Fifa president Gianni Infantino held talks about rebranding the ill-fated European breakaway competition the “Fifa Super League” in 2021, with negotiations progressing as far as a term sheet for an agreement that would have reshaped global football. The document, whose full contents are revealed for the first time, proposes renaming any new competition under Fifa’s branding and outlines the extent of Infantino’s administration involvement in a scheme that later sparked widespread fan protests and excluded clubs.
Term sheet details
The term sheet, seen by the Guardian, sets out a partnership of at least 12 years between Fifa and the Super League, proposing a joint venture to run commercial operations. It also reveals that Fifa was prepared to sideline its member associations in pushing plans to reduce the number of international windows, and would have been granted special governance and political rights via a “golden share”. The document proposes that an iteration of Fifa’s expanded Club World Cup, referred to as the “global club competition”, would be held annually over a three-week period and tied directly to the Super League. That tournament would have been a straight knockout competition, unlike the group-based version relaunched in 2025.
Infantino’s involvement
Infantino was among several Fifa staff involved in the project and is understood to have been fully aware of its progression. The term sheet says the founding clubs “want to agree the terms of a partnership” between the Super League and Fifa, leading to the creation of two competitions. It follows an initial proposal to Fifa by the breakaway clubs, also seen by the Guardian, that sketches the framework for a potential agreement. While non-binding, a term sheet is generally the precursor to a definitive contract and suggests discussions were nearing a conclusion at the time.
It is unclear whether Infantino and Fifa progressed their role beyond the term-sheet stage. After a version of the scheme was launched without Fifa’s direct involvement in April 2021, ultimately scrapped following large-scale protests, Infantino addressed Uefa’s congress in Montreux saying his organisation could “only strongly disapprove the creation of the Super League”. Multiple sources have stated that an earlier conversation with Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, convened by a third party, hastened Fifa’s president distancing himself from the venture. Infantino is understood to have told associates afterwards that he had no wish to work against football’s institutions.
Golden share and governance
The league would have contained 15 permanent members and five clubs qualifying from existing competitions. It also commits to creating a women’s equivalent, using the same clubs, by an unspecified date. The term sheet refers to Fifa under the name “WO1”, which is also the name used in the British army for a high-ranking officer. In a section outlining the agreement’s key components, it says the Super League “is open to discuss naming the competition WO1 SL”. It also confirms Fifa would be “granted a preferred equity stake in the Super League”, giving it decision-making power on format changes, calendar alterations, distribution of solidarity money, and the appointment of a chief executive for the competition.
Reaction and impact
Senior figures within European football are understood to have been shocked by the plan to drastically shrink the number of international windows, squeezing them into two fortnight-long spaces each year. Member associations, many of whom are being courted for support by Infantino as he battles to save his tenure this week, may have lost commercial opportunities from added visibility for their national teams and found themselves at the behest of a privately-run club competition. A separate point in the earlier proposal also notes “reduction of leagues” as a point for discussion. The term sheet states that “a new international match calendar” devised by Fifa, the Super League, and “other relevant stakeholders” would be reviewed and implemented with Fifa’s agreement.
Clubs and context
Clubs participating in the Super League would have been required to join the World Football Club Association (WFCA), a short-lived representative body launched by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez in 2019. Real Madrid were key drivers of the Super League scheme and only closed the door on the project when announcing an agreement with Uefa in February this year. Fifa’s close proximity to the Super League proposal adds to the growing number of privately-backed ventures brought to the table by Infantino during his 10-year reign. In 2018, he pressed the case for a $25bn offer from SoftBank to create an expanded Club World Cup and global Nations League. Close allies within Fifa are understood to have cautioned him against the plan, which failed to gain support after opposition from Europe.
Fifa was approached for comment but did not respond. The revelations come in a week when football is reeling from the fallout after Infantino scrapped his plan to sell chunks of the World Cup to private investors, casting further doubt on his assertion that he had no wish to work against football’s institutions.
