New scandal about the already talked about FIFA president: according to the media, when he was at UEFA he promoted his protégé. Once he found out, he would settle her with a six-figure check
Gianni Infantino combines another: after the idea of privatizing the world championship and the cancellation «at presidential request» of the disqualification for Balogunthe president FIFA he is now accused of having paid a millionaire severance to one of his mistresses when he worked for theUEFA. Now the world of football has had enough. Now where will Gianni Infantino place his sartorial wardrobe? The drawers are overflowing with projects – from the privatized World Cup to the old idea of the 2021 Fifa Super League – all put offside at the outset by UEFA Alexander Ceferin and not only by him.
But there is no room left in the closets either: if yesterday’s indiscretion were to be true, they would be occupied by a very large skeleton. Certainly the man who exchanged the FIFA for a hat (or rather, for a crown) he risks transforming himself from plenipotentiary of world football to traveler with a tourist visa for Saint Helena.
Between suspicious bank transfers and the push of UEFA diplomacy
The British dropped the bomb TheTelegraph: when Infantino was undersecretary ofUEFAbetween 2009 and 2016, before becoming president FIFAwould have given a substantial severance pay to one of his employees who would also have been his lover. We are in the field of “it is said”, therefore of the inauthentic, but there are details to take into account: theUEFA he confirmed the payment of two transfers to the mysterious lady (a severance pay and a university course), specifying that they conformed to the regulations of the time, and added that he was aware of the suspicions of a relationship between the woman and the then undersecretary. The Telegraph she embroiders on it: Gianni would have initially guaranteed her a promotion to a prestigious role, but when the then president Michel Platini asked him to account for the relationship, he would have dismissed her with a six-figure severance pay. The person concerned denies wrongdoing, and then has a family, a wife and four daughters. But life takes sadistic satisfaction in confusing those who believe they can shape its destiny.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the matter has come to light now, a few days after a grotesque reversal.
For those who have forgotten: the big boss FIFAfresh from the most circus World Cup ever, from substantial advertising revenues derived from it, from the overdose of selfies with the powerful of the Earth, from the subjection with Donald Trump rewarded for comradely comradeship (remember the story of the player’s expulsion Balogun then canceled at the request of the White House?) not many days ago he attempted the gamble of gambles: privatizing the World Cup, Americanising it as if it were baseball or a company in Gordon Gekko’s sights. Blue iron loves Anacott steel. By creating a new corporate vehicle, the Fifa Forward Enterprisewith the task of selling the tournament in slices to private investors led by the entrepreneur’s New York fund Joshua Kushnerwhose brother is the husband of Ivanka Trump. When the draft of the sortie arrived on the table of the UEFA, Ceferin he jumped on his chair: we are crazy here, he would have exclaimed, putting himself and the 55 European federations that make up the continental football body in the way. “The World Cup is not for sale, the proposal is irresponsible and indefensible, if you don’t withdraw it, we will boycott FIFA events”, he thundered Ceferin. Now, since excluding the European national teams from the World Cup means staging a tournament with Brazil, Argentina and no one else apart from the oratory teams, Infantino has done an about-face.
The Wall of Federations and the strategic retreat to Rabat
Even his close collaborator worked against him Carlo Cordeiroits Chief operational officer Kevin Lamour (“This unilateral exercise of power and these cowardly omissions are unspeakable,” he said), the 41 national teams of Concaf (North American area) and a good part of the Asian ones, its historic electoral base. The strategic retreat came in a flash. Afterwards Infantino called a meeting in Rabat, where the headquarters are located FIFA Moroccan, Wednesday 5 August, with the members of the council: the general secretary Mattias Grafströmthe head of legal affairs, the finance director, the communications manager. “After listening to all points of view, it has emerged that the project has created significant divisions and will therefore not go ahead.”
Translated: trust the president, but we were joking.
In the controversy, it is interesting to note how a Ceferin what the baroness did in football Von Der Leyen he failed in politics: compacting Europe. Once upon a time there were the Charlemagne and the Joans of Arc, today theUEFAand we also have to be satisfied. But the Slovenian lawyer is familiar with reckless raids: already in 2021 he stopped the attempt to set up a Super League for renowned clubs based on the idea of Florentino Perez And Andrea Agnelli. And do you know who would have fomented the project by secretly negotiating with the clubs? According to a recent rumor, exactly there FIFA by Infantino. According to what emerged, the agreement between FIFA and Super League would last twelve years, with the creation of a joint venture to manage the commercial operations not only of the Super League, but also to stage an annual Club World Cup. If it had ended here.
The shadows on the 2027 elections and the accusations of the opponents
A few days ago the Times wrote that the boss FIFA he would have already promised Morocco (co-organizer of the 2030 World Cup together with Spain and Portugal) the assignment of the final, in exchange for political support for his presidency.
After all, the elections will be held in March 2027 and time is running out. There FIFA he denies it, but the British newspaper insists. Last but not least, the prince Ali bin Al Husseinpresident of the Jordanian football federation, dropped the ace: someone, shortly before the World Cup, would have whispered in his ear to support Infantino in the next elections, in exchange for obtaining the solution to Jordan’s football problems (the visas for the USA denied to the fans and the prize for the final of the Arab Cup in December still not paid). “Blackmail,” Hussein defined it. The former champion Luis Figocandidate for president in 2016, touches her softly: «It is the most vile and petty behavior I have ever seen», while the former president Sepp Blatter he comes back to propose Lise Klavenessthe head of the Norwegian Football Federation, as the new candidate for president: «She is the only one who has always had a clear and non-aligned position». Developments are awaited.
Perhaps he theorized the moral of all this Hermann Hesse: the man lusting for power meets his ruin in power.
