Maintenance in progress

a rights group filed an official ioc complaint alleging fifa president infantino breached neutrality rules by reversing folarin balogun's world cup suspension after us president trump lobbied for it — an unprecedented reversal that let the player compete. the same cycle brought a retired nba player's federal bribery plea, an indian betting-app money laundering arrest, and testimony to the uk house of lords that match-fixers are recruited by organized crime. the spectacle's governance layer, not its games, is what moved: a head of state directly bending tournament outcomes is a new kind of capture.

sports governance watchdogs and court filings