FIFA Storm: Gianni Infantino Tries Everything and Plays the Donald Trump Card
The crisis at the top of FIFA is deepening by the day. According to the New York Post, Gianni Infantino has reportedly attempted a desperate move in recent hours: directly involving the U.S. government and President Donald Trump to secure political support and try to remain in office despite the revolt by the continental confederations, led by UEFA, which erupted after the failure of the controversial plan to sell a portion of the World Cup’s commercial rights to Josh Kushner’s fund.
According to sources cited by the U.S. newspaper, Infantino reportedly requested a private meeting with Senator Marco Rubio in an attempt to present soccer as “soft power” beneficial to American interests. The State Department, however, has publicly denied any such meeting: “There are no plans for a call with Infantino,” it explained in a brief statement.
This version contradicts that of a FIFA executive who spoke directly with the NY Post’s editorial staff, according to whom the meeting was canceled following the media attention generated by the revelations on the newspaper’s online portal. In fact, sources at the U.S. newspaper are reiterating their claim that Infantino tried several times to contact Trump directly, without success.
The U.S. president reportedly did not respond to calls from the FIFA president, who now finds himself in a position of growing isolation.
His plan to create a new company, FIFA Forward Enterprise, and sell 20 percent of the commercial rights to world soccer to Thrive Capital for over $4 billion collapsed last Friday under pressure from soccer federations around the world. The project’s failure has sparked a full-blown uprising even within FIFA. An executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the New York Post about an internal movement dubbed “Project Kill The Monster,” aimed at forcing Infantino to resign.
The atmosphere is extremely tense: Kevin Lamour, FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer, told the Associated Press that he felt “betrayed” by what had come to light in recent weeks, claiming he had not been informed of the secret negotiations. Many executives reportedly learned of the plan only through the media, following the revelations in The Times.
The plan called for the creation of an external company that would manage television rights, sponsorships, licensing, and tickets. It was a sort of privatization of the World Cup and major FIFA competitions, with Joshua Kushner (brother of Jared, who is Trump’s son-in-law) poised to come on board as a minority investor. The reaction from the federations was nearly unanimous: no one was willing to cede a share of control over world soccer to a private fund.
The FIFA president now appears isolated, under media and political siege. His search for backing in the United States (first Rubio, then Trump himself) is the clearest sign of his difficulty in finding support within the very organization he has led since 2016. And the next FIFA elections are less than a year away.
