World Cup brand deals score David Beckham £39m payout Retail David Beckham has taken a £38.9m payout from his personal business empire after World Cup brand deals drove record income for the former English football captain. DRJB Holdings, the company which represents Beckham’s business activities, posted a 20 per cent uplift in revenue to $110.5m (£84m) in 2025, as profit nearly doubled to $66m (£50m). [...]
Musk lawyer Spiro to represent Kushner in World Cup sell-off legal row Sport Business Alex Spiro, the US attorney whose repeat clients include Elon Musk and Jay-Z, will represent Joshua Kushner in the legal row over Fifa’s proposed World Cup sell-off. Spiro successfully defended Musk in his notorious “Pedo Guy” defamation trial, had Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges dismissed and has acted for Jay-Z in both commercial and civil [...]
Fifa crisis shows that fans must get a say in who succeeds Infantino as president Sport Business Gianni Infantino has inadvertently shown fans that the Fifa president matters, so maybe we should rethink how we elect one, argues Matt Readman. A year ago, I wrote an article arguing that the role of a sports leader was to be a caretaker, not a king. The warning was simple: make the story about yourself and [...]
Uefa threatens Infantino with criminal complaint as Fifa row takes explosive twist August 27, 2026 Uefa has dramatically escalated its attempts to oust Gianni Infantino by taking the first legal steps towards making a criminal complaint against the Fifa president. Lawyers for European football’s governing body have lodged a request with a US court for a raft of documents and correspondence regarding the now-abandoned World Cup sell-off that could be [...]
Saudi Arabia backs Gianni Infantino ‘at this time’ in major boost to Fifa president August 27, 2026 Embattled Fifa president Gianni Infantino has received a major boost after Saudi Arabia, the host of the 2034 World Cup and a long-standing ally, backed his bid to stay in power. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation had stayed conspicuously silent since Infantino’s position was plunged into crisis by revelations that he was planning to partly [...]
England stars back player-led calls for Fifa president Infantino to quit August 25, 2026 Gianni Infantino is facing more calls to step down from Fifa insiders after Mikael Silvestre, a member of its Players’ Voice Panel, joined the chorus of dissent. Former Manchester United and France defender Silvestre, who also hosted a podcast for Fifa during this summer’s World Cup, posted a statement titled “Enough is Enough” on social [...]
Was Fifa able to sack senior exec Lamour without consequences? A lawyer explains August 24, 2026 Fifa’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has been shown the ultimate red card after being sacked from his senior executive role last week. The dismissal followed Lamour’s recent criticism of Gianni Infantino’s proposal to sell a stake in Fifa’s tournament business. Despite Fifa U-turning on this decision after a strong backlash, it appears that no [...]
Uefa boss Ceferin rules out running against ‘naive’ Fifa president Infantino August 24, 2026 Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has ruled out running for the top job at Fifa but warned that efforts to oust Gianni Infantino will not stop. Infantino is battling to save his job after sparking widespread outrage when his now-abandoned plan to partly privatise the World Cup leaked earlier this month. He has resisted calls from [...]
Holiday Inn owner suffers Middle East slowdown as Iran war hits tourism August 11, 2026 The owner of Holiday Inn has suffered a slump in revenue at its Middle Eastern business as the Iran war knocked the region’s tourist economy. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) said its revenue per available room in the Middle East slipped by 19 per cent in the three months to June. This followed a two per [...]
Fifa crisis: Is it possible to defend Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan? August 6, 2026 Crafting a defence of Infantino isn’t easy, but it is possible to assemble both a behavioural excuse and a commercial justification for the Fifa president’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup. One newspaper evocatively likened Gianni Infantino to Icarus at the weekend after his proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup melted [...]