The FIFA Scandal That Proves Why We Need Real Journalism
When FIFA president Gianni Infantino quietly floated a plan to sell off the World Cup for US$20 billion, it wasn't an algorithm that caught him. It was journalists, working the phones and chasing documents, who exposed a scheme that would have handed football's crown jewel to private investors.
The plan, revealed by The Times and Financial Times, would have created a subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to manage commercial and operational rights for all FIFA competitions. The idea was to raise US$4.2 billion from outside investors, effectively privatizing the beautiful game. Within days of the story breaking, public pressure from member associations and fans worldwide forced FIFA to scrap it.
But scrapped is not the same as gone. The governance failures that made such a damaging attempt possible remain, and scrutiny of Infantino's cozy relationship with the US administration continues. From the FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025 to the US president personally calling Infantino to rescind a red card, and the involvement of Joshua Kushner, brother of the president's son-in-law, in the FFE scheme, the questions keep mounting.
Why the FIFA story matters beyond football
This saga, which touches billions of fans, is a vivid reminder that verified information is the foundation of every decision we make. We live in a time of polycrisis, where wars, climate change, pressure on democracy, and technological disruption overlap and feed off each other. People need more than an endless supply of information. They need facts they can trust.
Consider the family facing a devastating wildfire, the citizen weighing an election, or the patient deciding on a vaccine. They all rely on the same basic element: someone, somewhere, checked before publishing. That difference, between a verified fact and an unverified claim, shapes what we believe and how we act.
AI cannot replace the journalist's job
The rise of artificial intelligence makes this task more urgent than ever. AI does not produce trusted information; it inherits it. Behind every reliable AI-generated answer, someone first had to discover, verify, and take responsibility for the information. No algorithm broke the FIFA story, because there was nothing yet to summarize. No pundit or influencer did either. Someone had to go looking before anyone confirmed there was even a story there at all.
Journalists have been doing this diligent work on FIFA for years, one investigation building on the last. It's what makes scrutiny like this possible. And while the reporting that brought the plan to light goes almost entirely unnoticed, it is the lifeblood of accountability.
Why World News Day matters for the Philippines
On September 28 each year, news organizations across the globe mark World News Day to make visible the work poured into every story. For the Philippines, a nation of over 7,000 islands where information travels through countless languages and dialects, trusted journalism is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
From the barangay to the bustling streets of Manila, from our rural communities to our overseas workers in distant lands, Filipinos deserve journalism that holds power to account, whether that power sits in government or in the offices of a sports federation. The FIFA story is a clear example: no machine can do this work for us. That is the job of a journalist.
I will not pretend our industry has always deserved the public's trust. We get things wrong. We are sometimes slow to correct ourselves. But nobody else was going to tell you about FIFA's plan, and that is worth remembering the next time you weigh whether journalism deserves your confidence and support.
World News Day exists to explain that difference plainly and out loud, not to ask for your loyalty, but to show you the work behind the headlines that usually stays invisible. The action on the pitch was there for everyone to see, but journalists opened doors behind which the real decisions were being made. Journalism exists to give you the facts that shape what matters. To better understand the world, choose trusted journalism.
Manny Pacquiao is a columnist for Archipelago Times. This article is shared to mark World News Day, a worldwide campaign highlighting the essential role of journalism in providing facts and clarity.