Fifa opens office in Trump Tower, deepening ties with US president
The announcement of the new office came on Monday evening, after Fifa placed the Club World Cup trophy on display in the lobby of the skyscraper in an event attended by several Fifa dignitaries including its president, Gianni Infantino, and the Brazilian great Ronaldo as well as Eric Trump, the son of the US president and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization.
Related: Qatar weighs up 2029 Club World Cup bid that could mean winter tournament
'Fifa [is] a global organisation [and] to be global you have to be local, you have to be everywhere, so we have to be in New York,' Infantino said. 'Not just for the Fifa Club World Cup this year and the Fifa World Cup next year – we have to be in New York as well when it comes to where our offices are based. Thank you, Eric [Trump], thank you to everyone. Thanks, of course, to president Trump as well.'
Fifa did not provide specifics on which staff or departments would be housed in New York. It is now a tenant of the company owned by the sitting US president with the start of its biggest and most lucrative tournament next June.
It follows Fifa's opening in 2024 of an office in Miami, Florida, which houses the organization's legal division and some staff responsible for putting on the Club World Cup and next year's World Cup. Some staff from Fifa's global headquarters in Zurich were relocated to the US to work in Miami.
'On behalf of myself, on behalf of New York, on behalf of the Trump Organization and everybody that works in this building – we love you,' Eric Trump said in remarks at the event. 'We're honoured, we're excited about all the things that Fifa is doing.'
The office opening continues efforts by Fifa and Infantino to appear publicly close to the US president, with Infantino describing his relationship with Trump as 'absolutely crucial' in a February meeting with the International Football Association Board in February.
Infantino has since appeared with the US president at several public events, including at the Oval Office when announcing the creation of a World Cup task force. In that meeting, Infantino presented Trump with the Club World Cup trophy, which has continued to be on display in the Oval Office for all of the president's scheduled events in the space. Infantino was later present at the first public meeting of the World Cup taskforce, at which he was seated alongside Trump with vice-president JD Vance.
Infantino also accompanied Trump to the Middle East this year – a trip that made him late for the Fifa congress in Paraguay, angering Fifa delegates who walked out of the gathering in protest. Uefa later accused Infantino of putting 'private political interests' ahead of his Fifa responsibilities, and Human Rights Watch demanded that Infantino reveal the specific purpose and details of his trip, which he has yet to do.
'As president of Fifa my responsibility is to make decisions in the interests of the organisation,' Infantino said at the congress, where he apologized for his tardyness. 'I felt that I needed to be there to represent football and all of you.'
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