“How did you go bankrupt?” a character is asked in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises. “Gradually, then suddenly” comes the reply. Right now, Fifa’s justly besieged president, Gianni Infantino, is experiencing something similar in relation to the loss of his own authority.
Since taking over the running of world football’s governing body in 2016, Mr Infantino has survived regular criticism of a monetising approach which has often come at a sporting cost. But since egregious plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law were leaked to the media, his credibility has been draining away at speed.
After crisis talks this week at Fifa’s lavish new African headquarters in Rabat, Mr Infantino authorised a half-hearted and incomplete apology, acknowledging that the now aborted project “could have been handled differently”. But it is very hard to imagine how a sell-off to private equity that would have imperilled the governance of the world’s most popular sport (and possibly led to Mr Infantino’s personal enrichment) could have been handled well. This was, simply, a betrayal of the game’s interests by the president of an organisation that already sits on billions of pounds worth of reserves.
Mr Infantino should resign. But despite crushing condemnation of his actions from senior Fifa figures, and football greats such as Arsène Wenger and Luís Figo, he appears determined to brazen out the storm. As a result, what happens now looks like becoming increasingly messy. Over the course of 10 years, Fifa’s president has carefully cultivated allies in the global south. Breaking ranks with their regional federation, Mexico and Argentina on Friday joined African nations in expressing support for his continued leadership.
Much will therefore depend on European football’s governing body, Uefa. On Thursday it responded witheringly to Mr Infantino’s attempt to draw a line, and restated a loss of confidence in his presidency. On Friday, Norway became the first federation to call directly for Fifa’s president to stand down. The next step will be to follow through on a threat to boycott Fifa-run competitions, starting with the Under-20 Women’s World Cup due to be held in Poland next month.
That, clearly, would be a very serious move. But it was a serious abuse of power to negotiate a deal mortgaging the World Cup’s future to speculators seeking to extract even more wealth from it. From the dubious award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, to Fifa’s suspension of inconvenient red cards, Mr Infantino is used to provoking and ignoring controversies. This one must come with consequences.
With haughty presumption, the statement from Mr Infantino’s Rabat bunker said the organisation “will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process”. The chutzpah is almost impressive. But really, dream on. Unless Fifa’s president resigns, is forced out, or is ousted via an election next March, the global game is in danger of descending into an ugly civil war – all because of one man’s attempt to sell off the family silver in unprecedented fashion. Mr Infantino was much mocked for his “Today I feel gay … today I feel [like] a migrant worker” response to critics prior to the Qatar World Cup. It would be greatly to the benefit of the sport he professes to love if he could show some self-awareness now.
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