Why is FIFA President Gianni Infantino courting President Trump?
About 30 minutes after the World Cup draw began Friday at the Kennedy Center, a landmark Donald Trump would like to rename himself, the president was called on stage to receive an award from FIFA chief Gianni Infantino.
Five weeks ago, the so-called FIFA Peace Prize did not exist. And when Infantino created it, there had never been any candidates for the prize, other than Trump, who campaigned hard but unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize. This made Friday’s presentation awkward and uncomfortable for almost everyone except Infantino and Trump.
“You certainly deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you achieved in your own way,” Infantino said as Trump grabbed his medal and put it around his neck.
“This is truly one of the greatest honors of my life,” Trump said.
President Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Friday during the 2026 World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center.
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
For both men, the exchange was just the latest in a strange bromance that has deepened in equally beneficial ways as June’s World Cup draws closer.
“It’s two huge egos stroking each other,” said a former U.S. soccer official, who asked that his name not be used to avoid possible retaliation. “I guess Infantino’s ulterior motive is to get as much government support as possible and make sure that Trump, despite some unnecessary comments, doesn’t do anything that might interfere with the tournament.
“For Trump, the opportunity to claim credit for hosting the world’s biggest sporting event in front of a global audience is irresistible.”
A FIFA spokesperson said Infantino was expected to maintain collaborative relationships with the host countries and stressed that he had built strong ties with Trump as well as the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
“In accordance with the FIFA Statutes, ‘the President shall endeavor to maintain and develop good relations between and among FIFA, confederations, member associations, political bodies and international organisations,'” the FIFA statement said. “In addition, the FIFA president must maintain good relations with the leaders of the host countries to ensure the success of the event for all.”
For FIFA and Infantino, a longtime soccer executive who has used his connections and intellect to rise to the top of the world’s most popular sport, the partnership is aimed at winning the president’s support and limiting his interference in what could be the most lucrative World Cup of all time.
In recent months, Infantino, who had a ringside seat at the president’s inauguration in January, invited Trump to present players at world club champion Chelsea with their winner’s medals — one of which Trump pocketed — followed the president to Egypt in October for a summit to finalize a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and rented space in Trump’s Manhattan office building.
Infantino has also been a frequent guest at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, and was only able to welcome Trump to the Kennedy Center stage Friday because he abruptly moved the World Cup draw from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C., at Trump’s request, erasing months of planning.
For Trump, America’s sports fan-in-chief, the relationship means a role in the largest and most complex sporting event in history, and the attention and praise that comes with it.
At the same time, Trump’s changing management style and penchant for breaking with allies means Infantino can take nothing for granted. As a result, says David Goldblatt, a British sports writer and visiting professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, Infantino’s actions were shrewd, if sometimes humiliating.
Chelsea’s Reece James and Robert Sanchez are joined by President Trump as they celebrate their FIFA Club World Cup victory July 13.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Faced with a powerful but unpredictable leader in a country about to host a World Cup that could generate revenues of more than $9 billion, the FIFA president, a former Trump critic, chose to put those differences aside and appeal to Trump’s love of tributes and baubles rather than risk his wrath.
“It’s a different world,” Goldblatt said of Infantino’s fears that Trump could harm the World Cup if he wanted. “This is no longer how states and heads of state functioned. »
Infantino, 55, became president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, in 2016, when he was elected to replace scandal-wracked Sepp Blatter in a vote led by Sunil Gulati, then president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. At the time, Infantino, born in Switzerland to Italian immigrant parents, was seen as a progressive reformer who would take the hidden, conservative organization, the most influential and powerful governing body in world sport, in a different direction.
And he delivered on his promises by increasing the number of participants in the men’s and women’s World Cups, increasing prize money in the women’s tournament, expanding other competitions such as the Club World Cup and almost quadrupling FIFA’s cash reserves. At the same time, he also became comfortable forming alliances with autocrats.
During the build-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Infantino developed such a close relationship with Vladimir Putin that he was called to the Kremlin after the tournament to receive the Order of Friendship medal, one of Russia’s highest honors. That friendship apparently endured: On Friday, investigative media outlet Follow the Money reported that FIFA had ordered several European clubs to pay transfer fees of up to $30 million to Russian teams, despite international sanctions and banking restrictions imposed on the country following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Infantino moved to the emirate, renting a house and enrolling two of his children in local schools. He called well-documented human rights abuses Western hypocrisy and, on the eve of the tournament, sided with the country’s leaders by banning team captains from wearing rainbow-colored armbands and banning longtime sponsor Budweiser from selling beer at World Cup venues.
During Trump’s first administration, Infantino sharply criticized the Muslim ban the president attempted to enact, fearing the possible effect it would have on international sports. This time around, Infantino all but ignored Trump’s decision to limit entry into the United States for citizens of 19 World Cup-qualified countries, including Haiti and Iran, which will have a very real impact on next summer’s tournament.
“Infantino is intoxicated by the elite circles of power, status and wealth, in which he was raised,” Goldblatt said. “Now he’s the king of the universe and moves in some pretty exalted circles. How does he get by in this world?”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, smiles as he shakes hands to greet Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 14, 2018, at the close of the World Cup in Russia.
(Yuri Kadobnov / Associated Press)
Infantino’s move has sparked concern and unease among many world soccer officials, who fear he has abandoned the political neutrality mandated by FIFA. Delegates from UEFA, European soccer’s governing body for which Infantino worked, walked out of the FIFA congress in Paraguay in May after Infantino arrived hours late, delayed by a trip to the Middle East with Trump.
“The private political interests of the FIFA president are doing the game no favors,” the delegates said.
Or maybe it is, says Adam Beissel, associate professor of leadership and sports management at Miami University in Ohio and author of several books and studies on the inner workings of FIFA.
“Maybe it was worth it to get federal grants for the World Cup, to get the kind of support needed to host an event that was going to generate $9 billion in revenue,” he said.
By all accounts, the friendship between Trump and Infantino is genuine, even if ultimately transactional. Trump calls the FIFA leader “Johnny” and “my boy,” while Infantino caught his own staff off guard by announcing the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize and presenting it to a president whose administration continues to bomb alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and threaten military action against Venezuela.
The FIFA president would surely like Trump to stop threatening to pull World Cup matches from blue cities – an impossibility this close to the tournament, but one that Trump is nonetheless happy to make – and relax his travel ban on visitors who would like to attend the World Cup.
But at this point, he’d probably be content for the president to just let the show go on. And if the price to pay is a trophy for Trump, it’s a price that Infantino appears willing to pay.
