Gianni Infantino repeatedly refused to answer questions about Fifa’s move to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia despite approaches by The Times over three days in Bangkok.
The Fifa president made the unprecedented decision not to hold a press conference after the annual Congress for football’s world governing body, at which the fast-tracking of hosting rights for the tournament was signed off.
It means that Infantino, 54, has not made himself available to any media around the world to answer questions on that issue since October, when Fifa made the surprise announcement that it was changing the bidding process. That swiftly led to Saudi Arabia, Infantino’s biggest supporter among Fifa’s 211 member associations, being installed as the sole bidder.
The Times first approached Infantino at Fifa’s luxurious Athenee hotel in Bangkok — which has a restaurant called Gianni’s — after a meeting of the ruling council on Wednesday and asked if he would answer a question about Saudi Arabia and the World Cup. “Ask him,” he replied, waving towards a PR adviser as he headed to the exit.
On Thursday Infantino again brushed off an approach after his addresses to meetings of the European and Asian member associations in the Thai capital. “Tomorrow,” he responded airily. On Friday Fifa’s sheepish communications staff revealed that for the first time in living memory the Fifa president would not hold a news conference and Infantino ignored requests to take questions from the media as he left the stage.
• Why is Infantino reversing Fifa’s post-Blatter reforms?
Infantino has clearly been stung by previous encounters with the press, such as the reporting of his bizarre “I feel gay, I feel a migrant worker” speech in Qatar at the 2022 World Cup, criticism of allowing himself to be in selfies at Pelé’s funeral and the row over his previous chum Salt Bae, the celebrity steak chef, breaching protocol by being allowed on the pitch to hold the World Cup trophy at the final in Doha.
Nebulous changes
Changes waved through by the Congress include multiplying the number of Fifa committees from seven to 35, with such nebulous titles as “institutional relations”, “future of football’ and “football esport”.
The new Fifa statutes have also dropped the requirement for at least half the members of the finance committee — perhaps its most important one — to be independent and qualified to deal with financial matters. The same no longer applies to the development committee, which organises the distribution of development money.
Palestinian FA calls for Israel suspension
The English FA’s decision not to light up Wembley in Israel’s colours in October drew lots of criticism at the time but subsequent events in Gaza have shown that it was the correct approach.
Fifa is now faced with a formal proposal by the Palestinian FA to suspend Israel. This drew widespread applause at the Fifa Congress and the organisation will now have an independent legal assessment before an emergency council meeting at the end of July to decide what to do.
Although suspension looks a remote chance, Fifa may well now step in and oblige the Israeli FA to prevent more than half a dozen “settler clubs” — based in the occupied West Bank — taking part in Israeli leagues.
Russia seek way back in
One country still excluded from international competition is Russia, mainly because at least ten European nations would refuse to play them because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s long-serving federation representative Alexey Sorokin — the suave 2018 World Cup chief — was permitted to attend the Fifa Congress and told this column he had not lost hope of overturning the ban.
Family affair for Fifa
Fifa links run deep: during the unsuccessful bid of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, the Congress was addressed by an 18-year-old player, Estée D’Hooghe.
It turns out that she is the granddaughter of the former Fifa executive committee member Michel D’Hooghe, who was cleared by the governing body’s ethics committee of wrongdoing after claims he helped his son, Pieter, to get a job at the Aspetar medical centre in Doha shortly after Qatar had won the vote for the 2022 World Cup.
