Gianni Infantino: FIFA boss who ‘Trumpified’ football

When Gianni Infantino, 56, was elected to take over FIFA in 2016 – following his predecessor Sepp Blatter’s ousting in a corruption scandal – there were hopes he would wield a new broom. The message from his office, says The Times, is that he has done just that. On his watch, a new FIFA has emerged: “clean, transparent, accountable”.

True, FIFA is more transparent than it was, says the BBC. It now publishes the salaries of all top executives. Infantino might also argue that he has delivered on his pledge to keep the funds that FIFA generates “within football”. Some of the “poorest and smallest footballing nations” have received vital funding for infrastructure and development. Moreover, he has proved an absolute dynamo at fundraising, says The New Yorker. Since taking over, FIFA’s “revenues have more than doubled” – during the next cycle, which will run until 2030, the organisation is projected to have $14 billion to spend.

The question tabled by critics is, at what cost? Infantino’s “profit-above-all-else approach” has paved the way for many questionable partnerships. The governments he has worked most closely with as FIFA president have been those of Vladimir Putin, the Emir of Qatar, the Trump administration and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Like any other multinational organisation, FIFA must follow the money. Yet his “fascination with autocracy” seems to have grown with his role.

Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump could be this tournament’s villains

At every World Cup, there are several prestigious titles at stake besides that of “Champion”, says the Financial Times. There’s the “Clown” – a big country that trips up and fails; the “Cinderella” – a small country that experiences a fairy tale; the “Beautiful Loser”; and, above all, the “Villain”. In the latter half of the 20th century, this was often the German team. More recently, individual players have won the laurels. But this year, “the front runners” are Donald Trump and FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino.

Notoriously thin-skinned, Gianni Infantino was dismayed at being mocked for a grandiose and right-on speech he made at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – not least because being the underdog has always been part of his shtick, says ESPN. Growing up in small-town Switzerland, he claims to have suffered prejudice over his red hair and his Italian roots, later arguing that his determination “to drive football as a force for peace and togetherness” was influenced by this experience. After taking a law degree, he became legal counsel and general secretary for the International Centre for Sports Studies, based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, before joining UEFA – the governing body for European football – where he worked his way up to become general secretary in 2009. While there, he generated “a fierce loyalty” among a small group that followed him to FIFA.

How Gianni Infantino is ‘Trumpifying’ FIFA

Gianni Infantino’s ultimate grand gesture – awarding Donald Trump with “The FIFA Peace Prize” – made headlines for taking his efforts “to flatter and ingratiate himself with Trump to new heights”, says The New York Times. But they overshadowed the bigger story – “the Trumpification of FIFA itself”. As the US president himself observed admiringly: “Everybody knows this man [is] the king of soccer” – and one increasingly insisting on top-down compliance to his every narcissistic whim.

This World Cup’s exorbitantly priced tickets and concessions to US commercialism such as the new hydration (advertising) breaks won’t have endeared Infantino to many fans. Nor will his increasingly expensive lifestyle: his pay has more than trebled from £1.3 million in 2016. “With nothing to stop him winning a landslide in the presidential election next year”, the FIFA president looks set to “remain in power until at least 2031”, says The Times. Even so, “this might just be the tournament when his crown starts to slip”.

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