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tedgghtoday at 7:44 PM8 repliesview on HN

Why is this out of the gate bad? Note that this is not taking FIFA to private equity, but creating an investors owned subsidiary to run events and commercial operations where the non profit arm will still own 80% of it. With the right protections it could help FIFA make more money and reinvest in the sport, particularly women’s football. FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA. Soccer is by far the most popular sport on the planet, the fact that it makes a lot less money than hockey is insane.


Replies

jotajota24today at 7:49 PM

Why is it bad to sell 20% of the biggest tournament in the world to a private company lead by people involved with the most corrupt administration in the history of the US? The model has been working fine for decades, why does it matter that it makes less than american sports?

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sailingparrottoday at 9:01 PM

You are comparing apple and oranges, it makes no sense.

> Soccer is by far the most popular sport on the planet, the fact that it makes a lot less money than hockey is insane.

Soccer makes much much more money than the NHL, it just doesn't all go to FIFA because the vast majority of matches are not organized by FIFA.

The premier league alone makes more than the NHL and that's just one of the european countries. La ligua, bundesliga also each make close to what the NHL makes with much smaller populations.

The fair comparison to FIFA is the IIHF. They make $35M for the hockey world championships vs 15B for the football world cup, you are slightly off, a rounding error.

triceratopstoday at 8:00 PM

> FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes, not the NFL, not NBA.

FIFA holds one significant money-making tournament for a month every 4 years (all due respect to the Women's World Cup in terms of prestige, but its revenue is a small fraction of the Men's World Cup). The NHL runs 6 months a year annually.

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millhouse_amstoday at 8:06 PM

NHL/NFL/NBA are national leagues, the FIFA world cup a tournament that takes place every four years. You’re comparing apples and pears.

xxstoday at 8:45 PM

As a pundit - more 'water works', the addition in the last world cup was beyond lame.

>FIFA currently makes 40% of what the NHL makes,

That's entirely irrelevant, if FIFA even makes zero - most of the money is in the local leagues. FIFA is just there for the world cup

warkdarriortoday at 8:24 PM

> Soccer is by far the most popular sport on the planet, the fact that it makes a lot less money than hockey is insane.

Maybe fans would prefer that it stayed that way.. making just enough money to keep the sport going, without the profit motive.

rassimmoctoday at 8:03 PM

don't be naive. Never in the history of humanity did corrupt billionaire pedophiles do anything help the sport/fans/women/..... They want a piece to get the foot in the door. 10 years from now, we wont even recognise football anymore.

I don't care what american billionaires make with nhl/nfl/..., hands fucking off of football.

monkey_monkeytoday at 8:36 PM

> Soccer is by far the most popular sport on the planet, the fact that it makes a lot less money than hockey is insane.

The NFL makes much less money than nVidia The world has gone mad! That's just insane.