Gianni's Club World Cup Panini sticker prompts yet another question for lofty Infantino

The Guardian

2 days ago

I stole from my parents to complete Panini '87. It's not a confession. They know. They knew at the time. I was grounded for a week. Football stickers were an addiction for this eight-year-old. Once you'd bought a quarter of lemon bon bons and fizzy cola bottles and a can of Tizer, there was barely enough pocket money to get more than a few packets. How was I meant to complete it?
Inside my dad's jacket pockets I found 10 pound coins. Treasure. I put them in my pocket and raced to Lavells newsagent and bought as many packets of stickers as I could. In a blind fervour I ripped and I ripped and I ripped. I even ripped Chris Waddle in half. I needed Chris Waddle. Seconds later I was caught red-handed. The shame.
Months later I did manage to complete the album – swapping an insane number of stickers for one Jim Smith. But I felt a little flat, for reasons I couldn't articulate until now – 38 years later.
Not because of the theft, buying the game with dirty money, but because something was missing from that album. Yes, there was Hoddle and Waddle in that beautiful Hummel kit, yes the shinies, but where in Sir Bert Millichip's name were the football administrators? Where was Ted Croker? Where was Graham Kelly in Football '89? No Havelange in Mexico '86? Indeed where was Sir Bert?
Imagine the relief, then, to discover that Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, has rectified this oversight in the hotly anticipated album for the hotly anticipated (tickets still available, getting cheaper by the day) Club World Cup 2025.
On his own Instagram, Gianni talks you through it: 'Look at this! What a collection – this is the brand new Panini Club World Cup sticker album.' He runs through some players – Messi, Kane, Haaland, Vinícius, Mbappé. 'The best of the best united in one sticker album for one incredible competition, together for the Club World Cup.'
All seems fine until we near the end. 'The secret striker is this one here, I will not tell you the name, you have to find it out for yourselves but here you go, centre forward.' He doesn't have to tell you the name, because it looks exactly the same as the person talking to you. It's Gianni. A shiny sticker of Gianni with the words 'The Emblem'.
You can imagine the meeting where this happened. He's leafing through the final design, interns quivering in front of him. 'I've got an idea.' The assembled employees look at the floor. They have see this movie before. 'How about a sticker of … me … the president?!'
You like to think there are some good people at Fifa who care about the game continually biting their tongue and swallowing their souls as they prepare to sell this rubbish. Perhaps it's the footballing Lives of Others. Everyone thinks it's ludicrous but is too scared to mention it to anyone else – the walls are listening. It's possible it wasn't Infantino's idea at all, but a minion swathing around half way up the president – anything to climb the greasy pole.
As the New York Times journalist Tariq Panja posted on BlueSky: 'There's a type of neediness to some of this behaviour that is hard to explain.' It does nothing to dispel the story that during the Qatar World Cup, TV directors were compelled to cut to Infantino, suit and trainers, during every match. Give the fans what they want.
Disappointingly comments have been limited on Infantino's insta post. Fifa has replied with a happy smiley emoji with stars for eyes, followed up by former Swiss international, now Fifa employee, Gelson Fernandes, with two round of applause emojis. And that's it. And in many ways, Infantino has turned comments off for a while now. For someone who is meant to represent all football fans across the entire world, he isn't someone that keen on answering questions.
He did recently sit down with YouTuber iShowSpeed for half an hour. Miraculously, Infantino found someone even more self-obsessed than himself. That may be, of course, quite a positive trait in a YouTuber. I am brutally aware that I am not in the iShowSpeed demographic. And he may be a seriously astute businessman, or just the guy who got lucky in a sea of people yelling 'damn right' about literally everything – and let's face it, anyone getting paid to talk or write about this game got lucky at some point, so good luck to him.
Most of the interview features iShowSpeed trying to show Gianni clips of iShowSpeed singing or dancing or playing football incredibly badly – despite an extraordinary turn of, well, speed. Infantino meanwhile is desperately trying to flog the Club World Cup, showing off the trophy which he's hidden under a blanket in iShowSpeed's bedroom.
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During a slightly strange lull in conversation, the young influencer apropos of nothing says: 'Hold on, I gotta show you my backflip man' – a technique I wish I'd thought of during some indie band interviews in the Soccer AM glory years. He proceeds to carry it off. 'Man!' responds Infantino, 'You are the best' – before leaning into a hug no middle-aged man should attempt.
It's all pretty harmless stuff, and why shouldn't the man who runs football try and speak to young football fans? Well, it would be perfectly fine if Infantino was prepared to host regular press conferences, or sit-down interviews with people with some serious questions.
As a starter for 10 (and with thanks to Philippe Auclair for suggesting many of these questions): is it normal that you did not face any candidate in the last two Fifa presidential elections? Have you given back your order of friendship medal from Vladimir Putin? Why hasn't Fifa made a decision on banning Israel? How did Fifa's Bid Evaluation Report of Saudi Arabia's bid to host the Fifa World Cup 2034 receive 419.8 out of 500, the highest ever score in Fifa World Cup history, despite stadiums (and in one case a whole city) not existing? Why has Fifa ignored its own recommendations and ruled out paying compensation to families of migrant workers who died in Qatar? You've spent a lot of time with Donald Trump but are yet to meet the leaders of Mexico and Canada who are also hosting World Cup 2026, how come? Do you need to travel by private jet (600,000km in three years)? Does that fit Fifa's own climate ambitions? Do you care about multi club ownership? Why don't you talk to the football media? Are you worried that the Club World Cup has been shunted into an already overcrowded schedule? What do you make of Fifpro, the players' union, filing a legal complaint over the scheduling accusing you of an 'abuse of dominance'? Do you care that the Club World Cup overlaps with the Women's Euros? WHY IS THERE A STICKER OF YOU IN THE PANINI ALBUM?
Football governance is a complex business, and perhaps he has some excellent answers, but we're not going to find out if he limits himself to meaningless PR. While chatting to iShowSpeed, Infantino said of the Club World Cup: 'It's the past, the present the future, everything – and it's here to stay for the next 1,000 years.'
Maybe he's right. What we're learning right now is that you can't just invent a competition and expect people to come to it – especially in a country where people aren't particularly welcome.
History matters. And the Club World Cup might be popular in a millennium, it might also take that long to find somebody to run the game who genuinely loves it above his own self-importance.