As you’ve probably heard by now, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for FIFA chief Gianni Infantino. First, there was the absolute crashing and burning of his plan to sell the World Cup to a group of investors led by Jared Kushner’s brother, Josh, which resulted in member associations basically declaring they want him gone. Then there was the op-ed by former footballer Luís Figo, in which the legendary player wrote, “I’ve seen some rogues in my time in the game, but what I’ve seen in the past ten days is the lowest, most deceitful, and cravenly self-interested behavior I’ve ever witnessed.” Infantino’s second-in-command, Mattias Grafström, reportedly called the plan to spin off the World Cup a “sad and reproachable series of events.” Another senior leader said the scrapping of the scheme was “absolutely necessary and beyond question.” There was an accusation of blackmail and a separate one of an alleged affair with an underling. “The Infantino era is over,” Javier Tebas, president of Italy’s La Liga, told Le Monde. “It should be fatal,” Canadian prime minister Mark Carney declared of the plot. “Certainly, I don’t have confidence in Mr. Infantino.”
Yes, the guy is near-universally reviled at this point, viewed as corruption incarnate. But one person still has his back: Donald Trump. On Monday, the president took to Truth Social to defend Infantino, writing, “FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino. He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.” That’s right: Not only should FIFA not remove Infantino because of the World Cup sale debacle, but it shouldn’t think about removing him for any reason, at all, ever.
The president’s full-throated defense of the FIFA chief is hardly surprising given that Infantino spent years cozying up to Trump, whose son-in-law was the government point person on the push for the 2026 World Cup to take place in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In 2025, the soccer organization began renting office space in Trump Tower, and that same year, it threw cringe to the wind and created the inaugural FIFA “Peace Prize” for the singular purpose of giving it to Trump.
Unfortunately for Infantino, not everyone believes it would be a “terrible mistake” for FIFA to send its leader packing. In a joint letter issued Tuesday, Europe’s UEFA, North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation accused “an individual” of breaking trust “through deception.” The groups noted that despite Infantino issuing a half-hearted apology letter, “there remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.”
Tags:
- world cup
- family business
- donald trump
- gianni infantino
Source: New York Magazine
