FIFA’s governance crisis: How neoliberal sports privatisation exposes global inequality in football’s power structures

FIFA’s governance crisis ignores Indigenous and African models of participatory leadership, such as the *Ubuntu* philosophy in Southern Africa, which prioritises collective well-being over profit extraction. For instance, the *N’Ko* governance system in West Africa—where decisions are made through communal deliberation—contrasts sharply with FIFA’s top-down, corporate-influenced reforms. The omission of these models reinforces a Eurocentric assumption that Western-style governance is universally superior, erasing alternative frameworks that could address football’s systemic inequities.