Gianni Infantino arrives at his moment but football's response is coming

Independent

17 hours ago

Gianni Infantino doesn't tend to use notes, so his addresses at Friday's official dinner for the Club World Cup in Miami will likely be off the cuff. He does have a personal charm, which will be deployed to full effect as he greets the US political hierarchy. Infantino already knows many from his visits to Mar-a-Lago, just an hour away. As of Thursday evening, there were no firm plans to greet the less celebrated figures of the media, for the type of press conference he conducted on the eve of the 2022 World Cup.
We can probably guess how Infantino 'feels', either way. The perma-smile in his excitable Instagram feed says enough. This is Infantino's moment. This is his tournament.
There has never been a football competition so anchored to one man, in the way this Club World Cup is. Infantino's 'dream', to quote insiders, is being realised. This is what he has wanted since rising to president in 2016, after the US state investigations that ended the Sepp Blatter era.
Fifa is not just back in the country a decade after that, but essentially in partnership with the Donald Trump administration. Infantino even dutifully dismissed any 'concerns' about ICE agents attending Club World Cup games to probe supporters. That informs an argument that the Republican government has made the US the least welcoming of any modern host to fans, but Fifa have little to say on this.
'I don't have any concerns about anything,' Infantino stated when asked about the security issue.
Why would he? Infantino will no doubt feel like 'the king of soccer' right now, to quote his friend, Trump. Many in the game are eagerly awaiting what superlatives the US president will bestow on 'Johnny' this weekend, if only for the sketch-show element of it all.
Elon Musk might have gone from Trump's side but Infantino is still there.
Trump's words, however, are likely to deviate from a more common description in the game over the past few weeks. That is that Infantino certainly seems far more concerned with actually coming across as a 'king of soccer', than the president of all 211 football associations, who he is supposed to serve as a priority of his role.
It certainly didn't look like that at his own federation's Congress in Paraguay, when the Fifa president arrived late - missing numerous official appointments - because he was in Saudi Arabia with Trump. That only made for the latest example of Infantino brazenness, in-keeping with many decisions for the staging of the Club World Cup, like how Lionel Messi's Inter Miami controversially qualified.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and his Executive Committee were so incensed by the disrespect in Paraguay that they staged a walk-out, albeit one that was walked back a few days later. They stated it was an 'isolated' protest, as sources privately insist they just didn't want a full-blown conflict between the two federations.
Far more relevant might still have been Uefa's official statement on the day of Infantino's arrival, which is understood to have been crafted by more established figures in the confederation. Infantino was directly criticised for prioritising 'private political interests'.
If nothing else, it is a weighty phrase to introduce to football's public record, especially since it directly comes from one of the major bodies. It also brings into the public domain what many senior figures have been saying in private. They maintain that what we are seeing is not just the evolution of the game due to market forces, but the conscious selling-off of football, to far greater forces. 'It's really the story of our time,' one source says.
Large sections of Fifa, Uefa and the wider game are getting increasingly frustrated with how so many decisions are taken above their heads, affording little debate or input.
The nexus of interests that the Club World Cup represents seems such a clear example. The idea might initially have been noble, but there has been considerable political agitation about its implementation. You only have to look at how the actual US Soccer federation has been completely sidelined, from both this and the 2026 World Cup.
It was why the late arrival at Congress was so symbolic, not least because Fifa and the game are supposed to belong to the members, who represent fans and the amateur levels. And here were Trump and Saudi Arabia placed way above all that.
As one source said, it's hard to imagine Infantino doing that to club owners. They're the figures he wants to be an important actor with now, having already developed an alliance with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
As ever, it's impossible to divorce this from the absurd level of power that football's executive presidents are afforded, and how it can change people. Essentially random administrators - 'some guy', to quote many in the game - are elevated to a sphere they could never have imagined. The most remarkable thing is that this structure remained in place even after the 2015 upheaval. A joint statement by NGOs, academics, whistleblowers and supporters groups on that anniversary even argued it has got worse, stating 'Fifa is arguably more poorly governed today than a decade ago'.
And yet some of this is about Infantino himself. He was supposed to be the great reformer, bringing a hands-off presidency, only to be even more hands on. While Infantino was seen as a highly competent general secretary at Uefa, the consensus is that there was always an ego there. The role has accelerated a change that would happen to most people.
The wonder is whether this moment will bring everything too far.
FairSquare already talk of how 'he's turned Fifa into an elite PR machine for authoritarian states'. The Club World Cup could even be construed as a medium-term alternative to the Champions League for the Saudi Pro League, that is a disruptor for the sport.
Infantino meanwhile doesn't address these issues anywhere, other than meaningless doublespeak about how 'football will unite the world'. His most prominent media appearance in the build-up to the Club World Cup was with YouTuber IShowSpeed - where he managed to aggravate Cristiano Ronaldo's camp for revealing transfer tittle-tattle.
The image is of a figure who 'just doesn't care', but concern is consequently growing in the game. Members of the Fifa Council are worried. A rump is growing in Europe, despite Uefa being seen as having 'bottled it' after the quick climbdown from the Paraguay statement. Even in England, senior football figures are trying to point all of this out to politicians, who are otherwise concerned whether Fifa will see the independent regulator as political interference.
'Gianni himself thinks he's in some triumvirate with Trump and Mohammed bin Salman,' one source says. They surely don't.
He's subjecting himself to bigger powers. Other senior figures are beginning to consider challenging him for the 2027 elections, or even persuading people like Nasser Al-Khelaifi or Javier Tebas to be potential candidates.
That's all for the future, though. Right now, this is the moment Infantino has waited for.