Sir Ed Davey has discovered that FIFA’s integrity problem is the one thing standing between Britain and prosperity. The Liberal Democrats are now officially demanding the FA and UEFA sever ties with world football’s governing body, citing Gianni Infantino’s leadership as a threat to the sport’s credibility.
This is the political priority of a party that could be spending oxygen on NHS waiting lists, housing costs, or the fact that train tickets now cost more than flights. Instead: football governance. The self-awareness required to position yourself as the party of serious policy while rage-tweeting about FIFA officials would require a physics degree.
The timing is immaculate. Britain is in the grip of multiple crises. The Lib Dems’ response: focus on the one problem that affects zero British citizens directly and that every other country also complains about but does nothing regarding. It is the political equivalent of your house being on fire while you write an angry letter to the gas company about their logo.
Infantino has indeed presided over a FIFA that makes a reality TV show look like a peer-reviewed journal. But the Lib Dems didn’t suddenly develop football ethics—they developed a press release. The FA and UEFA will ignore this demand entirely. They always do. British politics has found a new hobby: performative outrage about institutions that don’t answer to anyone anyway.
Meanwhile, someone still has to fix the actual country.