The covert war is over. The parties have already brought out the tanks to the streets and to the newspapers. The goal, the FIFA presidency, and the deadline, 2027, the year of elections. The erratic and secretive management of Gianni Infantino, especially in recent times, has angered three of the main international football confederations, who have gone from spreading rumors to a direct hit on the sports leader through an open letter in which they have expressed themselves with total forcefulness.
In UEFA, an organization present in that letter, they believe that the chosen moment is as good as any to send this message. They do not want to extend their comments much because the letter is already "technically very forceful" and "says what it says." They point to a final move after a few days in which everything has been heading in the same direction. Even with insinuations reported by an English media outlet about a payment to a lover of the leader when he worked at UEFA included.
It is precisely about overthrowing a leader who sees football "as a property," as indicated by the European organization, the AFC, and the CONCACAF, the other signing confederations of the letter. They say it is not about "money," nor any other sporting or non-sporting interest, but about "the integrity of football and those who have been chosen to lead it." "It is not the behavior of a football custodian, but that of someone who believes that football should answer to him," they describe.
The truth is that the individualistic management of Gianni Infantino, who took over from Joseph Blatter after a corruption scandal in the allocation of the 2022 World Cup that has disqualified the former Swiss leader until 2027, has been evolving from its beginnings until now. With battles lost, like the World Cup every two years, and battles won, especially the development of the Club World Cup held in the United States last summer, which represented another burden on the UEFA calendar.
It was in that double American event of clubs and national teams where a relationship was forged that may have influenced his change of vision regarding the organization that led a global sport practiced by millions of people worldwide. His harmony with Donald Trump, a president who joined the celebrations of Chelsea and Spain after winning their championships with the laughter and acquiescence of Infantino, may have accelerated certain ideas that tend towards the privatization of football.
Because, beyond the withdrawal of the sanction against Balogun, the American star who was supposed to play in the round of 16 against Belgium, ultimately Spain's quarterfinal opponent, the influence of Trump and his economic vision have ended up polarizing the initiatives of the world football leader, such as selling 20% of the exploitation rights of the World Cup to private investors, which sparked criticism of a leadership that "does not consist of holding —or demanding— power to retain it," they write.
Investors with a well-known surname
FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) was the company created for this purpose, and the capital would be provided by Thrive Eternal, among whose founders is a brother-in-law of Donald Trump's daughter, with the collaboration of JP Morgan. The surname of the U.S. president, once again, in Infantino's circle. In the letter, the confederations described a project that seems to have been shelved as "lack of judgment" and not mistakes. "There is silence where there should be accountability; distance where there should be transparency," they point out.
There is no doubt that the timing of this storm is also important. In March of next year, FIFA elections will take place, which Infantino has already said he will attend. In this power game, there have been insinuations of blackmail, such as the one made by the president of the Jordanian Federation, or directly of bribery, as revealed by The Times, such as Infantino's offer to Morocco to host the 2030 World Cup final and take it away from Spain, theoretically the host country, in exchange for their support. A point that has been denied by FIFA in a statement. The war is still ongoing, and UEFA has identified the enemy.