3 days ago
Gianni Infantino talks up the Club World Cup at Trump Tower – ‘We will make it better'
In the gold-plated lobby of Trump Tower, the mixed-use skyscraper that is now the Manhattan base for FIFA employees in New York City, the president of football's governing body, Gianni Infantino, held court on Saturday morning.
These days, Infantino rarely deigns to attend conventional press conferences. He did not do a press conference at the FIFA Congress in the past two years and this event, held to mark the final weekend of the expanded Club World Cup, did not represent an exercise of deep scrutiny. FIFA's director of communications told journalists present that questions should be about the tournament, which means Infantino is still to face significant questioning over how exactly the 2030 men's World Cup ended up on multiple continents across six countries or about the process that led to the 2034 edition being held in Saudi Arabia.
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As ever with Infantino, any press conference begins with a speech.
He began by telling those gathered what the headline of the event ought to be. 'Where can I start?,' he said. 'If you want the title, as we are in Trump Tower, then you can say 'the golden era of global club football has started.''
He continued: 'We can definitely say that this FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge, huge, huge success.'
Infantino, who has been telling his Instagram followers about the 'epic' and 'spectacular' success of his Club World Cup, acknowledged there had been different opinions on the tournament. 'We hear a lot of positive opinions — some negative of course.' Jurgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager, has called it the worst idea in the history of the sport.
Standing behind Infantino at this press event — which FIFA called a 'media scrum' — were 'FIFA legends' Ronaldo, Kaka, Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Baggio, Esteban Cambiasso and Hristo Stoichkov. Those players are not paid an income by FIFA, the organization insists, but they have received stays at expensive hotels and tickets for this tournament.
Their role during this event appeared to be as high-profile back-up to Infantino. The generous interpretation is that they are well-placed to provide expertise from a player's perspective but as they nodded along with the FIFA president and spoke in support of the tournament, their contributions also reduced the number of questions he was compelled to answer over the course of 45 minutes.
Before any could be asked, Infantino embarked on a victory lap. He said people doubted the tournament would happen, but 'it did happen successfully.' He said people said 'nobody' would go to the games, 'and yet, almost 2.5 million spectators' have been in the stadiums. He said the tournament average attendance had been around 40,000 per game but he did not acknowledge the pricing models that appeared to alienate many supporters from games in the group stages, which often saw tens of thousands of empty seats at matches.
He said there is no league in the world, besides for the Premier League, which averages 40,000 spectators. The caveats he did not raise are that there are few leagues who play in venues that are mostly NFL-size capacity, nor do most take place in a country of 350 million people.
On we went, Infantino very much on the front foot. He claimed unspecified critics had said nobody would broadcast the competition but he proved the naysayers wrong once more — 'a one-of-a-kind revolutionary contract with DAZN' — but he made no mention of the $1 billion investment into DAZN from Saudi Arabia shortly after the company injected $1 billion into FIFA to broadcast for the Club World Cup, which itself was not too long after Saudi themselves were awarded the World Cup for 2034.
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As for the members of the media in the audience (stood behind a cordon as Infantino paraded on the stage), well, the acoustics in the Trump Tower lobby are not exactly ideal conditions. The upstairs coffee machine drowned out some of Infantino's words and the microphones did not always seem to work. Infantino claimed 'we will have, after the final tomorrow, between two and three billion viewers all over the world who enjoy this top, top, top quality football', but that claim seemed questionable without any supporting evidence to explain how he defines a viewer or the platforms involved.
Infantino then hailed the financial benefits of the tournament, praising the $2.1 billion generated in revenues, across the TV deal, sponsorship, ticketing and other income. 'For 63 matches, the basic average is $33 million in US dollars per match. There is no other club competition in the world today that comes anywhere close. It is already the most successful club competition on all different measures,' he claimed.
He also claimed that 'we didn't have one single incident' during the tournament, a remark which appears to forget Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger alleging racist abuse by the Pachuca defender Gustavo Cabral (who denied it), or an in-stadium warning for supporters during Monterrey's last-16 game against Borussia Dortmund, where FIFA announced the game could be suspended after homophobic chants.
When the questions came, almost fifteen minutes into the event, Infantino did acknowledge some challenges. He said his view on the less satisfactory attendances is that he would rather have 35,000 people in an 80,000 venue than deprive fans of opportunities by using smaller soccer-specific venues.
He also recognised the weather is presenting issues. He admitted he is 'sweating' in the U.S. heat in a suit and tie and insisted the 'health of the players is important.'
Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernández has described the heat during this tournament as making him 'dizzy' and 'very dangerous.' Real Madrid defender Trent Alexander-Arnold said afternoon matches in the United States left him 'overheating' and struggling to 'think straight'.
Infantino said: 'Of course the heat is an issue. Last year, at the Olympic Games in Paris, games during the day, in all sports, took place in very hot conditions.
'Cooling breaks are very important and we will see what we can do, but we have stadiums with roofs and we will definitely use these stadiums during the day (at the World Cup) next year.'
As for FIFA's new office in Trump Tower, Infantino showered yet more praise on the U.S. President.
Infantino said: 'President Trump will be at the final. He loves soccer. In his first term as President there was a soccer goal in the White House garden.
'President Trump is the President of the U.S., one of the host countries for the World Cup, and he immediately embraced the Club World Cup as well.'
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As for the future of this tournament, with the next edition currently scheduled for 2029, Infantino hinted changes may be afoot but shirked direct questions. He said he would love to have Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Barcelona, Napoli and AC Milan involved. He said he had clubs calling him to sneak into the competition when the Mexican side Leon were forced out before it began for regulatory reasons.
When asked by The Athletic about suggestions this tournament could be played every two years, rather than every four years, he talked about 'living in the moment' rather than looking ahead. He certainly did not take the chance to rule it out, in a vague answer that will cause tremors among the UEFA executives concerned this competition may one day threaten the hegemony of the Champions League.
'In the future, we will see what it brings us' he said. 'We will make it better. We may have received some justified criticism. There are many elements we can think about but that will be for later on.'
