Do you remember the anger from last summer? When Uefa and some other confederations were mad about Gianni Infantino’s plans to corporatize Fifa’s competitions and sell parts of the company to venture capital in the form of the bank JP Morgan and Thrive Capital, which is run by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Then the ground undeniably shook under the grandiose Infantino who had to withdraw the plans and also apologize. In the anger there were also clear demands for Infantino to resign and possible legal proceedings were initiated for whether Infantino had acted fraudulently and intended to sell World Cup tournaments too cheaply for his own profit.
Since Gianni Infantino gathered his closest Fifa contacts in Morocco in early August, including Swedish Secretary General Mattias Grafström, the Fifa base has toured the world to build support. No, I don’t think the costs come from Infantino’s coffers, but it’s easy for the Fifa base to say that this is part of his mission.
Just last week, Infantino received a pledge of support from Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and that all 54 member associations would vote for the incumbent FIFA base. Gianni Infantino received a 24-second standing ovation at the CAF strategy congress in Cape Verde.
In parallel, it seemed clear whether Gianni Infantino would even have a rival candidate in the Fifa elections to be held in Morocco on March 18. No, I’m not counting former Swiss Tottenham defender Ramon Vega who has announced that he is running against Infantino. He flirted with the idea of running back in 2015 when Sepp Blatter left in the wake of the bribery scandal that shook Fifa at the time, but then backed out. Now he’s giving it another chance, but he’s out of luck.
There is information that suggests that Vega may be working with Philippe Huber at his side. He was involved in Swedish football and was involved in the TV rights from 2005 and ten years on and it all ended with him storming out of Fotbollsgalan after a poor table position followed by a huge bankruptcy. Although Huber knows some tricks, I am not sure if Vega made the right choice there.
Concacaf boss and Canadian Victor Montagliani has reportedly recently told his staff that he is set to be re-elected as president of the confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean. He was otherwise the one that many believed would be the candidate against Infantino and where Uefa was hoping for it as a candidate from outside Europe is likely required.
Montagliani possibly believes in a better chance in four more years when Infantino is not allowed to run under the current rules… Nothing can be ruled out regarding changes to the statutes and other changes when it comes to how these people in power do everything they can to bend the rules to their own advantage. Rules are for others and not just for them.
UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin also announced this week that he is running for re-election. It has been two years since Ceferin pushed through a statute change at the UEFA Congress in Paris that would allow him to be re-elected despite having served eleven years, but then promised not to take advantage of it and run for re-election.
It is exactly the same move that Infantino made in order to be able to sit longer and thus be able to stand in the Fifa elections this spring. Both were elected to their positions a little into the term of office and therefore demanded that the rule of a maximum of three terms of office should not apply to them. There and then they agreed on the moves. Uefa is possibly better in some ways than Fifa, but really not much better. Unfortunately. They are children of the same spirit.
UEFA’s latest move is a reform program for Fifa that will reduce Infantino’s power. Among other things, they want to clearly share power within Fifa’s different parts and, among other things, that the confederations should appoint a general secretary and that Infantino should not be able to be as executive as he is. It will be brought up at a meeting of Fifa’s governing council next week.
The proposal also seeks to strengthen the independent parts of Fifa that will oversee ethics, discipline and auditing in order to scrutinise the president and possibly put an end to excesses in the exercise of power. It also demands that Fifa’s resources not be used for campaigning. If it is to have any weight, this must be followed up with a threat of real consequences.
It is clear that most people who look at Gianni Infantino soberly can identify a powerful person who has become intoxicated by his own position. He is reminiscent of an American Free Church pastor who promises and talks about the enormous power of football to unite, but then he often drives his own path to benefit himself and hold on to his position.
No matter what mistakes he makes, there are zero consequences. From when he was reported for wrongdoing at the beginning of his time as Fifa president to the latest with the secret plans for the sell-off. Then he just promises more money to the national associations or seduces them with 64 teams in the 2030 World Cup. All to make sure he is safe.
Everyone knows that he uses Fifa’s funds to strengthen his own position above all. That is part of that mission and he is not alone in that in international football or sports. It is a fairly simple equation of distributing help and making sure to get something in return. Which is certainly not something unique to Fifa or Infantino.
It is of course understandable that quite a few who have seen how Infantino has skillfully increased FIFA’s revenues and also distributed more of them are satisfied. More money is coming to the national associations and to football, even though some are making sure to skim the milk along the way before more people can partake of the manna that is raining down from Infantino and FIFA.
Of course he has done some good things during his more than ten years in power. Such as seriously increasing the prize money for the Women’s World Cup and at the same time putting pressure on partners and television companies to pay more. He tried to change a given structure and considering that Fifa should not provide a return to owners, it is a real move on Infantino’s part.
Unfortunately, the downsides are too many around Infantino, but without a credible candidate it is difficult to believe in a serious challenger to him. Uefa, Asia and Concacaf have 40 days to produce a candidate. The Times Martyn Ziegler, who is an insider, says that Uefa is hoping for Fifa employee Arsène Wenger to run against his boss. It remains to be seen how it goes.
Uefa does not appear to be particularly powerful or united enough to remove Infantino. If all the anger from Infantino’s opponents like Uefa, Concacaf and Asia ends up in not even having a credible candidate to challenge him, they will lose face. It will be worst for Uefa, which has been the harshest and toughest and where all threats of boycott ended in nothing, if it does not follow up its reform program with consequences.
Football may not get a better leader than it deserves. Of course, you can understand that national associations from countries where resources are scarce want the one who gives the most to them when that person is in power. Then you are probably prepared to overlook some negative things to ensure that nothing disrupts the flow of money and resources.
In the world of football, unfortunately, no one is beautiful and shiny, and it is far from the beautiful game when those in power fight over who will decide. None of football’s top leaders are attractive, but it is obvious that Gianni Infantino has steered Fifa on a path that most benefits his ambitions and that can hardly be aspired to. Even though the belief in a real change in Fifa is hardly showing signs of life.
By Olof Lundh
