UEFA Seek Infantino Rival as Chelsea Eye Alex Scott | Ben Jacobs Newsletter

GiveMeSport

UEFA Seek Infantino Challenger as Chelsea Eye Alex Scott

Ben Jacobs rounds up the FIFA politics around Gianni Infantino and the latest transfer news. He argues a challenger to Infantino could still emerge, Alex Scott may leave Bournemouth in January with Chelsea and Liverpool interested, and Jadon Sancho is in talks with GAFE. He also says Phil Parkinson is under pressure at Wrexham.

UEFA executives are searching for a challenger to Gianni Infantino ahead of the 2027 FIFA presidential election, while Chelsea and Liverpool could battle for Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott in January. Ben Jacobs covers the growing pressure on Infantino, UEFA's efforts to identify a presidential rival, and the names potentially in contention, including Luis Figo. We also examine FIFA's proposed funding increase for member associations and what it could mean for the upcoming election. In the latest transfer news, Bournemouth could be open to selling Alex Scott in January, with Chelsea among the frontrunners and Liverpool potentially entering the race. Ben Jacobs explains Bournemouth's £100m-plus starting valuation and the conditions that could determine whether Scott leaves. Elsewhere, Jadon Sancho is in formal talks with Getafe following his Manchester United exit, while Phil Parkinson faces mounting pressure at Wrexham. Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker are among the managers who would be interested should the Wrexham job become available. Chapters: 00:00 UEFA's search for a Gianni Infantino challenger 01:37 Infantino's FIFA funding proposal 03:16 Luis Figo and other potential FIFA presidential candidates 05:05 Chelsea and Liverpool's interest in Alex Scott 08:00 Jadon Sancho's Getafe negotiations 09:18 Phil Parkinson's future at Wrexham 10:50 Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker's interest in Wrexham FIFA ChelseaFC FootballNews Subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/user/GiveMeSport Follow GiveMeSport! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GiveMeSport/ X: https://twitter.com/GiveMeSport Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/givemesport/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@givemesport Our Website: https://www.givemesport.com/ For copyright matters please contact us at: legal@givemesport.com

Transcript

Hello and welcome along to the latest of my GMS newsletters. Ben Jacobs with you on a busy week for both transfer and FIFA news. So I want to start with FIFA because at the time of recording the FIFA Congress is currently meeting in Zurich and my understanding is that senior UEFA executives are still looking for a challenger to rival Jeani Infantino between now and the deadline of November the 18th. The election is in March next year. Infantino quite bullish. He's made one amendment to the FIFA Council, stopping FIFA's judicial committee from taking an automatic one-ame ban at FIFA tournaments and suspending it, which is what happened with Flo Balagan controversially at the World Cup when of course, as I exclusively revealed, the US President Donald Trump called Jeani Infantino and asked him to review that particular matter. Now, Infantino is clear that he had no personal involvement in the decision-making process and yet UEFA executives including Debbie Huitt from the FA want a full explanation and all documentation around that decision published for accountability. Infantino is also battling since his failed FIFA forward enterprise plans which had intended to part privatize FIFA essentially therefore selling off World Cup stakes and again infantino now in Zurich with some of his fissist critics including Norwegian FA chief Lisa Claves, Laura Mallister, UEFA VP Alexander Shefferin as well but for Infantino you know, he's trying to weather the storm. And what he's done quite smartly, many people believe, is given more funding to each of FIFA's 211 member association. So now in the next funding cycle, the proposal is that instead of 10 million US, a further 15 million US is given in addition for 2027 through to 2031. So that number inclusive of those four years. And this is about Infantino dipping into FIFA's reserves and funding all the different FIFA members. And with it being one member, one vote, those kind of numbers to some of the smaller federations are gamechanging. But this is really off the back of an idea suggested by UEFA and Conqueraf. Victor Montaglleani and Alexander Sheffin had written to Infantino and told him to use FIFA's reserves. Their suggestion was an extra 10 million in funding. Infantino has put forwards a proposal for 15 million. So more money to the member federations. And yet don't discount a challenger against Infantino between now and that deadline of November the 18th. Rammon Vega, the former Tottenham defender, is the only person so far to come forwards. Vega will have to convince FIFA that he's been in a football related role for at least two years within the last five and in addition, he'll need five federations to back him as well. But other names still could come forwards. Now, when I spoke to Nasa Alfi a few weeks ago in Copenhagen, he told me he has quote zero ambition to stand and yet he would be popular. Victor Montaglani says that he's standing for Conquer Cafe again so has ruled himself out. Lisa Claves doesn't want to stand. Alexander Shefferin is seeking a new term with UEFA. Sha Salman seems reluctant but has been touted as well. Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, another name that has stood in the past and is one of Infantino's critics. And then maybe most interestingly, you have the ex FIFA pros. Arson Wenger working under Jeani Infantino and Lewis Figo, who has spoken out against Infantino and is viewed actually in the long run as a potential UEFA president after Shefferin, but is another name that would draw considerable support if he decides to stand. So, let's see what happens. The feeling is that UEFA in trying to unify behind one candidate want to work under the radar a little bit or in secret right up until the deadline to give Jeani Infantino the least possible time to effectively prepare. So a candidate is still being worked on and yet Infantino trying to use this FIFA Congress as a means of bringing everybody together and moving on. UEFA Conquer Cafe and others may have different ideas and remember 106 is the magic number in the election. 106 from FIFA's 211 members to win. So that's the FIFA stuff. Then we move on to transfers. And I want to start with Alex Scott because the Bournemouth midfielder who's now injured at the moment could now leave in January. When the summer window was open and Scott was fit, as I exclusively revealed, Chelsea had made a series of bids, the highest of which is believed to be 64 million pounds. And Bournemouth said no. And yet Scott would have been open to that move. Bournemouth's position at that point with the summer window open was they wanted to keep Scott until at least summer 2027. And the hope was that when the window shut, Scott might be persuaded to sign a new deal with a release clause for 2027. But now in the last few days, talks have taken place between Scott's representatives and Bournemouth. And the landscape has changed. and Bournemouth would be open to a sale. But there's one key condition. If the football club when the January window is open are looking like they might be in some kind of relegation trouble, Bournemouth might put the brakes on in the hope that Scott Fit by then can help get them out of trouble and then be allowed to leave in the summer of 2027. The other factor is still price. Um Bournemouth's starting position is going to be to try and carry over this inflated market from the summer and get over a hundred million pounds for Scott. But given his contractual situation, anything above 80 or 85 million still could be quite difficult for Bournemouth to turn down. But their starting position in a negotiation is expected to be in excess of a 100 million pounds. Chelsea are still expected to be there and my understanding is they're one of the front runners and it is very likely that Chelsea having not signed Lamin Kamar on deadline day and sold Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City will be back in the market for a midfielder in January of 2027. But Liverpool could well be there as well and naturally are well positioned because of the fact that Andoni Riola knows Scott very well. So we might see a Chelsea versus Liverpool battle for Alex Scott. Arsenal have looked in the past. So have Tottenham and Manchester City. In the case of all of those clubs, they have added midfielders. Manchester City, multiple ones. And the same for Tottenham. Arsenal signed Bruno Gimarez, but they still could potentially want one more. But maybe the priority will be summer 2027 rather than January. But what's interesting about Scott is if one club moves mid-season, it might provoke others to come out the woodwork as well. So it's suddenly very possible that Alex Scott leaves Bournemouth in January. Jadden Sancho, he could go before because he's a free agent and still without a club after leaving Manchester United. And the Spanish side, GAFE are the latest to enter the race. So, Barissia Dortmund had made some inquiries after the window shut last month about potentially resigning Sancho again, but now it's Gafe and they are in formal talks with Sancho who will likely have to make a wage concession if he wants to join or GAFE are going to have to get creative about how they can pay Sancho what he's looking for. And by creative, I mean it's almost certainly going to have to be some form of incentiv. But Sancho and Gafe could be one to watch in the coming days or weeks because the Spanish side are now in formal talks. Then we need to speak about managers as well very briefly. I did a piece on Market Madness about Russell Martin being under pressure and his future is still one to watch if results don't turn around quickly. And Phil Parkinson and Rexom is another story that could develop in the coming weeks. Now, of course, there's huge respect for Parkinson because of what he's done. And there's always been a kind of feeling that at ownership level, they'd love to be able to give Parkinson a job for life. But inevitably in football there is always a natural parting of ways and results at the moment are not good enough. So some really important games ahead for Parkinson to try and turn things around. He's always been able to do so by the way at every juncture when this Rexom project has if we can call it this wobbled. I say if we can call it this because they've been fantastic and they've gone from lower league all the way up to the championship but season on season on season expectations have risen and my information is that Rexom went into this season with the goal of promotion and they're in the bottom half of the table at the moment. So, it's a huge and critical decision now for Rexom's ownership. And as an extension of that, Steve Nixon, who's brand new in the job as sporting director, and he'll play a key role as to whether to back Parkinson or potentially consider a change, however unpopular it may be, with the fan base because so many Rexom fans have followed the amazing work that Parkinson has done in the documentary. some very important games ahead for Phil Parkinson to try and turn things around with several names waiting in the wings with an interest in the role and I can give you two of them in particular. One is Steven Gerard who would be open according to my information to the role if there's a vacancy and the other is Scott Parker but no doubt there'll be others on the list as well and we can't yet say that Rexom are shortlisting or anything to that degree but it is now a very important few weeks for Phil Parkinson at Rexom if he is to turn things around and get this fantastic football team back on track to try and complete a fairy tale which would be one of the stories in football of Rexom getting up to the Premier League. So that's it for myself, Ben Jacobs. Market Madness is back again. We had a great last episode which saw us focus on Manchester City and their charges. I encourage you to have a look at that. We had on Rob Harris from Sky News and football finance expert Kieran Magcguire and they went into a lot of detail for about half an hour about what's happened and what is next as well looking at the legal permutations, what's within the Premier League's powers and of course the finances involved as well. So check that out on YouTube. But that's it for now from myself Ben Jacobs. Thanks for watching.