Paris (AFP) – The heads of state who have felt the lash of US President Donald Trump’s tongue in the Oval Office could do worse than seek advice from FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, who seems to have got their relationship down to a fine art. Infantino has shown a deft touch when it has come to dealing with hard-nosed leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin, when Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup, and now Trump with the United States set to co-host football’s global showpiece next year.
Trump has been quite the opposite, showing no mercy to those who have dared challenge him — he has laid into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in extraordinary scenes at the White House. However, with Infantino, it is all smiles, compliments, and Trump’s traditional use of the words “great” and “greatest” when he likes something or somebody. Infantino was one of just a handful of prominent sports figures present at Trump’s inauguration.
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“Infantino handles Trump really well,” Martin Sorrell, the founder of advertising giants WPP who is putting together a documentary for next year’s World Cup, told AFP. Sorrell pointed to when Infantino was filmed with Trump in March, showing off the trophy for the upcoming Club World Cup. “Trump, who had the FIFA trophy behind him in the Oval Office on the video, said…’as one president to another’,” he noted.
Infantino appears to have placed his relationship with Trump front and centre — perhaps unsurprising as the women’s 2031 World Cup is also expected to be hosted in the US, as well as the inaugural women’s Club World Cup in 2028. However, there are signs that the relationship can grate with others, as it did with UEFA representatives when Infantino arrived late at a FIFA Congress in Paraguay in May, having been with Trump on the US president’s visit to Qatar and then Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless, whether some like it or not, Infantino has restored relations with the US which reached its nadir under his predecessor, Sepp Blatter. After the US lost out to Qatar for the right to host the 2022 World Cup, an FBI investigation resulted in ‘Fifagate’, leading to several of the governing body’s senior figures going to jail and Blatter resigning. In 2018, two years after Infantino was elected, the US were named co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, earning him an invitation to the White House.
Two years later, the ‘bromance’ was strengthened when Trump asked Infantino to deliver the address at a dinner he hosted at the Economic Forum in Davos. “America is on the verge of becoming a great soccer power,” purred Infantino. “The ‘American dream’ is something we all need to have. All those who love soccer.” Trump responded by praising FIFA as a “steadfast movement” and Infantino as “my great friend.”
Infantino’s loyalty — a characteristic Trump values in others above all else — has remained rock solid. The press conference-shy football boss has, in his social media posts, steered clear of commenting on the slights made by Trump regarding his World Cup co-hosts Mexico and Canada. So keen is he to maintain smooth relations, he did not even step in to correct Trump, sitting behind him, when the US president said inviting Russia to the 2026 World Cup could facilitate them making peace with Ukraine. Russia are barred from the qualifiers due to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
However, both have so much invested in the World Cup being a success that nothing must blight the landscape. “Gianni’s obviously got a very close relationship with Trump, and he’s leveraging that because both sides have a mutual interest for 2026 to work,” John Zerafa, an experienced sports communications strategist based in the UK, told AFP. “Trump is a guy that’s driven by headlines and being in the spotlight, and he’s going to love being in the spotlight in the run-up to and during the World Cup, and he knows that it’s got to go smoothly. So they’ve got a mutual interest for 2026 to work.”
© 2024 AFP
