Kudos to the Bermuda Football Association for joining the 40 other Concacaf member nations in rejecting Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s proposal to sell off World Cup rights to private investors — as reported by The Royal Gazette on August 1.

The stand of the BFA along with Concacaf resonates with the best of human characteristics. Those of us concerned about the state of the globe are hopeful that this demonstration of principle will go viral. Especially for the most meaningful matters.

The context of this “deal” includes the key involvement of the Kushner family, who are tied to the manipulation of the extraordinary antisocial aspects of the 2026 World Cup.

It was most appropriate being published on August 1 — Emancipation Day. However, rather than describing this proposal as a sell-off, might I suggest that this “deal” is a classic example of a sell-out.

Of course, sell-off brings to mind children being separated from their enslaved mothers. However, those liberated on August 1, 1834, in Bermuda would have eventually realised that there was a sell-out when they learnt that the former “owners” would receive reparations from the British Parliament, while there were no reparations for those who had provided the “free” labour under inhumane conditions, some for decades.

When Uefa began this campaign of resistance, it confirmed that the plan to create a private company to run the World Cup was a non-starter. It pointed out: it’s not for Fifa to sell. None of us are the owners of football. Uefa captured the essence of the matter; how predatory capitalism attempts to reduce everything to a commodity.

This reached a new low when Jared Kushner facilitated the formation of the Board of Peace, which announced plans to transform the ruin/rubble from the genocide of Gaza and to create an upscale destination for the super-rich on that graveyard foundation.

Infantino’s speedy retreat on the deal, notwithstanding having sold it to some of the heavy hitters from the Epstein class, shows that might doesn’t always make right. It has some parallels with some key milestones in tiny Bermuda:

• The Young Men’s Friendly Society Supreme Court action in February 1835 secured the freedom of 73 men, women and children who had been enslaved on a US schooner — Enterprise — in Bermuda waters

• Numerous Bermudians in 1977 supported the campaign against the hangings of Erskine “Buck” Burrows and Larry Tacklyn. While unsuccessful in that regard, the campaign resulted in ending capital punishment in all British territories

• During the 1980s, after a slow start, Bermudians eventually strongly supported the global anti-apartheid movement

• In 2020, diverse Bermudians in historically large numbers supported the global protest regarding the murder of George Floyd

• Glenn Fubler represents Imagine Bermuda