US president Donald Trump will allegedly do “everything possible” to help Gianni Infantino remain as FIFA president as massive pressure comes from European governing body UEFA.
Infantino’s presidency is under threat after his failed scheme to sell off 20 to 30 per cent of a new subsidiary to private investors.
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The plan was met with widespread condemnation around the football world with the severe backlash ultimately leading to Infantino and FIFA to scrap the plan – which would have resulted in Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s company owning part of the World Cup.
Infantino’s Trump connection is in the spotlight once again as the FIFA boss and White House officials denied reported that Infantino was set to hold talks on Monday with the likes of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and other members of Trump’s cabinet to help strengthen his position.
A senior administration official, who is close to both Trump and Infantino, told The Telegraph that the US president had grown fond of the FIFA president in recent years and wants to see him keep his role at next year’s election.
Trump even reportedly had suggested making Infantino the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
“Gianni helped us a lot to deliver the best World Cup ever. The president likes him a lot. I am sure the president will do everything possible to help him,” the source said.
“I don’t think the president will change his mind on him, because he is a loyal person. Gianni really delivered the World Cup for the United States. We value that.”
Away from the White House, Infantino has only received public support from the football federations of Morocco, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Lebanon.
In Europe, top officials are working tirelessly on trying to force Infantino to resign, or making sure he is toppled at next year’s election – where all 211 member nations get a vote.
TalkSport reported that UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is pushing for European clubs to boycott the FIFA Club World Cup if Infantino remains in power.
Ceferin is planning to talk with European Football Clubs chair Nasser Al-Khelaifi at the UEFA Super Cup final on August 12 about the matter.
Ceferin and Infantino have butted heads for many years on the Club World Cup, which was expanded to 32 teams last year off the back of Infantino’s long-term vision of the tournament competing with the Champions League.
The UEFA boss called it a “selfish endeavour” by his FIFA counterpart when plans for an expanded Club World Cup were discussed back in 2018.
The next edition of the tournament, due to be held in 2029, is up in the air, however, with no host confirmed, but Infantino was eager to expand it to 48 teams.
Many clubs have also reportedly not been given payments they were promised by FIFA from last year’s tournament in the US, which was won by Chelsea.
Meanwhile, UEFA have also sent a legal letter to Infantino and the other 13 FIFA executives, which includes former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, to preserve all relevant documents for an investigation into their actions.
The report from The Times’ Martyn Ziegler, who broke the FIFA privatisation story, comes after his report that the English FA are formally set to withdraw their letter of support for Infantino’s re-election.
‘HE LOST THE GAME’
FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s ability to brush aside criticism and push through enlarged versions of the Club World Cup and World Cup lent him an air of omnipotence, but a failed private investor plan has left his position under threat for the first time.
When the 56-year-old, who holds Swiss, Italian and Lebanese citizenship, strode onto the pitch with his close friend, US President Donald Trump, after the World Cup final a fortnight ago, his stock could not have been higher.
The largest and most complex edition of the sport’s jewel in the crown, featuring 48 teams and spread over three countries, was largely judged a success despite a series of off-pitch controversies.
He had also delivered more money into the coffers of his electorate, FIFA’s 211 member associations.
The son of Italian migrants, who once said he had been bullied in Switzerland when he was a youngster for having red hair and freckles, was riding high.
Infantino has largely limited his media appearances, unlike his predecessor Sepp Blatter.
That rare revelation about being bullied as a child came as he was attempting to bat off criticism of 2022 World Cup host Qatar’s human rights record.
“I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled,” he said. “But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated against as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied — because I had red hair and freckles.”
The lawyer was first elected in 2016 and re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023. But has been accused of allowing FIFA to become an autocracy in recent years. For his critics, this was epitomised by the debacle of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, announced and then shelved last week.
FFE, very much seen as Infantino’s project, envisaged bringing private investment into FIFA’s tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cups.
Revealed last Tuesday, it was dead in the water by Saturday after a widespread backlash.
Former UEFA president Michel Platini, under whom Infantino served as secretary-general from 2009, has been one of Infantino’s most outspoken critics.
“Unfortunately Infantino has become more of an autocrat since the (Covid) pandemic,” Platini told English newspaper The Guardian in January.
“I think he lost the game. There is less democracy than in Blatter’s time,” added the 71-year-old Frenchman, who was banned from football in 2015 for a payment he received from FIFA in 2011.
– ‘Is this money clean?’ –
Platini, who has since been exonerated in a Swiss court, portrays Infantino in a less than flattering light.
“He was a good No. 2, but is not a good No. 1,” said Platini. “He worked very well at UEFA but he has one problem: he likes the rich and powerful people, the ones with money.
“It’s his character.” Infantino’s friendship with Trump, whom he awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize despite widespread ridicule, has come under scrutiny.
One of the most controversial moments of the World Cup was the suspension of US striker Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban, which had come after a phone call from Trump, freeing him to play in the last 16 against Belgium.
That Infantino’s FFE plan involved the firm of Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared, only added to the impression of his desire to rub shoulders with the powerful.
“Josh Kushner’s firm has a legitimate track record,” Terrence Burns, who was a brand marketing strategist for two successful World Cup host bids, told AFP.
“But the association was always going to be read politically, in a year when Infantino’s proximity to the White House was already the subject of formal ethics complaints, and after a red card review a good many federations regarded as a red line.
“We’ve understood in sponsorship for 40 years that a partner brings their whole context with them, and the diligence question isn’t ‘Is this money clean?’ but ‘What will this money be understood to mean?’ “That test was either not run, not believed, or not cared about.” After the collapse of his controversial World Cup sell-off plan, Infantino said he would focus on restoring harmony.
“Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together… in the spirit of shared interest in our game,” he said.
“And with the objective to continue growing football everywhere.” Infantino will learn whether his time is up at the FIFA presidential election in Rabat next March, for which nominations close on November 18.
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