Some things trend, then become just more of the same, and then start trending again. Such is the case with the Fifa-Infantino saga.
What began as a row over a rather extraordinary plan to part-privatise Fifa’s World Cup business has turned into the most serious challenge to Gianni Infantino’s authority since he became Fifa president in 2016. US congressman Jamie Raskin has described the proposed privatisation as “a smash-and-grab scam of colossal proportions”.
Imagine your position is precarious in an international organisation ... Who would you desperately not want to spring to your defence? Well, someone who is distrusted in his own country and outright despised everywhere else, perhaps. Hello Donald J Trump, Esq, the unesteemed president of the US.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday that Fifa would be making a “terrible mistake” if it considered replacing Infantino, called him “fantastic” and credited him with presiding over the most successful World Cup ever. Trump did not mention that his son-in-law’s brother, Joshua Kushner, was a key player in the idea to sell a 20% stake in Fifa for $4.2bn.
So is Infantino toast when his term comes up for renewal in March next year? It’s complicated, but possibly. The three big regional associations — Uefa (the Europeans), AFC (the Asians) and Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean) — have all attacked him, though it’s individual member associations, not confederations, that will vote in March. Even with support from Africa and some Middle East members, Infantino is short of about 30 votes.
But such are the vagaries of football, he could get his fourth term as president. Mexico has already parted from Concacaf on the issue. Presumably, the poorer national associations are bitter about the fact that the rich ones have spiked the $40m payday that Infantino promised them the deal would bring. Still, Infantino faces an uphill task, and with friends like Trump, that hill just got steeper.
But the really funny thing is that an Infantino predecessor, the utterly disgraced Sepp Blatter, has been accusing Infantino of, wait for it, “excessive commercialisation”. Blatter lecturing Infantino on Fifa ethics is a joke in itself. It is rather like Nero writing a stern letter to the fire brigade.
