Sovereignty has replaced ownership as the real currency of power in football
The Morning Wire Football Power List illustrates the shifting sands of the sport ahead of the 2026 World Cup, writes one of its judges, Amar Singh.
We are days away from a truly super-sized Fifa World Cup – 48 teams, three host nations, and a tournament that will be watched by more people than any in the competition’s history. The growth of the game will feel as prominent as ever.
The Morning Wire Football Power List, published today, reflects a sport wrestling with its own commercial weight and the relentless pressure to remain authentic to fans who cannot be defined by any single set of values or expectations.
The first thing to take away: billionaires are no longer at the apex of football. Nation-states are. Sheikh Mansour at four, Nasser Al-Khelaifi at two – nominally a club president, functionally a Qatari sovereign instrument – are the clearest illustration of that.
The era of the wealthy private owner as football’s ultimate power broker is giving way to something with longer horizons and deeper pockets.
Europe-centric governance aims at US and Gulf markets
The governance of football remains strongly European. Gianni Infantino tops the list. Given Fifa’s reach – 211 member associations and an election cycle nobody seriously contests – he takes his rightful place. Aleksandr Ceferin sits third. The Uefa president remains the most credible counterweight to both Fifa overreach and Gulf capital, and his ranking reflects that.
Richard Masters, CEO of the Premier League, is placed 10th – arguably low for someone at the helm of the most watched and commercially valuable domestic league on the planet. But Masters carries the weight of 100-plus charges against Manchester City still unresolved, and a growing question about where institutional authority actually sits when the biggest clubs operate with state backing and global fanbases that dwarf the league itself.
The most geopolitically charged entry on the list is US President Donald Trump, who has closely aligned himself with Infantino and the World Cup landing on American soil. His administration controls the visa infrastructure, the security apparatus, and the broader political climate that will shape how that tournament is experienced.
Perhaps the more significant story across the Atlantic, though, is found in Miami. David Beckham sits at 12, Lionel Messi at 14. Messi’s arrival in Major League Soccer has proved so impactful that Inter Miami’s jersey became Adidas’s global best seller and the club was the first in MLS history to generate more than $200m in annual revenue.
Should the World Cup capture the imagination of America – the world’s most sophisticated and commercialised sports market – Beckham and Messi will have played no small part.
If Inter Miami represents a club on the rise, the presidents of two of Europe’s grandest institutions remain highly influential. Florentino Perez of Real Madrid at six. Barcelona’s Joan Laporta at nine. Both men preside over clubs that are simultaneously carrying chronic debt and operating as the most culturally resonant brands in the sport.
When Perez talks, the transfer market listens. When Laporta negotiates, the reverberations are felt across European football. Should the spectre of a European Super League ever return, these are the two figures most likely to be at the centre of it.
Cristiano Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes may be the list’s most symbiotic pairing at seventh and eighth respectively. Their combined presence reflects an ability to move markets, open governments, and reshape leagues through sheer force of personal brand. Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr was a commercial coup that pushed the Saudi Pro League up the football food chain.
Read the Morning Wire Power List top 25 in full here
Emerging powers: women’s football, player unions, Africa
Much has been made of the growth of the women’s game. Michele Kang at 11 is the standout entry and a genuine one. Her portfolio of clubs: Washington Spirit, London City Lionesses and OL Lyonnes represents the most coherent private investment thesis in women’s football anywhere in the world.
Further down, Jessica Berman, who leads the commercially successful NWSL, and Dawn Airey, chair of the WSL, reflect the growing influence of the women’s game at club level. But concentrated institutional authority remains the missing piece in the women’s game.
Two names are worth watching as this list evolves. Maheta Molango at 23 — the PFA chief executive has operated largely in the background of football’s biggest structural debates: player welfare, calendar congestion, the tension between club and country. As fixture volumes increase and players push back harder, his role becomes more significant.
Patrice Motsepe at 24 points to something broader – Morocco will co-host the 2030 World Cup, and the continued emergence of Africa’s football ecosystem.
For decades, football’s power flowed through clubs and their owners. Today it flows through institutions, sovereign wealth and political influence. The World Cup will make that abundantly clear.
Amar Singh is SVP, Content and Creative for MKTG Sports + Entertainment. He writes and podcasts about sports marketing, content and culture at https://thesportsmarketeer.substack.com/