions Madrid, including his team's second goal in their Champions League final win against Borussia Dortmund.

"When Real Madrid were European champions last season, Vinícius was decisive in every game," the 2022 Ballon d'Or winner Benzema told El Chiringuito. "I don't think there is anyone else who deserves it more than him.

"It's a bit sad and I don't feel good for Vinícius, who deserves the Ballon d'Or."

Benzema said Vinícius' talent is more noticeable than that of Rodri.

"I have nothing against Rodri, who is a good player," he said. "But I'm on my couch, I watch television and Rodri doesn't do things that make me say: 'Pffff,' and Vinícius has done that more than once."

Benzema, who now plays for Saudi Pro League Al Ittihad, is convinced the Brazilian forward will one day win the Ballon d'Or.

"Yesterday I was talking to Vinícius, he is strong to work and one day he will have it [the Ballon d'Or]," he said. "He was sad. It's normal. It's a bit complicated when everyone sees you winning the Ballon d'Or and in the end, a day before or a few hours before they tell you that you're not going to win it.

"Vinícius is a good man, he will work and one day win the Ballon d'Or."

- Adriana Garcia

JOSEP BARTOMEU RESIGNS | FC BARCA TO JOIN EUROPEAN SUPER CUP

 Josep Maria Bartomeu steps down before no-confidence vote at FC Barcelona.