In the aftermath of the World Cup, despite the many issues that had plagued the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada, Gianni Infantino spoke in tones that suggested he felt invincible. By delivering record revenues and the “most outstanding” World Cup ever, the Fifa president felt emboldened enough to embark on a victory lap, admonishing his critics from within the stronghold of his Fifa palace, while safe in the knowledge that the structures and mechanisms designed to keep him in power were secure.
Barely a week later, the walls around Infantino are crumbling before our eyes. In overplaying his hand and rushing through proposals to sell stakes in the World Cup and Fifa tournaments to private investors, Infantino has crossed a line from which he may not return. Uefa’s extraordinary decision to boycott the World Cup should Infantino have gotten his way led to two more federations, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf, rejecting his proposals.
From there, the Swiss-Italian saw the writing on the wall, with more than enough support to comfortably defeat his proposals if a vote had gone ahead, and he officially scrapped his plans in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Independent understands that Infantino’s plans had been in the works for over a year but the way he went about trying to implement them – described as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal... [that was] anything but transparent,” in an excoriating statement from Uefa in which also declared it had lost confidence in the Fifa president – was scandalous.
Now he’s under mounting pressure from within Fifa itself as well. The president’s long-time adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, described as a heavyweight figure within the organisation, resigned in protest on Friday. “Football has been central to my life, and after more than 35 years in banking, I understand both the value of this asset and the consequences of giving part of it away,” he said in a statement. “That is why this proposal should be rejected.” If even the Fifa suits have seen enough, it tells you that Infantino has gone too far.
Suddenly, even Infantino’s most steadfast allies have the potential to switch sides. Asia will host the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia and parts of the region have benefited greatly from Infantino’s support since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but the AFC’s president, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain, has been Infantino’s most vocal critic outside of Europe. A withering statement on Friday accused Fifa of “undermining” the World Cup and called for an “urgent review” into its governance.
The AFC said it stands in “solidarity” with Uefa, while Concacaf (the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) also confirmed that it had “rejected the proposals” following its own emergency meeting. The Independent also understands that the vast majority of Concacaf’s 41 members have lost confidence in Infantino’s presidency.
That is to be admired, as Infantino’s ploy of offering countries $40m for backing his proposals, or risk receiving only $10m for rejecting them, was aimed primarily at smaller nations who would have benefited greatly from the windfall, an additional pot of gold to clear debts and fund overdue infrastructure projects. Infantino attempted to target those vulnerabilities, but he came up against organised, united opposition.
With Uefa, the AFC and Concacaf aligned, a voting bloc of around 150 member associations would have comfortably defeated Infantino’s proposals, even if a few countries from those federations went against the whip. For Infantino, it meant an embarrassing defeat was inevitable and he duly climbed down.
The question now is whether his position is untenable and this debacle will spell the end of his presidency. For this writer, it is already beyond clear that Infantino must go: a president who places his political interests and the financial incentives of private investors – from within Donald Trump’s own family – above the sport is no leader. As Uefa said: “This is not merely a profound failure of leadership but an abdication of Fifa’s duty as the custodian of world football.”
However, Infantino will surely take another page from the Trump playbook: could you ever imagine Trump resigning over anything, no matter how egregious, let alone admitting to a miscalculation of such epic proportions? It says a lot that, in the midst of an apparent crisis, Infantino was accelerating his plans for an expansion to 64 teams for the next World Cup while his fiercest opponent, Uefa, was holding its emergency meeting on Thursday.
Infantino is acting like a tyrant, and he must be stopped. Uefa and its allies will be rewarded for the strength of their opposition in recent days, but they must now strike and put forward a candidate to challenge Infantino’s presidency when he stands for re-election in March next year. Uefa’s Alexander Ceferin, who has positioned himself as the anti-Infantino despite making anti-competitive changes to the Champions League under his leadership, would be an obvious candidate.
The Independent, meanwhile, has reported that Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi, the chairman of Qatar Sports Investment, would also carry support. He could stand to gain from a further elevation of his status within the game. Other figures such as Lise Klaveness, the president of the Football Association of Norway, have been standing up to Infantino for some time. Klaveness in particular should be recognised for putting her head above the parapet long before the tide on Infantino turned within political circles.
Infantino’s plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup may have been quashed but it will take more to topple his empire. That said, football has spoken and faces a window of opportunity that must now be seized if it wants to build a fairer game: the rejection of Infantino’s proposals must stand for the rejection of the man himself, and the organisation he has helped shape.
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