Football has survived corruption, scandals, television money and the rise of billionaires.
But even by those standards, watching a football governing body present something resembling a “peace prize” to a politician felt surreal.
When the image appeared of Donald Trump receiving the trophy, the reaction across football was immediate.
Confusion.
Embarrassment.
And a simple question many supporters quietly asked:
What on earth does this have to do with football?
The problem isn’t whether people support or oppose Trump. Politics will always divide opinion. That is the nature of democracy.
The problem is that FIFA decided football should start handing out symbolic political awards in the first place.
Football’s governing bodies are supposed to protect the universality of the game.
Football works because everyone can walk through the same stadium gates. People with completely different views on politics, religion, culture and life itself can stand next to each other for ninety minutes and share the same emotion.
For that brief moment, football belongs to everyone.
When football institutions start publicly celebrating political figures, they damage that neutrality.
Half the world cheers.
Half the world rolls their eyes.
And the game itself gets dragged into arguments it never needed.
But the deeper problem this moment exposes is something bigger about modern football governance.
Global football leadership has become obsessed with proximity to power.
Administrators fly around the world meeting presidents and prime ministers. They attend state dinners. They stand in palaces and presidential offices posing for photographs.
The closer football’s leaders get to political power, the further they drift from the people who actually sustain the game.
The supporters.
Football survives because ordinary people keep showing up.
Parents taking their children to matches.
Fans travelling hundreds of miles for away games.
Communities raising money to save their clubs when institutions fail them.
No supporter anywhere woke up thinking:
“Football really needs a political peace prize.”
What supporters want is very different.
They want football to be affordable again.
They want transparency in how the game is governed.
They want historic clubs protected from financial speculation.
They want the sport to remain rooted in communities rather than boardrooms.
And most importantly, they want a voice.
For clarity, I have no political party affiliation today. Like many people I’ve gradually lost interest in traditional party politics.
My grandfather was a local councillor, so I grew up understanding the importance of community representation. But football supporters have spent too long being spoken for by institutions that rarely listen.
The game should be represented by supporters themselves.
That belief is at the heart of everything I’m building through Football Is For The Fans.
The idea is simple.
Football should belong to the people who live it every week.
Not corporations.
Not distant governing bodies.
And certainly not politicians looking for photo opportunities.
Across the world you can already see the signs of change.
Supporter ownership movements.
Fan protests against ticket prices.
Communities fighting to save historic clubs.
Supporters are beginning to realise something powerful.
Football institutions may control the boardrooms.
But supporters still control the soul of the game.
And if institutions continue drifting away from the people who sustain football, those supporters will eventually organise themselves.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve thought about a bigger idea for the future.
Something called the Supporters Party.
Not a traditional political party funded by corporations or wealthy donors.
A movement funded purely by members.
Supporters themselves.
No corporate donors.
No sponsor influence.
Just supporters organising so their voice can no longer be ignored.
Right now my focus is on building Football Is For The Fans and the wider projects around it. But the idea matters because it reflects a simple truth about the future of the game.
Football supporters are the largest community in football.
If they ever decide to organise politically, the institutions of the game would have to start listening in a very different way.
Because football does not need political coronations.
Football needs credibility.
And credibility begins with remembering who the game truly belongs to.
The fans.
Always the fans.
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