Chatting to a senior figure in football the other day, he made a prediction of the next battleground pitting money against power. We should place it under the heading — an increasingly necessary question — of “Who runs sport?”How, he wondered, could Fifa expect to borrow all the world’s best footballers for a World Cup, generating more than $6 billion (about £4.3 billion), and get away with compensating the clubs who own and pay these superstars with only $209 million (about £149 million), or three per cent — especially when there remained a lack of trust in Fifa to use the money judiciously and with minimal wastage or indulgence? SponsoredRory McIlroy has been outspoken in his opposition to the Saudi Arabia-funded breakaway golf league MADDIE MEYER/GETTY IMAGESEven if that $209 million was tripled from the 2014 tournament to pacify the clubs,

Source: The Times May 13, 2021 15:56 UTC