European consumer group Euroconsumers along with Football Supporters Europe have filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing FIFA of abusing its monopoly over World Cup ticket sales to impose excessive prices and unfair conditions on fans. The complaint, obtained by POLITICO, alleges breaches of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits abuses of a dominant market position. “FIFA has a complete monopoly over World Cup ticket sales,” said Romane Armangau, a spokesperson for Euroconsumers. “They are using that power to charge prices that would not exist in a normal competitive market, while hiding information from buyers and manipulating them into rushed decisions.” The groups point to a range of alleged abusive practices, including limited transparency on ticket categories and seat allocation, a “variable pricing” system that can push prices higher over time, and the actual scarcity of tickets advertised from $60. “When you buy that ticket, you don’t actually know what you’re buying,” Armangau said. “It means attending the 2026 World Cup has become financially out of reach for most ordinary supporters,” she added, pointing to tickets to the final that now start at more than $4,000. Fans can also face additional costs, including resale fees of around 15 percent, according to the complaint. The groups further accuse FIFA of using “dark patterns” — design and marketing tactics that create artificial urgency — to pressure fans into buying tickets. The filing lands as pressure on FIFA is already building in Brussels. In an interview with POLITICO earlier this month, EU Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef warned of the safety risks for fans travelling to the 2026 World Cup, citing concerns linked to the war in Iran. He said FIFA had yet to provide renewed assurances for supporters, stressing that “since one of the hosts of this biggest sporting event in the world is party to a war, it’s only legitimate that assurances are given.” Micallef also criticized FIFA’s partnership with U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” a body widely seen in Europe as an attempt to sidestep the United Nations. The complaint to the EU leans on a December 2023 Super League court ruling, which said FIFA and UEFA can fall under EU competition law when they organize and market competitions as economic activities. The filing argues that reasoning applies here too, because FIFA is the sole seller of World Cup tickets and is allegedly abusing that dominant position. While Brussels has previously scrutinized sports governing bodies, targeting FIFA’s ticketing and pricing practices would open a new front. Euroconsumers and its partners are urging the European Commission to intervene, including by imposing price caps and forcing greater transparency over ticket sales. “We are asking the Commission to act immediately with interim measures,” Armangau said. “Once those matches are played, the harm to fans cannot be undone.”

‘ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT’: EU SPORTS CZAR WARNS FIFA OVER LEADERSHIP BEFORE WORLD CUP Glenn Micallef tells POLITICO that Gianni Infantino has not provided safety assurances for European fans heading to the U.S. this summer. By ALI WALKER in Brussels Photo-Illustration by Natália Delgado/POLITICO FIFA President Gianni Infantino needs to do a better job, European Commissioner Glenn Micallef told POLITICO in a sharp rebuke of world football’s governing body. The EU’s sports commissioner jabbed Infantino over safety and security fears for fans heading to the World Cup this summer while America wages war on Iran, and criticized FIFA for its partnership with U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.  During an interview at his office in Brussels, Micallef also urged leaders not to let Russia use sports as a propaganda tool and discussed his concerns surrounding the NBA’s bid to create a European basketball league. But FIFA was evidently preying on his mind.  Micallef met Infantino in Brussels last month and urged the world football chief to help safeguard European fans traveling to North America for the 2026 World Cup. The commissioner told POLITICO there had been no further communication from FIFA, despite the EU reiterating concerns about the safety of supporters, as the Trump-backed war in the Middle East escalates. “This was my first proper and only exchange with President Infantino,” Micallef said about their Brussels chat, which took place on the sidelines of a European football summit. “I asked him to assure those traveling for the World Cup in respect to their safety. There hasn’t been any kind of follow-up.  “And following the escalation of tensions that we’ve seen in the last few days, we’ve asked again for renewed assurance for all those traveling to the World Cup,” Micallef said. “Especially since one of the hosts of this biggest sporting event in the world is party to a war, it’s only legitimate that assurances are given from a public safety and public security point of view.”  BOARD OF PEACE CRITICISM The U.S., Canada and Mexico will jointly host the 48-team tournament, which begins on June 11 in Mexico City and will feature 16 European countries.  In addition to fears about security in the U.S. because of conflict in the Middle East, there is also concern about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as part of World Cup security.  Earlier this year, ICE agents shot and killed two American citizens during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Mexico has also been experiencing a wave of violence following the death of a cartel boss in Jalisco state. Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is to host four World Cup games.  “From my point of view, hosts of big sporting events like the FIFA World Cup and those who are responsible for the organization of the tournament, including FIFA, have a responsibility to ensure that the teams participating and the fans who are attending from those teams are assured of their safety and their security,” Micallef said. In response, a FIFA spokesperson said safety and security is the governing body’s “top priority” and it “is confident that the efforts being made by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States will ensure a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for everyone involved.” Asked if he felt FIFA was falling short on safety and security provisions, Micallef replied: “Let’s say there’s room for more clarity,” before he moved on to a further bugbear with FIFA’s diplomatic positioning. The Trump-backed Board of Peace for Gaza has triggered fears around Europe that the White House is moving to systematically sideline the United Nations. FIFA, with Infantino in attendance at a summit last month — shortly before the U.S. and Israel began a barrage of missile strikes against Iran — pledged $75 million for football infrastructure in Gaza.  The Donald Trump-backed Board of Peace for Gaza has triggered fears around Europe that the White House is moving to systematically sideline the U.N. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images “FIFA has a lot to answer on this,” Micallef said. “Speaking as a European commissioner responsible for sport, I would prefer to partner up with multilateral organizations, organizations that respect the international rules-based order, like UNESCO and UNICEF, when it comes to the implementation of projects related to sport.” The FIFA spokesperson dismissed the criticism and said the partnership “is fully in line with [FIFA’s] mandate to develop football all around the world and harness its social impact.” In response to a question on whether Infantino, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry and International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons were doing a good job — in light of criticism they have faced about the World Cup, Trump and Russian participation in sporting events — Micallef was blunt about all three senior officials. “I certainly think that there’s room for improvement,” he said. In response, the FIFA spokesperson highlighted a series of Infantino’s achievements in development, tournaments and women’s football during his ten years in charge. ‘IT’S NOT IDEAL’ America’s behemoth National Basketball Association is pressing forward with plans to launch a competition in Europe next year, but elements of its proposal have sparked consternation from policymakers.  Promotion and relegation — central to the European model of sport — is fueling the argument as the NBA’s proposal foresees some prospective clubs in major markets, including key EU capitals, being permanent members. The debate is particularly thorny as Europe already has a largely closed continental basketball league — the Euroleague — where most teams hold long-term licenses and new clubs rarely gain entry through sporting merit alone. “The only thing worse than a closed league in European basketball is having two closed leagues in European basketball,” Micallef said.  “I’ve been very, very clear in my statements, my messages, that closed league models are not sustainable models for European sport — also in this case for European basketball. I think the European sport model built on solidarity, on openness of competitions, with sporting merit determining whether you qualify for a European competition, or whether you are relegated or promoted, and the pillars of the European sport model continue to apply,” he added.  NBA officials have insisted that their plan is not for an entirely closed league, but one that allows space for some promotion and relegation, a connection to domestic leagues, and will ultimately benefit European basketball from top to bottom of the competitive pyramid.  Micallef criticized but ultimately did not slam the door on an NBA proposal that would see a majority of teams being permanent members, with some slots reserved for teams to qualify each season.  “My ideal scenario would be one where the parties come together and discuss ways of resolving their differences away from the courts and away from competition processes,” Glenn Micallef said. | Martin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images “It’s not ideal. But we find ourselves in this situation because of decisions that were taken years ago with the establishment of an already semi-closed league in European basketball,” he said.  “My ideal scenario would be one where the parties come together and discuss ways of resolving their differences away from the courts and away from competition processes,” Micallef added, after years of sports litigation overshadowing the European institutions. NO RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA The budding normalization of Russia in world sports also animates Micallef.  After years of ostracism following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian athletes competed with their flag and national anthem at the Paralympics in northern Italy; while Olympics chief Coventry said in Brussels late last year that, “This is the essence of Olympism: every eligible athlete, team and official must be able to take part without discrimination or political interference.” Micallef, while stressing that global governing bodies are autonomous, is insistent that the Kremlin should not be able to use sports for propaganda purposes while it continues to wage all-out war on Ukraine.  “For me, from a public policy point of view, and from a public safety point of view, the participation of countries which are party to a war, irrespective of who they are, raises legitimate public security and public safety concerns,” Micallef said. “And this is something we should be able to have a discussion with sporting associations, federations and bodies that regulate the sport. I think that big sporting competitions, and sporting competitions in general, should take place in a safe environment for athletes, for fans and for those who are participating in the games. “So for me the most important thing is that with the president of the IOC and especially with the European Olympic Committees, there is willingness to have exchanges on different topics — and I hope that the possibility, or the openness, to have an exchange on this topic will also be one we could have,” he said. “I certainly don’t think that sport should be used as a platform for propaganda, political propaganda by those who are responsible for wars of aggression,” he added.

Some 170,000 people have applied to take a test that could see them get a well-paid and secure EU job — but the odds are stacked against them because fewer than 1,500 roles could be available. In a statement on Wednesday, a day after the deadline for candidates to express interest in the hiring competition, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) revealed how many people had put in applications. “This number has surpassed all expectations,” the agency wrote. “We will inform candidates about the next steps as soon as possible.” The next stage is a process that includes cognitive testing and exams to be held over the coming months. Successful candidates can apply for posts across the EU institutions at AD-5 grade, which pays around €6,000 to €7,000 a month, paving the way to far more senior positions in the future. However, the number of available jobs is far, far smaller than the number of applicants, with around 1,500 spots on the list of positions up for grabs — and even then a role is not guaranteed. The hiring competition — aimed at generalists rather than specialists in areas such as HR, law and translation — has not been held since 2019, meaning many aspiring officials have been working as temporary agents or agency staff, without the job security or benefits of those employed by the EU. A number of countries launched campaigns to try and encourage their citizens to apply, eyeing an opportunity to correct underrepresentation inside the EU and cement their influence for decades to come. Some capitals have even gone as far as paying for test practices and offering mentoring to candidates. Just 22,644 people applied for the AD-5 competition when it was last held seven years ago, and around 50,000 had been initially forecast to take part this year. This year’s EPSO tests, to be scheduled on a date that is yet to be announced, will be conducted virtually rather than in assessment centers, as was the case in the past. However, experts say the logistics of administering the exams on such a large scale would be challenging even with half as many applicants.

EUROPE’S VANISHING CARS ARE JEOPARDIZING ITS RAW MATERIALS SECURITY Used cars are a treasure trove of metals essential in energy technology, but the EU is letting them vanish without a trace. By MARIANNE GROS in Brussels Illustration by Natália Delgado/ POLITICO EU decision-makers don’t have to look far to find cheap critical raw materials: Just 5 kilometers away from the EU quarter, car dealers up and down Heyvaert Street are scooping them up and shipping them to Africa. Dealerships in this industrial precinct in southwest Brussels send European used vehicles — many too polluting to be allowed on the continent’s roads — to African countries like Senegal, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, where the market for Europe’s unwanted automobiles is thriving. That one street intimately connects the capital of the EU — where some 10 million new cars hit the roads each year — to a global supply chain of used vehicles that sustains road transport in developing markets. One day these cars will end up in junkyards far away, and with them tons of valuable metals that the EU could recycle and reuse to run its economy. But Europe’s age-old habit of exporting unwanted goods is coming back to bite it as the bloc looks to recycle its way out of its reliance on raw materials imported from China.  The EU is scrambling to secure new sources of critical metals and minerals necessary for clean energy and military technology — a task of increasing urgency as geopolitical tensions disrupt traditional supply chains. For a small continent like Europe that is poor in natural resources but rich in consumer goods, old cars are a promising source of these materials. The vehicles are full of metals such as copper, platinum and steel that are essential in a long list of critical industries such as clean energy and military technology. And they’ll become even more valuable as early generations of electric vehicles — full of battery metals like lithium, cobalt and nickel — reach the end of their lifespans. But the EU isn’t close to taking advantage of this prospect. Along with those that are legally exported, between 3 million and 4 million end-of-life cars disappear without a trace from the EU each year. That’s a third of all cars that get deregistered. Some go missing because of a gap in the paper trail. Others get exported through obscure trade routes. Many are dismantled illegally, with the more valuable parts sold online or in non-compliant dealerships — while the rest are dumped, creating a pollution risk. “We see big and currently unused potential in recycling, reuse and also substitution” of critical raw materials, said Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, a member of the European Court of Auditors who last month co-authored a report on the EU’s difficulties in securing a supply of critical raw materials.  But that recycling and reuse can only happen if the waste products, e.g. cars, make it to recycling hubs in the first place.  The market for Europe’s unwanted automobiles is thriving in cities like Lagos in Nigeria. | Olympia De Maismont/AFP via Getty Images “The illegal dismantling and export of [end-of-life vehicles] is mainly motivated by profits from the sale of spare parts and metals,” the German Environment Agency wrote in a study on the topic back in 2020. Unauthorized dismantlers are “neglecting proper depollution, to avoid additional costs,” the study explained.  In a separate paper published in 2022, the agency estimated that 20 percent of all German vehicles that “go missing” — over 72,000 cars — are exported illegally.  According to Interpol data, nearly 3.6 million vehicles and vehicle parts from Europe — not just EU countries — were registered in the Stolen Motor Vehicles database as of Dec. 31, 2025. EUROPE’S MISSED OPPORTUNITY  The EU has made materials recycling a strategic pillar of its mission to reduce reliance on imports from China in an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment. Europe’s economy runs on importing critical raw materials, such as nickel, copper and lithium, as well as rare earths and so-called platinum group metals like palladium or platinum. It needs them to build car engines, weapons and products that contribute to the bloc’s green tech transition, including batteries, chips and solar panels.   While the metals are mined all over the world, China overwhelmingly dominates the processing and refining of these critical raw materials.  To address this, the European Commission says it wants to launch new mining projects, sign deals with other countries to diversify its supply, and promote recycling projects.  With the introduction of the Critical Raw Materials Act in 2024, EU governments are required to adopt national circularity measures to boost the recovery of critical raw materials and simplify permitting processes for recycling and recovery projects. The law says that 25 percent of the EU’s annual strategic raw material consumption should come from domestic recycling by 2030. Last December, the Commission announced additional measures as part of a new plan called RESourceEU.  But many argue that progress is too slow. “Most EU targets that are in place do not incentivize the recycling of specific individual materials. High processing costs, limited availability of materials, technical and regulatory issues also make the use of the recycling sector less competitive,” the Court of Auditors’ Pentus-Rosimannus said. Others say the EU is doing little to reduce consumption in the first place. Policymakers need to be “addressing [materials] consumption aspects to accelerate this process in addition to everything else that is being done on the recycling part” said the European Environment Agency’s head of the clean and circular economy group, Daniel Montalvo. EU policies should tackle “how we can change this upstream part of the material cycle so that we use products more intensively and for longer,” he added. RECYCLERS NEED HELP  End-of-life vehicles should all end up in one of Europe’s 13,000 authorized treatment facilities like the one in Menen, Belgium, which straddles the country’s border with France and is run by recycling company Galloo.   Running a recycling center is expensive and illegal dismantlers create unfair competition because they avoid regulatory and compliance costs. | Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images “We can dismantle 17 cars at once here. Usually, we treat 10 to 15 thousand cars a year, but this year we’re around 3 or 4 thousand on this site,” said Emmanuel Katrakis, the company’s director of public and regulatory affairs. Galloo set up Valorauto, a joint venture with French-Italian automaker Stellantis, in 2023. Valorauto runs a vehicle take-back and recycling service through 300 authorized treatment facilities in Western Europe. The low turnover in Europe’s car fleet — a result of stagnating sales since the Covid pandemic due to Europe’s weaker economy — means fewer cars end up in recycling centers. Once the vehicles reach what can only be described as a cemetery for cars, the vehicles get scrubbed of polluting substances and taken apart. Most of the plastic, rubber, glass and iron can be recycled. Crucially, the more precious resources in their engines, catalytic converters and electrical systems can be collected. Two thirds of vehicles that reach end-of-life status end up in this system.  But running a recycling center is expensive. Illegal dismantlers create unfair competition because they avoid regulatory and compliance costs, which drives the price down, while also diverting some of the end-of-life-vehicle flow — and therefore revenue — away from authorized centers.  “We’re tired of having bad actors in our sectors who are willing to work with a completely illegal market,” Katrakis said.  Cars also get dropped off with missing parts.”We’re going to buy their car for €150, maybe €200, but they know they can sell their catalytic converter separately for €60. They do the math,” he added.  For Valorauto’s general manager, Thomas Delgado, online marketplaces should be held responsible for enabling the car dismantling grey market, saying they don’t monitor the sellers properly. “There are several marketplaces that should do their part to help [us] fight this system” he said, by preventing individual sellers from selling a car part unless they can prove they are registered as an authorized treatment facility.   Then there are Europe’s faulty registration systems. A lot of these cars go missing because they are sold second-hand in another country but are never deregistered in their country of origin. “Today we have national computer systems that are supposed to track things, but they’re totally overwhelmed,” Delgado said.  There are also gaps between the car registries and the database of insured vehicles. Responsibility for monitoring these systems is often shared by several national ministries.  National governments have tried to address the issue by creating incentives for car owners to drop their vehicles off at authorized centers. In Denmark, for example, owners can get a “scrapping premium” when their vehicle is dropped off at an approved dealer.  A new regulation on end-of-life vehicles aims to clarify when a car is legally considered waste.  | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images At the EU level, a new regulation on end-of-life vehicles aims to address the issue with “clearer rules on the distinction between a used vehicle and an end-of-life vehicle” and “a strict framework for transfers of ownership,” but some of the technical aspects of the law are still being discussed. The law also aims to clarify when a car is legally considered waste.  The automotive sector is glad to see the EU will “implement an EU-wide registration/deregistration system and regulate the export of ELVs outside the EU, preventing valuable raw materials from leaving the European market,” according to ACEA, the sector’s main lobby.  GETTING A SECOND LIFE  Over 800,000 used vehicles are exported from the EU each year, mainly to African countries, according to EU data. The revised end-of-life vehicle regulation states that only roadworthy cars can be exported from the EU.   Just because a car isn’t allowed on the streets of a European city doesn’t mean it should be dismantled immediately, however.   “It’s important to make the distinction because they are not necessarily at the end of life everywhere,” said Pierre Hajjar, chief executive officer of Socar Shipping Agencies, a vehicle shipping company on Brussels’ Heyvaert St. Last December local police raided the street, seizing 45 vehicles and forcing several dealerships to close for not complying with national rules on cash payments or for not having the right environmental permits.   With the revised end-of-life-vehicle regulation, the EU wants to increase traceability so “only high-quality, technically fit European vehicles will be exported.” But for African markets, Hajjar says that’s already the case.  “For Africa, everything goes by boat, everything is extremely traceable,” he said, because port authorities and maritime shipping companies have high thresholds for the kind of vehicles that can be exported. “Whereas in Eastern countries it’s road transport … there isn’t really any traceability, they cross the borders quite easily,” he added.  

The top American basketball league has a megabucks plan to take over the European market. But it’s no slam dunk. European officials and major sports leagues are trying to hamstring the National Basketball Association — home to global superstars including LeBron James and Steph Curry — before it can get off the ground ahead of a mooted 2027 launch in key cities around the continent. Proponents of the NBA-backed European competition reckon it will be an essential investment for a widely popular sport that doesn’t turn a massive profit in Europe across smaller domestic tournaments. Opponents say the global behemoth’s entry across the continent would stifle national basketball leagues and instead funnel cash to American companies. The divide comes at a moment of major commercial and political tension, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration attempting to bend European legislators and regulators to its America-first agenda. Basketball also marks the latest clash in a broader debate over the European sports model, which is based on promotion and relegation between leagues, and solidarity payments across a pyramidal structure. The NBA operates under the American sports model, in which franchises maintain permanent places in closed leagues, generating significant revenues for team owners and creating highly paid superstars matched only by top European football clubs. For this account of the backroom negotiating currently taking place between some of the world’s most powerful sports officials, POLITICO spoke to several European political figures, sports executives and industry heavyweights with direct knowledge of talks, some of whom were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.   NBA executives have already been sounding out Europe’s biggest multi-sport club owners and team officials about backing the project, triggering unease from other parts of the continent’s sports establishment. “The main reason we don’t support NBA Europe is that closed leagues and competitions benefit only the top percent of the commercially successful clubs, but cause significant harm to the sport at national level,” one senior European government official told POLITICO.  While the EU doesn’t run sports in Europe, it does police the marketplace in which sports operate — and officials were quick to defend the values the EU seeks to uphold.  “As policymakers, including at EU level, there is a clear duty to uphold the competition acquis, but also to give full weight to the wider EU values repeatedly underlined in court judgments, such as solidarity, openness, and fairness,” EU Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef told POLITICO.  He added: “The current debate suggests that this balance requires recalibration, placing greater emphasis on those values to safeguard the integrity of European sport and its pyramidal model.” PRIVATE NEGOTIATIONS Business titans have long eyed the European sports market as an attractive commercial proposition, buying clubs and even moving to upend existing competitions. Proponents of the NBA-backed European competition reckon it will be an essential investment for a widely popular sport that doesn’t turn a massive profit in Europe across smaller domestic tournaments. | Gray Mortimore/Getty Images A previous attempt to set up a semi-closed American-style football league in Europe — the ill-fated Super League bid by a group of 12 leading clubs in 2021 — hit a wall of political and public resistance. Basketball is a slightly different case as the continent’s flagship Euroleague is already a semi-closed competition — a design that has faced significant blowback since its launch around the turn of the century. But NBA critics are sounding the alarm as crunch talks intensify about the potential launch in 12 proposed cities including Rome, Berlin and Madrid. Senior officials from the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) met with Micallef and key EU sports figures in Brussels earlier this month, where they pressed the case that the new league — with its semi-closed structure but pathway to Europe for clubs that perform well in their domestic leagues — would be a European success story. “Current developments in European basketball highlight long-standing concerns around closed league models,” Micallef said after the meeting, in remarks that may be interpreted as a subtle warning about the American sports model. “They also invite reflection on the growing role of investment in sport, recognising that such investment can be welcome and beneficial provided it respects sound governance principles and remains aligned with Europe’s sporting values, traditions, and structures.” He added: “While breakaway competitions usually promise growth and stability, restricting open competition comes at the expense of national leagues and the wider sporting pyramid: a lesson other sports should consider carefully.” A previous attempt to set up a semi-closed American-style football league in Europe — the ill-fated Super League bid by a group of 12 leading clubs in 2021 — hit a wall of political and public resistance. | Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Two industry officials told POLITICO that Spain’s La Liga — the domestic football league — held a meeting with the NBA to emphasize that the format presented is contrary to the European sports model and that, if implemented, it would be met with staunch opposition from EU institutions and other sporting organizations from across Europe.  NBA officials have been approaching major European football and multi-sports club owners over the past year about joining the basketball project, according to one executive with direct knowledge of negotiations. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and his deputy Mark Tatum have been talking regularly to Paris Saint-Germain owner Nasser al-Khelaifi, a powerful sports leader from Doha, to try and convince Qatar Sports Investments to own a new franchise in Paris — as part of the PSG group of sports clubs. The American sports bosses have also conducted talks with Barcelona and Real Madrid, the executive said. “Our conversations with various stakeholders in Europe have reinforced our belief that an enormous opportunity exists around the creation of a new league on the continent,” Silver said in a statement. “Together with FIBA, we look forward to engaging prospective clubs and ownership groups that share our vision for the game’s potential in Europe.” In an announcement Monday that the two parties were pressing ahead with the European expansion, FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis said: “The format of the league respects European sport model principles by offering any ambitious club in the continent a fair pathway to the top. The project is conceived in a way that will improve the sustainability of the entire European basketball ecosystem, including players, clubs, leagues and national federations, by generating a knock-on effect that will strongly benefit basketball fans throughout Europe.” Keen to assuage EU regulatory concerns, the NBA and FIBA added that they plan to dedicate financial support and resources to development throughout Europe’s basketball ecosystem. NO DOMINATION The announcement by the NBA and FIBA of some “permanent spots” in the league is central to the looming resistance in Brussels, which is also skeptical about the economic benefits for Europe. “What about the governance and economic value?” said Bogdan Zdrojewski, an MEP from the conservative European People’s Party group in the European Parliament. “It seems that with the NBA Europe these risk being siphoned out of Europe, leading to a lack of accountability on governance and a staggeringly high loss of economic value if we look at how the economic return — TV rights, sponsorships — generated in Europe will be systematically funneled to U.S.-based holding entities.” Zdrojewski added, “We need to look carefully at how the economic model is likely to lead to a corporate shift with traditional clubs being excluded in favor of global investment funds and state-backed clubs, who will be the only ones able to afford the prohibitive costs like the estimated $500 million to $1 billion founding franchise fees.”  At a meeting of EU sports ministers in Brussels last month, several countries — including Italy, France and Slovenia — spoke out against the NBA’s plans. Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda also recently urged “basketball organizations on both sides of the Atlantic to cooperate, not compete, to take into account and appreciate the deep traditions of European basketball, and not to forget that values come before commercial interests.” Those who have built up European basketball in its current form agree.  “European basketball is built on history, identity and community. Fans here are not a market to be conquered; they are the people who have sustained clubs for decades, across generations,” said Paulius Motiejunas, CEO of the existing top competition Euroleague Basketball. “Any new project should start by respecting that and by strengthening the entire pyramid: elite competition, domestic leagues, and grassroots.” But, he added, collaboration is possible “if the goal is genuinely to grow basketball in Europe.” His terms, he said, were simple: “It has to be a partnership, not a takeover or, as they have mentioned, domination.”

The International Olympic Committee said Thursday that youth athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports should be allowed to compete under their national flag and anthem, easing restrictions on Russian athletes that have been in place since the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The updated position applies to the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, but it did not mention the Milan Cortina Winter Games next year, where Russian athletes are expected to compete as neutral competitors under stringent regulations. “With its considerations today, the Olympic Summit recognised that athletes, and in particular youth athletes, should not be held accountable for the actions of their governments — sport is their access to hope, and a way to show that all athletes can respect the same rules and each another,” the IOC said in a statement. Still, the IOC maintained its guidance that Russia should not be allowed to host international sports events, although it said events could be hosted in Belarus. It also reiterated that restrictions on government officials from Russia and Belarus should stay in place for both youth and adult sports events. Russia has long faced scrutiny from the IOC over allegations of doping, with a number of Russian athletes who competed in the 2014 Sochi Olympics being stripped of their medals. IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who took the helm of the organization in June, has signaled that she would be open to seeing Russia compete in the 2026 Olympic Games, sparking a fierce backlash from Ukraine. The decision came out of this week’s Olympic Summit in Switzerland, at which key stakeholders decided to take up a recommendation from the committee’s Executive Board to change its guidance for Russian youth athletes. In its statement, the IOC said, “The Summit also reaffirmed that athletes have a fundamental right to access sport across the world, and to compete free from political interference or pressure from governmental organisations.” European soccer governing body UEFA attempted to allow Russian youth to participate in its competitions in 2023 but ultimately scuttled the effort following opposition from countries including Ukraine.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Google breached EU competition rules by using the content of web publishers, as well as video uploaded to YouTube, for artificial intelligence purposes. The investigation will examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thus placing rival AI models at a disadvantage, the Commission said on Tuesday. In a statement, the EU executive said it was concerned that Google may have used the content of web publishers to provide generative AI-powered services on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers, and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. Further, it said that the U.S. search giant may have used video and other content uploaded on YouTube to train Google’s generative AI models without compensating creators and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. The formal antitrust probe follows Google’s rollout of AI-driven search results, which resulted in a drop in traffic to online news sites. Google was fined nearly €3 billion in September for abusing its dominance in online advertising. It has proposed technical remedies over that penalty, but resisted a call by EU competition chief Teresa Ribera to break itself up.

Soccer may be the world’s most popular pastime, but much about Friday’s lottery draw setting the match schedule for next summer’s World Cup has been programmed with just one fan in mind. Never before has the sports governing body given out a peace prize to a politician eager for one, or booked the Village People and Andrea Bocelli to play alongside. President Donald Trump’s appearance on the Kennedy Center stage will be at least his seventh encounter this year with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who has logged more face time with Trump this year than any world leader. Infantino’s savvy navigation of the American political scene has helped FIFA build institutional support for a tournament facing unprecedented logistical complications. But that success is beginning to weaken Infantino, as the third-term FIFA president faces newfound internal opposition for his over-the-top courtship of Trump. Our interviews with six international soccer officials across three continents reveal widespread frustration with Infantino’s decision to side with Trump even as White House policies cause chaos for World Cup-bound teams, fans and local organizers, clashing with Infantino’s promise to have a tournament that welcomes the world. “[FIFA] has always promoted a very cozy, close relationship with politicians and political actors in a variety of ways, including by having them in their bodies or running the National Football Associations, for example,” said Miguel Maduro, the chairman of FIFA’s governance and review committee between 2016 and 2017. “This said, the extent of this cozy relationship that we’ve seen and and the public character that has been assumed between Mr. Infantino and Mr. Trump is different even from what we saw in the past,” said Maduro. “It’s not that things like that didn’t happen in the past, but it didn’t happen so obviously and so emphatically as they do now.” Our reporting found that Infantino did not inform his 37-member FIFA Council before creating the FIFA Peace Prize this year, three people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Over the past year, at least three of FIFA’s eight vice presidents have publicly or privately expressed their concerns about the lengths Infantino is willing to go to please Trump. While Infantino has won his last two terms unopposed, when he stands next for reelection in 2027 he will likely have to answer to FIFA’s 211 member federations for his willing entanglement in the controversies of American politics. Infantino’s allies say that those opposed to many of his soccer-related initiatives — focused on growing the game in emerging markets and expanding FIFA’s flagship tournaments — are using his Trump ties to exploit differences on unrelated issues. “If a challenger to Gianni for the 2027 election emerges, it will be in the next six to eight months and the World Cup will be a litmus test,” said a person involved with World Cup planning granted anonymity to characterize private conversations with top soccer officials. “If something goes off the rails or somebody decides they want to make a run against him, they’re going to use his relationship with Trump to exploit the cracks.” THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENTS Infantino launched his first campaign for FIFA’s presidency as an underdog. A corruption scandal had toppled much of FIFA’s leadership in 2015, forcing a so-called “extraordinary congress” the next year in which members would vote to decide who would complete the unfinished term vacated by the newly suspended president Sepp Blatter. FIFA, comprised of national soccer federations, picks its president through a secret ballot of those members — one nation, one vote. To win in a multi-candidate field, one must capture two-thirds of the total ballots cast, with rounds of voting until a single candidate locks in a two-way majority. The favorite to succeed Blatter was Sheik Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, a Bahraini royal who headed the Asian Football Confederation and appeared to have stitched together a coalition of Asian and African nations. Infantino, a polyglot Swiss-Italian lawyer who had spent seven years as secretary general of European confederation UEFA, pitched himself as someone who could disperse the organization’s wealth back to member countries. “The money of FIFA is your money,” Infantino said in a speech shortly before the vote. “It is not the money of the FIFA president. It’s your money.” Infantino and Al Khalifa ran neck-in-neck in the first round. With a clear two-person race, the United States — which had been supporting Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, who finished a distant third — switched its vote to Infantino in the second round, triggering a rush of support from the Western Hemisphere that gave Infantino a conclusive 115-vote total. A fourth candidate, former French diplomat Jérome Champagne, credited Infantino’s victory to “a strong alliance between Europe and North America and the Anglo-Saxon world.” “Prepare yourself well but be vigilant,” Blatter warned Infantino upon his election in a public letter. “While everyone supports you and tells you nice words, know that once you are the president, friends become rare.” Once in office, Infantino’s initiatives were focused on expanding FIFA’s most valuable properties. He converted a ten-day, exhibition-like competition among seven regional club champions into the month-long FIFA Club World Cup. He also pushed, with mixed success, to grow the size and scope of the World Cup and increase its frequency. In 2017, Infantino announced that the first World Cup under an expanded format — up from 32 countries participating to 48, adding a week of matches to the schedule — would take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Facing the first tournament in which hosting responsibilities would be shared by three countries, Infantino visited Trump to secure assurances of government support. Infantino went on to win subsequent terms in 2019 and 2023, and when Trump returned to the White House for his second, in 2025, their political trajectories became permanently intertwined. Infantino set out to raise his profile in American life and his relationships with the country’s political class, including through a campaign-style tour through many of the American cities hosting matches for the inaugural Club World Cup in 2025 and the World Cup the following summer. Infantino sat next to Trump at the tournament’s final, held at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in July, dragging him onto the winners’ platform as Infantino went to award a trophy and medals to champions Chelsea. Trump lingered awkwardly on stage to the befuddlement of Chelsea’s players, who had not expected they would share the moment with an American politician. Other appearances with Trump placed Infantino squarely between a president intent on solving overseas conflicts and punishing foes, while closing American borders to visitors and trade, and FIFA member nations who may hold starkly different views, or worse. Infantino stood quietly in the Oval Office as he said he would not rule out strikes against fellow World Cup co-host Mexico to target drug cartels, and joined Trump’s entourage on a trip designed to cultivate investment opportunities in the Persian Gulf. When FIFA had to delay the opening of its annual congress in Asuncion, Paraguay, to accommodate Infantino’s travel from a Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh, two FIFA vice presidents were among those who joined English Football Association chairwoman Debbie Hewitt and other federation heads exiting in protest. European confederation UEFA — with 55 member nations, FIFA’s largest — attacked him with unusually pointed language. “To have the timetable changed at the last minute for what appears to be simply to accommodate private political interests,” UEFA wrote in its statement, “does the game no service and appears to put its interests second.” GIANNI ON THE SPOT In September, Trump said he would try to move scheduled World Cup matches out of Democratic-run jurisdictions that are “even a little bit dangerous.” Infantino, whose organization had spent years vetting and preparing those cities for the tournament, said nothing. But a potential rival to Infantino’s leadership took issue with both the American president’s threat — since repeated but not acted upon — and the FIFA president’s silence. “It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani, the organization’s leading figure from North America, said at a sports-business conference in London six days later. While president of the Canadian Soccer Association, Montagliani helped to secure his country’s participation in the three-way so-called “United Bid” for next summer’s World Cup. (The Vancouver insurance executive also helped bring the Women’s World Cup to Canada in 2015.) He now serves as president of CONCACAF, the 41-member regional federation encompassing the 41 nations of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Close to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Montagliani has come to believe Infantino has catered too much to Trump for a tournament realized through the cooperation of three nations, according to three of the people familiar with the dynamics of FIFA’s leadership. (Montagliani declined an interview request.) The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will all participate in a ceremonial ball draw in today’s draw. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans,” Montagliani told an interviewer at the London conference in late September. “That’s the beauty of our game, is that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.” Montagliani’s “FIFA’s jurisdiction” remarks did not land well with Infantino’s inner sanctum. “It is ultimately the government’s responsibility to decide what’s in the best interest of public safety,” FIFA said in a statement to POLITICO in October after Trump’s next round of threats to relocate matches. The relationship between Infantino and Montagliani has further soured in recent months as Trump reignited tensions between Washington and Ottawa over an anti-tariff ad taking aim at U.S. trade policy, according to a person close to Montagliani granted anonymity to candidly characterize his thinking. Montagliani has his own thoughts on how far relationships with government figures should go but respects Infantino’s perspective, that person said, maintaining the two men had a good relationship despite occasional differences. Others around FIFA have their own parochial concerns with Trump. Despite being among the first teams to qualify for the tournament, Iran threatened to boycott Friday’s draw because some members of its delegation were denied visas for travel to Washington. According to a FIFA official, Iran ultimately reversed course and sent Iranian head coach Ardeshir Ghalenoy after FIFA worked closely with the U.S. government and Iran’s soccer federation. Another qualifying team, Haiti, is also covered by the 19-country travel ban that Trump signed in June. The State Department said that while the policy has a specific carveout for World Cup competitors and their families, the exception will not be applied to fans or spectators. The president of the Japanese Football Association, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, told POLITICO in an interview last month that he was worried that Trump’s immigration policies could subject Japanese travelers to “deportations happening unnecessarily.” Infantino has stopped short of pressuring Trump to make exceptions to immigration policy for the sake of soccer. FIFA officials have said that when it chooses a tournament location it does not expect that country to significantly alter its immigration laws or vetting standards for the tournament, although many past hosts have chosen to relax visa requirements for World Cup ticketholders. Many European countries’ soccer federations, led by Ireland and Norway, have pushed to ban Israel from international soccer due to its military invasion of Gaza. The movement received an apparent boost from UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, who supported unfurling a banner that read “Stop Killing Children; Stop Killing Civilians” on the field before a UEFA Super Cup match in August. “If such a big thing is going on, such a terrible thing that doesn’t allow me to sleep — not me, all my colleagues,” — nobody in this organization said we shouldn’t do it. No one,” Čeferin told POLITICO in August. “Then you have to do what is the right thing to do.” European countries were set on a collision with Trump, whose State Department indicated it would work to “fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.” UEFA pulled back on a planned vote over Israel’s place as a Trump-negotiated peace agreement took hold. Infantino joined Trump and other heads of state in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for a summit to implement the agreement’s first phase. Nothing threatens to awaken opposition to Infantino as much as his decision to invent a FIFA Peace Prize just as Trump began to complain in October about being passed over for one from the Norwegian Nobel Committee. According to a draft run-of-show for Friday’s draw, Trump is scheduled to speak for two minutes today after receiving the Peace Prize. “He is just implementing what he said he would do,” Infantino said at an American Business Forum in Miami, also attended by Trump, on the day news of the prize was made public. “So I think we should all support what he’s doing because I think it’s looking pretty good.” According to FIFA rules, the organization’s president needs sign-off from the 37-member FIFA council on certain items like the international match calendar, host designations for upcoming FIFA tournaments, and financial matters. FIFA’s charter does not contemplate the creation of a new prize specifically to award a world leader, but those familiar with the organization’s governance say it may violate an ethics policy that requires officers “remain politically neutral.” (In 2019, FIFA honored Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, who previously led venerable club Boca Juniors, with its first-ever Living Football Award.) “Giving this award to someone that is an active political actor, by itself, is, at least in my opinion, likely a violation of the principle of political neutrality,” said Maduro, a Portuguese legal scholar appointed to oversee FIFA’s governance in the wake of the corruption scandal that helped bring Infantino to office. “We need to know two things: how the award was created and who then took the decision to whom the award was to be given. Both of these decisions should not be taken by the president himself.” Infantino fully bypassed the FIFA Council in deciding to create and award the prize to Trump, according to three people familiar with conversations between Infantino and the council’s members. Even the vice presidents who were given a heads-up ahead of time say they were simply being told after the decision was made. FOUR MORE YEARS? Infantino, a quintessential European first elected with support from his home continent, now sees his strongest base of support in Asia, Africa, and the Gulf countries. He won his last two terms by acclamation, after delivering on his promises to disperse the $11 billion FIFA takes in each World Cup cycle. The FIFA Forward program, launched in 2016, sent $2.8 billion back to member federations and regional confederations in its first six years, funding everything from the development of Papua New Guinea’s women’s squad to an air dome for winter training in Mongolia. But Infantino’s political choices may be costing him in Europe, where the sport is more established and national federations are less dependent on FIFA’s largesse. Infantino’s defenders say that European soccer officials, including Čeferin, have turned against him because they see his attempts to expand the World Cup and institute the Club World Cup as a threat to the primacy of their regional competitions. Many in international soccer see Montagliani as the most viable potential challenger, although a person close to him says he has no intention of seeking FIFA’s presidency in 2027 and instead plans to seek reelection that year to what would have to be his final term as CONCACAF’s president. But he fits the profile of someone best positioned to dethrone the incumbent, ironically by stitching together the type of trans-Atlantic alliance that lifted Infantino to his first victory. “Mexico is not happy. Canada is not happy, and that’s because they’re politically not happy with Trump,” said a senior national-federation official, granted anonymity to candidly discuss dynamics within CONCACAF. “There’s that direct tension.”

BRUSSELS — A bid to revive a European football Super League is unlikely to find a sympathetic audience in Brussels despite the court victory the breakaway contest scored last week. A Spanish appeals court called foul on European football’s organizing body, ruling that UEFA had illegally stifled an attempt by a dozen top clubs from Spain, Italy and England to form their own contest. The EU “will continue to advocate for the strengthening of our sport model, our national leagues and grassroot sport,” Glenn Micallef, commissioner for culture and sport, said in a statement to POLITICO reacting to the judgment.  The Maltese commissioner said the EU executive would continue to work with UEFA and LaLiga — the European and Spanish federations found by the Madrid court to have breached EU competition law — in order to ensure that money is redistributed from the top clubs to amateur leagues. In June, the Spanish competition authority opened an antitrust investigation into UEFA’s conduct, a case which observers — including a former advocate general — think should be taken up by the European Commission. “[The Super League] contradicts the principles of the European Sports Model and collapsed in 2021 because it was a bad idea from the start,” said Micallef, noting that it was rejected by fans, players and governments across Europe at the time. The commissioner’s comment follows the European Parliament’s adoption of a resolution in October that stated the legislative body’s opposition to “breakaway competitions.” Both Real Madrid and A22 Sports Management have said that they will seek damages from UEFA following the court ruling. Both Real Madrid and A22 Sports Management have said that they will seek damages from UEFA following the court ruling. | Sven Hoppe/Getty Images Despite the Super League’s collapse in 2021, its backers have continued to try to organize a breakaway competition.  In response to last Wednesday’s judgment, A22 said that it had held extensive discussions with UEFA officials aimed at creating an open, cross-border football competition, but that the Switzerland-based federation “refused to pursue a compromise.” “UEFA is clearly legally obliged to recognise A22’s right to organize competitions on an equal footing with their own,” the firm said in a statement. UEFA has said that it will carefully review the judgment before deciding on further steps.

LONDON — Google has “substantial and entrenched market power” in online search meaning it will likely face restrictions in the U.K. to curb its dominance, the country’s competition watchdog confirmed Friday.  The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would designate Google with “strategic market status” for search and search advertising, the first time it has used its new digital markets powers which came into force in January.  A consultation on what steps the regulator might take to stem that dominance, known as conduct requirements, will follow later this year, the CMA said.   Possible options include choice screens, meaning users can switch more easily between search engines; more transparency and control for publishers whose content is used in Google’s AI overviews; and portability of consumer search data.  Google said the CMA’s actions could delay product launches in the U.K.   Its senior director for competition Oliver Bethell said: “The U.K. enjoys access to the latest products and services before other countries because it has so far avoided costly restrictions on popular services, such as Search. Retaining this position means avoiding unduly onerous regulations and learning from the negative results seen in other jurisdictions.” He added: “Many of the ideas for interventions that have been raised in this process would inhibit U.K. innovation and growth, potentially slowing product launches at a time of profound AI-based innovation.” Google’s Gemini AI assistant is not in scope of the designation, but the CMA said its position will be “kept under review.” Will Hayter, executive director for digital markets at the CMA, said: “By promoting competition in digital markets like search and search advertising we can unlock opportunities for businesses big and small to support innovation and growth, driving investment across the U.K. economy.” Google is the CMA’s first target under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. It reached a provisional decision in June to designate Google. It is also intending to designate Google and Apple in mobile ecosystems, with a decision on that due later in October.