Infantino’s Betrayal!

‘The peoples game’ was FIFA President Giovanni Infantino’s mantra leading up to the 2026 World Cup, held predominantly  in The United States, but also featured games in Mexico and Canada.

As the dust now settles on the tournament, which is the worlds most watched sporting event (over a billion watched the opening game) most football fans around the globe would no doubt insist that ‘the people’ have never been further away or less invested in the game at this level.

Infantino’s World Cup gave us few ‘wow’ moments, little in the way of genuine excitement and mostly, a nagging feeling that the game under his control continues to drift further and further away from its roots.

His insistence that he was shown on television coverage at least once during every half of each game he attended, probably tells you a great deal about the individual.  Not widely reported of course, was his instruction after the first round of fixtures, that his image during each half was not to be transmitted onto giant stadium screens – the universal booing from fans as his face appeared during early games in the tournament was not what he wanted the world to see!

Infantino introduced ‘hydration-breaks’ for players during each half of every match, turning a 150 year-old sport from a game of two halves, into a very Americanised game of four quarters – perfect for American advertisers – although obviously, this was just a coincidence!  Despite a large number of fixtures taking place in air conditioned, closed roof stadia.  Our great FIFA leader insisted that it was only player welfare that motivated his fundamental change to the games structure and rhythm – abject nonsense and the very audible booing from supporters as each hydration break arrived told you everything you needed to know about how fans felt. 

He followed up with even more ridiculousness – When a Red Card was given to USA striker Folarin Balogun during their round of 32 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, FIFA announced that the automatic suspension which would rule Balogun out of the last 16 game against Belgium would be suspended for 12 months and the striker would be allowed to play.  The move was completely unprecedented and football fans and pundits around the world condemned the decision which undermined the very integrity of the tournament.

When it was also revealed that USA President Donald Trump had called Infantino to ask him to allow the striker to play, it became clear that any credibility Infantino and FIFA retained was completely destroyed – ‘making it up as they go-along’ was the general media response around the world.

FIFA’s credibility has been severely damaged by Infantino’s decision making around the 2026 World Cup and I don’t believe it can be repaired until he is removed from his position.  One mans ego has been allowed to fundamentally change the sport we all love and he cannot be allowed to get away with it.

PS – Don’t get me started on a 30 minute half-time show either!

Image Credits: The White House Media via commons.wikimedia.org