Infantino's latest vanity project is ridiculous
This season feels never ending. Every time you think the campaign has finally croaked its last it springs back to life, eyes wide open like a zombie from Shaun of the Dead.
When Portugal won the Nations League final it felt like a natural full stop. Now here we are in the middle of June watching Bayern Munich smacking amateur teams from New Zealand around the chops as part of a farcical month-long, 32-team tournament no one asked for.
Football is turning into a year-long test of endurance, with no respite. FIFPRO, the global players' union, have raised concerns over the health and welfare of players being pushed and stretched to breaking point by Gianni Infantino's vaulting, self-serving campaign to be crowned King of Soccer.
The FIFA president has some powerful friends in his corner. Granted a VIP pass to Trump's Oval Office and his golf hideaway at Mar-A-Lago, the head of world football now counts the POTUS as one of his besties.
In March he sat like the unelected chief of a banana republic roaring in laughter as The Donald compared him to a child who had just woken up on Christmas morning and found a giant pile of toys under the tree. For once, Trump was on the money.
It's hard to put a finger on when – or how – Infantino became this all-powerful figure, capable of snapping his fingers and expanding the World Cup finals to a gruesome, bloated 48-team monstrosity offering free admission to the likes of Jordan and Uzbekistan.
Or how he managed to persuade anyone that a contrived club tournament featuring 63 games played across 11 cities in half-empty grounds was worth the time or effort.
The great American public seem unconvinced. While Trump's election proved that they're no strangers to a convincing scam, they're hardly forming an orderly queue down Orlando's International Drive to snap up cut-price tickets for Ulsan HD versus Mamelodi Sundowns.
The baffling part of all this is that Infantino used to be nothing more than a smiling, inoffensive man in a suit who served as master of ceremonies at the Champions League draw in Nyon.
Celtic or some other team would pop out the bowl and, as a hapless ex-pro fiddled with the little ball, the bold Gianni would fill the dead air by parroting the fact that the champions of Scotland were one-time winners in 1967.
There was no hint, then, of a FIFA president in waiting. No hint of a man poised to capitalise on the collapse of Sepp Blatter's corruption-plagued regime with all the ravenous, rapacious hunger of a dog demolishing sausages.
Read more:
The national-team ticking time-bomb the SFA must do more to address
Does Dumbarton fate prove Scottish football needs an independent regulator?
Infantino now flies around the world in his Qatari private jet rubbing shoulders with heads of state and taking the beautiful game to all corners of the globe, portraying himself as an international ambassador. Or, as he likes to put it, 'an official provider of happiness to humanity'.
The God complex obscures the obscure back story of a bureaucrat who rose without trace; a power-mad plonker driving football to the point of physical and mental exhaustion in his quest for global influence.
Nothing sums up his tenure more aptly than European delegates staging a walk-out at FIFA's Congress in Paraguay after he jetted in two hours late from meetings in Saudi Arabia and Qatar with Trump.
Infantino's world is one where Europe knows its place. America matters as much as Austria. India holds as much sway as Italy. Saudi Arabia's influence is greater than Spain's.
That's what the good politician does, of course. He draws the unheard and the disenfranchised into his orbit and gives them a voice.
Last year he turned up at a game between St Mirren and Aberdeen in Paisley before an IFAB gathering at Loch Lomond. Senior figures on Hampden's sixth floor describe him as a charismatic, charming schmoozer with enough warmth to power an arctic outpost and, while European nations voted against his re-election in 2023, he seems to rub along just fine with the SFA.
Ultimately Infantino represents a world of FIFA soft power, where votes are courted by kissing a few frogs and flattering nations in unlikely – or unsavoury – corners of the planet.
That might explain why Spain and Portugal will share the hosting rights to the 2030 World Cup finals with the North African state of Morocco. Why the one after that will be played in Saudi Arabia, a nation which put up the $1 billion prize fund for the Club World Cup and, in an entirely unrelated coincidence, was subsequently handed the World Cup finals.
Next summer's finals will be shared by America, Canada and Mexico and if Scotland are one of the nations who take advantage of a bloated 48-team format, Infantino will portray himself as the inclusive friend of the little people who made it all possible. If Steve Clarke's team crash and burn in the qualifiers, he'll go back to being the power-crazed despot ripping the heart from football's soul.
A speech in Qatar's National Convention Centre in Doha on the eve of the 2022 World Cup should have stopped the Infantino Express in its tracks.
In a 57-minute diatribe, journalists listened to FIFA's main man lecturing western nations for their own sins over the past 3000 years.
Suggesting that his own experience as a red-haired, freckled son of Italian immigrants in Switzerland had given him a taste of what migrant workers and minorities in Qatar were going through, it was clear, then, that he had become hopelessly detached from the real world.
They said, then, that enough was enough. Yet all those columns, all those lectures, on One Love armbands and the scandal of Qatar sport-washing their reputation went for nothing in the end. What Infantino wants, Infantino gets and what Infantino wants most is to be football's answer to Louis XIV, the vainglorious Sun King.
Laughably, he insists on his name appearing twice on the Club World Cup trophy. Where Panini albums used to be reserved for images of the managers and players, meanwhile, Gianni has somehow managed to insert his very own gold sticker at the front.
In hindsight Trump should have taken him to one side in the Oval Office and told him precisely where he could stick his Club World Cup.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
an hour ago
- Powys County Times
Gareth Bale consortium in bid to buy Cardiff
Gareth Bale is part of a United States investment group wanting to buy League One club Cardiff, according to reports. The 35-year-old former Real Madrid and Wales forward was understood to be part of a consortium that had conversations regarding a takeover of Plymouth earlier this week, along with several other clubs, but it appears they have now turned their attention to south Wales. The Athletic reports that the consortium sent current Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan a letter of intent last month, which included financial figures, but it was rejected. Bale is seeking to be the latest big sporting name to be associated with an EFL club. His former Real team-mate Luka Modric became an investor in and co-owner of Championship side Swansea in April, while ex-NFL quarterback Tom Brady has a minority stake in Birmingham. Cardiff declined to comment on Friday night. Bale retired from football in January 2023 at the age of 33. He won five Champions League titles with Real and is the men's all-time record goalscorer for Wales with 41 in 111 caps. He was linked with an emotional move to Cardiff, his hometown club, after leaving Madrid in 2022 but instead joined MLS side LAFC. Bale featured for Wales at the 2022 World Cup – their first appearance at the global finals since 1958 – and at the Euros in 2016 and 2020. Cardiff were relegated to League One last season and appointed Brian Barry-Murphy as their new manager this week.
Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
Gareth Bale consortium in bid to buy Cardiff
The 35-year-old former Real Madrid and Wales forward was understood to be part of a consortium that had conversations regarding a takeover of Plymouth earlier this week, along with several other clubs, but it appears they have now turned their attention to south Wales. The Athletic reports that the consortium sent current Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan a letter of intent last month, which included financial figures, but it was rejected. Bale is seeking to be the latest big sporting name to be associated with an EFL club. A general view of Cardiff City Stadium (Nigel French/PA) His former Real team-mate Luka Modric became an investor in and co-owner of Championship side Swansea in April, while ex-NFL quarterback Tom Brady has a minority stake in Birmingham. Cardiff declined to comment on Friday night. Bale retired from football in January 2023 at the age of 33. He won five Champions League titles with Real and is the men's all-time record goalscorer for Wales with 41 in 111 caps. He was linked with an emotional move to Cardiff, his hometown club, after leaving Madrid in 2022 but instead joined MLS side LAFC. Bale featured for Wales at the 2022 World Cup – their first appearance at the global finals since 1958 – and at the Euros in 2016 and 2020. Cardiff were relegated to League One last season and appointed Brian Barry-Murphy as their new manager this week.
Rhyl Journal
an hour ago
- Rhyl Journal
Liverpool newcomer Florian Wirtz motivated to build on Leverkusen achievements
The Premier League champions have paid Bayer Leverkusen £100million for the 22-year-old Germany international but that fee could potentially become a British record as there are £16m of add-ons included. If achieved that would surpass the existing mark of £115m which Chelsea paid for Moises Caicedo in 2023 and it is understood Liverpool will be happy to pay these 'aspirational bonuses' as it will mean they have enjoyed considerable success at elite level. And that is what Wirtz, one of Europe's hottest properties, is determined to contribute to. 'I'm not coming (to) have fun here, I want also to achieve something and give the fans what they deserve,' he told the club's website. 'Of course I want to keep going at this performance. So yeah, that sure gives motivation to achieve more. 'I would like to win everything every year. First of all, we have to do our work, I have to make my work. In the end, we want to be successful. 'Last season they won the Premier League, so my goal is for sure to win it again and also to go further in the Champions League. I'm really ambitious.' 🤩 — Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 20, 2025 Wirtz has signed a five-year deal and at 22 has his best years ahead of him. He wants to continue the progress which saw him score 57 goals and contribute 64 assists in 197 appearances for Leverkusen. 'This was also a big point for me: that I will improve my own personal level and physical levels because I think everyone knows that in Liverpool the players are machines – really strong and really physical,' he added. 'But I see this also as an opportunity for me to get better in this point. So yeah, I just thought this was the right place for me.' Liverpool saw off competition from Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to secure Wirtz. Leverkusen had valued him at £126m but a compromise was reached last week, although the up-front fee easily outstrips the £85m deal Liverpool agreed with Benfica in 2022 for Darwin Nunez, who is expected to leave this summer. 'I'm really excited to have a new adventure in front of me. This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and to join the Premier League,' he added. Wirtz is Liverpool's second signing of the summer, following close friend and Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong to Anfield, and with the Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvilli joining next month after a deal was agreed a year ago spending has already reached £175m. That is set to be pushed beyond the £200m mark with a £40m fee agreed for Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez. It is their biggest summer window since 2018 when Naby Keita, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri and Alisson Becker were recruited for around £170m, with Virgil van Dijk having signed for £75m the previous January. Owners Fenway Sports Group have, despite their 'Moneyball' reputation, not been afraid to splash out big fees for transformative players like Van Dijk and Alisson – and Wirtz falls into that category. The club have already recouped around £26m with the departures of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Caoimhin Kelleher with further funds expected to be generated from the likes of Nunez, Harvey Elliott, Federico Chiesa and potentially Andy Robertson, who is a target for Atletico Madrid.
