Mexico City (AFP) – FIFA chief Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday it would have been “impossible” to organise the World Cup in the United States without US President Donald Trump. Infantino has established a firm friendship with Trump, even awarding the president a newly created FIFA Peace Prize in December, before US military operations in Venezuela and Iran.
“I have a great relationship with President Trump,” Infantino said at a press conference in Mexico City on the eve of a tournament being co-hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada. “I’m very happy about that, I got to know him during his first mandate and we have been working very closely together now in his second term,” Infantino said. “Without his engagement and his involvement I think it would have been impossible — as simple as that — impossible to organise a World Cup in the United States.”
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Infantino said Trump “understood immediately the magnitude of the World Cup, the impact of the World Cup and instructed the administration to help and assist.”
US immigration officials refused entry to a top African referee, Omar Artan, who was set to be the first match official from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup. Asked about that case, Infantino said it was “unfortunate” but FIFA “could not control everything.”
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