Ernest Osogbue.
The story of Gianni Infantino is very compelling. Despite being European, his humble background speaks loudly, being that he comes from lowly origins. Infantino therefore, understands the challenges of wanting to better yourself. This is the reason why he’s so invested and interested in improving the football fortunes of smaller and poorer countries.
Born to immigrant Italian parents in Switzerland in 1970, Infantino is an Italian, though, most people mistake him for a Swiss, due to his having Swiss nationality and Swiss residency. He joined fifa in 2000, becoming director of legal affairs in 2004. He became deputy general secretary in 2007, and secretary general in 2009.
Under his watch, as secretary general, financial fairplay was introduced by uefa, with smaller uefa nations receiving financial support. He expanded the European championship to 24 teams, and conceptualized the idea of the uefa Nations League. His fortunes took a dramatic turn after the 65th fifa congress of May 29th 2015, in Switzerland, where Sepp Blatter was reelected fifa president for a 5th term.
Two days earlier, on May 27th, plain clothes police officers, had raided a luxury hotel in a Zurich suburb, arresting key fifa officials, over bribes and financial impropriety in the award of world cup hosting rights. This scandal was to swallow up many powerful football personalities, leading to the resignation of Sepp Blatter on June 2nd 2015. He was to however, remain in office until February the following year in order to oversee a new election. Michel Platini, the uefa president and frontrunner for the fifa presidency after Blatter’s resignation, was himself, to be caught up in the fifa scandal, and be swept away by the raging storm, which then opened the door for his understudy, Infantino, to run, and win the fifa presidency, on 26th February 2016.
Infantino promised to clean up the image of fifa, and make people proud of football once again, by rebuilding trust. He promised financial transparency, stating that fifa money belonged to the national football associations, and not to the fifa president. He equally promised an increased development funding for poorer countries within fifa. After ten years in office, Infantino is in the eye of the storm, over his actions, utterances, and certain decisions he has made as fifa president, with several European countries withdrawing their support for his upcoming reelection.
How did Infantino find himself in the current position, and what are the implications of his impending fall, if at all. Since 2016, when Infantino became president, fifa competitions have grown to about 20, from only a few previously. Finaces have more than doubled, with grants to member associations being quadrupled in that time. The fifa forward program, which grants poorer associations opportunities to improve football facilities, has helped to bridge the football gap with developed countries. The fifa club World cup, has been expanded from 7 to 32 teams, and moved from an annual, to a quadrennial competition, with prize money increased exponentially. The fifa world cup itself, has been expanded from a 32, to a 48 team event, with discussions ongoing for further expansion. Video Assistant Referee VAR, has been introduced to clear up referee errors, following widespread complaints from football lovers around the world. Women football has equally been impacted positively, with more funding, and increased visibility.
With all these achievements, Infantino has become the darling of football administrators around the world, especially those of Africa, Asia, and South America. Unfortunately, however, there’s always a chink in a warrior’s armor. While having never been accused of financial impropriety, Infantino’s use of his presidential powers, has constantly ruffled powerful feathers. For instance, when the world cup was expanded to 48 teams, uefa, the powerful European football confederation, only received 3 extra automatic slots, to have 16 slots overall. Federations like caf, afc, concacaf, and oceania, received a larger percentage share of the extra slots.
The European body which had arbitrarily claimed 13 slots out of 32 originally, wanted a larger percentage share of the extra 16 slots, but Infantino, felt it was more equitable to make a fairer distribution of the slots. This decision rankled with uefa, which would have preferred Africa, and others, to receive fewer slots. Europeans believe that the increase in slots for African, Asian, and concacaf countries, has lowered the quality of the world cup. They question why countries like Cape Verde, DRC, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Jordan, and others without football pedigree, could be at the world cup, when European football powers like Italy, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, and others were watching at home. Comments like the European championship is more difficult to win than the world cup, are as a result of these sentiments.
Not only that, in recent times, following his popularity with poorer countries, Infantino’s wings seems to have grown, as he began to flex his muscles without consultations. For example, he tacitly endorsed Vladimir Putin, by declaring the 2018 fifa world cup in Russia, as the “best ever fifa world cup” much to the chagrin of Europeans, who wanted to isolate the recalcitrant Russian president. Infantino, also had his name engraved on the new club world cup trophy, with the title “founding President” much to the annoyance of uefa bigwigs. In 2025, he instituted the fifa peace prize, with US president Donald Trump, as the first recipient, which became another sour point with uefa. Having hosted the 2026 world cup in 3 north American countries, the 2030 edition, would see the 3 continents of Europe, Africa, and South America, hosting the event, with matches in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. This effectively paved the way for Infantino to award the hosting of the 2034 edition to Saudi Arabia. This decision equally has uefa fuming, as they have raised several allegations against the current Saudi government, and would have preferred them not being world cup hosts.
Similarly, the close relationship between Infantino, and US president Donald Trump, has been a matter of concern to many European governments. He put his foot in his mouth, by suspending a red card issued to US striker Folarin Balogun, before a game against Belgium at the 2026 world cup, leading to widespread complaints from uefa, Belgium, and many other European nations. The icing on the cake, was his recent offer to sell off a minority stake to outside investors, and raise more money for national federations. Unlike his previous decisions, which had only uefa complaining, this time around, uefa was able to rally concacaf and the afc, to condemn Infantino, with Carlos Cordeiro, former US soccer chief, resigning his position from fifa, and fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, criticizing Infantino, by accusing him of taking decisions without consultations like a dictator.
Following the above incidents, Infantino has suspended the fifa forward enterprises investment plans. This was after uefa threatened to boycott all fifa competitions if the idea was not thrown into the trash can. With that, Infantino’s reelection next year, which was almost a “sure banker” as Nigerians would say, is now on a shaky foundation. Wales, England, Serbia, and Sweden, have withdrawn their support for Infantino, in the lead up to the 2027 fifa elections, with many other European nations warming up to follow their lead. While uefa has not hidden its disappointment with Infantino, the challenge however, is that poorer nations see Infantino as a football Messiah, who has come to liberate them from the dominance of the rich and powerful European nations. The great performances of African teams at the 2026 world cup, is testament to Infantino’s football development programs, and better football funding for poorer countries, which is seemingly narrowing the football gap between Europe and the other continents. In Nigeria, a hostel/hotel currently under construction by the nff, building of more training pitches, and regular induction programs for football administrators, remain evidence of Infantino’s extra funding of national associations. It follows, therefore, that while poorer, and smaller countries are applauding Infantino, rich powerful nations, are condemning him.
While Infantino has labeled the European media criticisms of his activities as being hypocritical, It remains to be seen whether his love for, and support of smaller nations, would withstand the aggressive backlash from the rich, and powerful European caucus, which has labeled his recent fifa forward enterprises program, as tantamount to wanting to sell football. We watch and wait, to see whether Infantino could galvanize poorer nations to his rescue, after newly installed British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, said he was not the right man to lead football forward on the world stage.
