Times have been good for Fifa under president Gianni Infantino. It pulled off the largest-ever World Cup this summer, with the organisation’s revenue growing to $15 billion: three times what it was when Infantino took over a decade ago. Yet, ask most football fans their opinion of this most successful of Fifa chiefs and their verdict is unanimously scathing. He’s everyone’s favourite pantomime villain; the Blofeld of the Beautiful Game.
It’s not hard to see why in recent months. For Infantino, football is a means to an end. He courted Donald Trump by giving him the freshly invented ‘Fifa Peace Prize’ in December and, during the tournament, reportedly suspended American striker Folarin Balogun’s red card after a phone call from the US President. The sleaze was blatant but his grip on Fifa meant that more than 200 of the 211 countries endorsed his re-election last month, which should see him remain in post until 2031.
But, weeks later, it began to unravel. Infantino announced the ‘Fifa Forward Enterprise’ (FFE), a plan to sell off commercial stakes in the World Cup to make around $20 billion. He tried to bounce members into accepting the plan within six weeks, with no discussion. Members rejected it outright and are now pulling their endorsements; just yesterday Norway was the latest to call on him to stand down.
The European football body Uefa is also opposing his re-election and said it would boycott Fifa tournaments until Infantino dropped the plan entirely, which he did last week. The president apologised for his ‘errors’ but said he would remain in post, with the backing of the Fifa management committee. He is even alleged to have offered Morocco hosting rights to the 2030 World Cup final in exchange for support – a claim which Fifa denies.
Because, during this scandal, it is not just Infantino’s venality that has been laid bare. Rather, it is Fifa’s. Because Fifa isn’t the bureaucratic, rules-obsessed international body that we might think it is. In reality, it’s closer to the court intrigue of medieval popes, with committee members plotting against each other for their share of the spoils while the sport itself is sidelined and debauched as a means of profit.
Infantino isn’t the cause of all the sleaze and money-grabbing; it’s been going on for at least 50 years. His predecessor Sepp Blatter was implicated in corruption scandals more or less continuously since the start of his tenure in 1998. In 2015, the US Department of Justice charged a dozen Fifa officials with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. Blatter was, naturally, re-elected as Fifa president just days after the charges were brought, only to be forced out a month later. Swiss authorities later charged Blatter with fraud, too (he was finally cleared in March last year).
Infantino isn’t the cause of all the sleaze and money-grabbing; it’s been going on for at least 50 years
Before Blatter, it was the Brazilian João Havelange, president from 1974 to 1998. Swiss prosecutors revealed that Havelange and his son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, had taken around £41 million in bribes for World Cup marketing rights, largely funnelled through the ‘International Sport and Leisure’ scheme. The scheme’s former chairmen and executives were separately charged with fraud and embezzlement. His general secretary? None other than Blatter.
So who would replace Infantino? Probably another unknown schemer from the Fifa executive. Historically it’s been a rotten bunch to choose from. Former executives Nicolás Leoz, Issa Hayatou (the late acting president between Blatter and Infantino) and Ricardo Teixeira all voted on the Russia and Qatar World Cup bids despite having allegedly taken bribes years before. Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii were found to have breached Fifa’s Code of Ethics, if you believe it exists, following a Sunday Times investigation into those bids in 2010.
It’s not as though a Uefa candidate could stop the rot either. Uefa is where Infantino cut his teeth before becoming general secretary in 2009. Its president at the time, and a man who also wanted Fifa’s top job, was the great French footballer Michel Platini. He was charged with corruption by the Swiss authorities alongside Blatter, and likewise only cleared last March. Uefa is essentially the same money-grabbing venture as Fifa. Only two years ago, it effectively created a European Super League by stealth – having expanded the Champions League format – growing its revenues to $4.4 billion.
Was it ever different? In the 1960s and early 1970s, Fifa was led by the former English referee Stanley Rous, who tried to prevent the sport’s commercialisation and global expansion. However, his plans were rejected by member states, who saw the commercial opportunity. Even before Rous, there was still a scandal when Fifa was a sapling of an organisation. Mussolini reportedly invited a referee to dinner before an Italian match at the 1934 World Cup in Rome. Italy won. Austria, which was expected to compete at the 1938 World Cup, was Anschlussed into oblivion.
Fifa, once too weak to stand up to strongmen and autocratic regimes, is now in hock to them, as long as the money keeps printing. Infantino will be hatching new ways to make money within Fifa’s immense machinery. He can hobnob with sheikhs and presidents and pose for photo opportunities with his rictus grin. But he’ll also have to sit through the actual football looking bored, minus his grotesque prospective salary. As ever with Fifa executives, it’s better the devil you know.
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