Even cold hard cash isn't enough for this spent force

Pep Guardiola has witnessed his empire start to fall as ‘forever football’ takes its toll, writes Miguel Delaney

- Miguel Delaney

By the last few weeks of 2024, there were senior figures in football complaining that they were “spent”. That’s not simply players who went the distance in competitions like Euro 2024, either. You only have to look at Pep Guardiola right now. It's a feeling shared by many officials. The sport has become non-stop, in terms of pure news and content as much as the continuous calendar. That is one legacy of 2024 for the game, in how “forever football” was finalised, but it says much that it won’t even be the biggest consequence of the year. So much more could yet change.

It is almost fitting, given such constant noise and place-setting, that the year built up to two developments in the space of mere days that will completely reshape the game’s future. On Thursday 5 December, the Premier League hearing on the Manchester City case concluded. On Wednesday 11 December, Fifa awarded the 2030 and 2034 World Cups to MoroccoPortugal-Spain and Saudi Arabia, respectively, by “acclamation”.

The effects of both are going to be profound. The outcome of the City hearing, which is understood to have been an extremely disciplined process, will change the Premier League as we know it. The Premier League’s global prominence means that the anticipated February outcome will change the rest of the sport, although that will be in a new world influenced by the World Cup decisions.

So much of football is now going to be geared towards 2034, especially with the sheer amount of money that Saudi Arabia is willing to spend. The next decade is going to be filled with debate about that tournament but there is one aspect that feels beyond argument before you get to any of the various issues. The image of Gianni Infantino telling officials on a Matrix-style display of screens how to “applaud” a predetermined “decision” is one that should become infamous, a modern rival for Sepp Blatter’s shock when he had to read out “Qatar”.