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FIFA president Gianni Infantino has welcomed plans to bring football’s richest event to the kingdom. Little speaks of the years of work he put into getting there.
By Tariq Panja
As the world recovered from the coronavirus crisis in the fall of 2020, the president of soccer’s world governing body, Gianni Infantino, traveled to Rome to meet with the Italian prime minister.
Wearing masks and bumping elbows, FIFA President Infantino and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte saluted before disappearing with the president of Italy’s soccer federation in one of the ornate state halls of the 16th-century Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the Italian leader.
Infantino later explained that they had discussed football’s path to recovery after pandemic-related lockdowns. He did not mention the other urgent matter he had come to discuss.
Away from the television cameras, Infantino stunned Italians by revealing himself as the initiator of an assignment by Saudi Arabia to host soccer’s most important championship, the World Cup. Saudi Arabia has already secured Egypt’s backing, the FIFA president told Italian officials, and is now in favor of a European spouse for what would be a single tournament to be held on three continents by 2030. Italy, he said, could be that spouse.
Conte listened, but he would have known that such a partnership was politically impossible: Italy had strained relations with Egypt following the brutal killing of a young Italian university student in Cairo in 2016, and unease persisted across Europe over Saudi Arabia’s role in this conflict. The 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Italy’s reaction to Infantino’s suggestion was at first “cautious, then negative after a few hours,” said Pietro Benassi, the prime minister’s most level-headed diplomatic adviser. The country said no.
Three years later, Saudi Arabia would get its prize anyway. On 31 October, after an accelerated procedure that surprised its own members, FIFA proved that Saudi Arabia was the only candidate for the 2034 World Cup. A few hours later, Infantino insinuated on a social network that his prestige as host is a fact and that other Gulf leaders hailed it as an “Arab victory”, despite the fact that the official vote is barely a year away.
For many footballers, Infantino’s call to Saudi Arabia is nothing new. In the years following his stopover in Rome, he had also floated the idea of co-organizing the Saudis in Greece; he has championed multibillion-dollar Saudi investments in football; and helped make adjustments to regulations that virtually guaranteed the kingdom would end up with the World Cup.
Their efforts were not clandestine. But they have left many in the football world worried about Infantino and wondering whether his position is to prioritise the interests of FIFA or those of a friendly wife who has exploited her wealth to exert influence on the sport.
“How can we make the expansion of the game and its values lead the way, and not private relationships?” said Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Association and a critic of FIFA’s governance.
FIFA, through a spokesman, responded to questions about Infantino on behalf of the president and said nothing out of the ordinary had been done to ensure the World Cup went to a beloved candidate. “The variety of venues for the FIFA World Cup is being done through an open and transparent bidding process,” the spokesman said, adding that Infantino had not “initiated or initiated” discussions on Saudi Arabia’s bid with potential partners.
However, the speed and secrecy with which FIFA dealt with the hosting rights of the 2030 and 2034 tournaments has led to fresh complaints about how football is governed and how the body’s top decisions are made. The organization is now taken over through a small organization of senior executives, led by Mr. Infantino, and then approved without discussion through a dutiful board of directors.
“What happens is that this is the new FIFA,” said Miguel Maduro, the first head of government appointed by Infantino amid promises of transparency and moral reforms. “However, they are essentially going back to the same old way of awarding World Cups. “
Saudi Arabia has never hidden its preference for hosting one. Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi state has given the game a leading role in efforts to create a new symbol of the country: dynamic, modern and open. spent on boxing matches, Formula 1 races, the LIV Golf Tour and, most recently, on some of the world’s most prominent football stars in Saudi Arabia’s national league.
But the biggest prize has been the World Cup. And in Infantino, Saudi Arabia has discovered an enthusiastic ally. In many ways, the kingdom’s ambitions aligned with his own as he sought to create new occasions and projects that would be decisive for the legacy. all of which would require primary injections of new capital.
In 2018, for example, Infantino surprised FIFA board members by allowing them, not easily, to reach a deal for new competitions with investors whose identities he refused to reveal. (After the deal collapsed, it emerged that the bidding organization, SoftBank, counted Saudi Arabia among its biggest backers. ) Three years later, Infantino angered many soccer players by announcing that FIFA would examine a proposal, proposed through the Saudi federation. . — organize the World Cup every two years. (The unpopular concept was abandoned after a furious response. )
Despite these setbacks, relations between Infantino and Saudi Arabia have only grown closer. It has promoted its events on social media and in 2021 made the impression in a video released through its Ministry of Sports. In August 2022, he and Prince Mohammed shared a few months later, the FIFA president returned the favor at the opening match of the World Cup in Qatar. Just last month, the men were photographed sitting next to each other on another occasion in Riyadh.
“This is meant to send a message,” said Minky Worden, director of global projects at Human Rights Watch, a human rights advocacy group. “It’s like a thumbs-up image. “
At the same time, Infantino also forged personal international relationships that benefited Saudi Arabia’s World Cup ambitions.
After Italy gave up its World Cup bid, Saudi Arabia contacted Greece to make the offer, and Infantino discussed the concept with the Greek prime minister on the sidelines of a UN assembly in September 2021. But this concept was withdrawn after Morocco’s accession. with Spain and Portugal in a potentially unbeatable bid for the 2030 World Cup.
Instead, Saudi Arabia has replaced course. Realizing that the Spain-Portugal-Morocco proposal would likely succeed against an offer from four South American nations, the Saudis realized they could take advantage of FIFA regulations that would ban entry to countries in Europe. and Africa will enter the 2034 tournament when the bidding procedure began.
So FIFA took two curious steps.
The first 3 matches of the 2030 World Cup, he suddenly announced, would be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup. (The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930). This introduced South America into Portugal-Spain-Morocco, and eliminated some other continent from the eligible candidates for 2034.
But once the selection of the 2030 hosts was decided, FIFA said it would bring forward the bid procedure for the 2034 tournament by at least three years, restricting the maximum number of countries likely to bid in a way that favored the Saudi bid, and making plans. This, for most countries, represented a probably not maximum deadline: interested countries had only 25 days to express their intention, and only a few more weeks to submit formal offers, which regularly require significant government support.
Infantino said there had been “extensive consultation” about the decision. But Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Association, said she only found out about it when the official press release was issued, and Australian football’s chief executive said the adjustments “happened. ” as a wonder to us. “
Among those who are not surprised? A few minutes later, he issued a statement, attributed to Prince Mohammed, that he would run for 2034. Hours later, the head of Asian football said the Saudi effort would have the participation of all its members.
A few days later, Infantino left no doubt about the final results he defended. At a summit of Asian football officials in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and again at an online meeting of several of the same leaders a week later, the FIFA president suggested that the country’s Asian confederation – which includes Australia – “to join for the 2034 World Cup. The message is not explicit. But he received it.
Indonesia, which had called for tenders a week earlier, abandoned the plan. Australia, the only remaining potential bidder, pulled out hours before the deadline. Its most sensible official, James Johnson, later said his country had concluded that there was no possibility of putting forward any proposals. opposite to a rival with such strong public support. “The numbers,” he says, “are against us. “
Tariq Panja covers some of the darkest corners of the global sports industry. He is also the co-author of “Football’s Secret Trade,” an exposé of the multi-billion dollar football player trading industry. Learn more about Tariq Panja
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