Why is FIFA President Gianni Infantino courting President Trump?

About 30 minutes before Friday’s World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, a landmark that Donald Trump wants to rename for himself, the president was called to the stage to accept his award from FIFA chief Gianni Infantino.

Five weeks ago there was no so-called FIFA Peace Prize. And when Infantino created it, there were no candidates for the award beyond Trump, who campaigned hard for the Nobel Peace Prize but failed. This made Friday’s presentation awkward and uncomfortable for just about everyone except Infantino and Trump.

“You certainly deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action and what you have achieved through it,” said Infantino, as he took the Trump medal and placed it around his neck.

“This is truly one of the greatest honors of my life,” Trump said.

For the two men, the exchange was the latest in a strange friendship that has deepened in equally rewarding ways as June’s World Cup approaches.

“It’s two big egos caressing each other,” said a former U.S. Soccer official who asked that their names not be used to avoid possible retaliation. “I think Infantino’s ulterior motive is to get as much support as possible from the government and to make sure Trump doesn’t do anything to interfere with the tournament, despite some unhelpful comments.

“For Trump, the opportunity to host the world’s biggest sporting event in front of a global audience is irresistible.”

A FIFA spokesman said Infantino should maintain cooperative relations with host countries and noted that he had established strong ties with Trump as well as the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

“In accordance with the FIFA Constitution, ‘the President shall seek to maintain and develop good relations between FIFA, its confederations, member associations, political bodies and international organisations,'” the FIFA statement said. “In addition, the FIFA President is required to maintain good relations with the leaders of the host countries to ensure a successful event for all.”

For FIFA and Infantino, a longtime football executive who has used his connections and acumen to climb 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 ever.

In recent months, Infantino, who had a front-row seat at the president’s inauguration in January, invited Trump to present winners’ medals to players from Club World Cup champion Chelsea — one of which was in Trump’s pocket — followed the president to Egypt in October for a summit to finalize a ceasefire agreement 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 able to greet Trump on the Kennedy Center stage on 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 chief sports fan, the relationship means taking part in the biggest, most complex sporting event in history and the attention and acclaim it brings.

At the same time, Trump’s volatile governing style and tendency to break ties with allies means Infantino cannot take things for granted. As a result, David Goldblatt, a British sports writer and adjunct professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, says Infantino’s actions were shrewd, if sometimes humble.

Chelsea’s Reece James and Robert Sanchez accompany President Trump as he celebrates his FIFA Club World Cup win on July 13.

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Facing a powerful but unpredictable leader in a country about to host a World Cup that could generate more than $9 billion in revenue, the FIFA president, a former Trump critic, chose to put those differences aside and appeal to Trump’s love of tributes and trappings rather than risk his wrath.

Goldblatt stated that Infantino was afraid that Trump could harm the World Cup if he wanted to, and said, “This is a different world.” “States and heads of state did not function this way before.”

Infantino, 55, took over as head of world soccer’s governing body FIFA in 2016 when he was elected to replace scandal-plagued Sepp Blatter in a vote chaired by then-U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati. At the time, Infantino, who was born in Switzerland to Italian immigrant parents, was seen as a progressive reformer who would take the narrow-minded and conservative organization, global sports’ most influential and powerful governing body, in a different direction.

It has done some of this by enlarging the venues for both the men’s and women’s World Cups, increasing prize money for the women’s tournament, expanding other competitions such as the Club World Cup, and nearly quadrupling FIFA’s cash reserves. He also felt comfortable forming alliances with autocrats.

During preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Infantino developed such a close relationship with Vladimir Putin that he was summoned to the Kremlin following the tournament. Order of Friendship MedalOne of Russia’s highest awards. Looks like this friendship lasted a long time: On Friday, investigative news source Follow the Money FIFA has decided that several European clubs will 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 Emirates, rented a house and enrolled his two children in local schools. He dismissed well-documented human rights abuses as Western hypocrisy and sided with the country’s leaders on the eve of the tournament 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 strongly criticized the Muslim ban the president sought to implement, fearing the potential impact it could have on international sports. This time, Infantino all but ignored Trump’s decision to limit entry into the United States to citizens of 19 countries, including World Cup qualifiers Haiti and Iran; This will have a very serious impact on next summer’s tournament.

“Infantino is intoxicated by the elite circles of power, status and wealth into which he has been raised,” Goldblatt said. “He’s the king of the universe now and moves in some pretty lofty circles. How does he deal with that world?”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino (R) smiles as he shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in greeting at the close of the World Cup in Russia on July 14, 2018.

(Yuri Kadobnov / Associated Press)

Infantino’s change has caused concern and unease among many global football officials who are concerned he has abandoned FIFA-mandated political neutrality. Delegates from UEFA, European football’s governing body, where Infantino used to work, walked out of the FIFA Congress in Paraguay in May after Infantino arrived hours late due to a trip to the Middle East with Trump.

Delegates said the FIFA president’s “private political interests are of no use to the game”.

Or maybe it is, says Adam Beissel, an associate professor of sports leadership and management at Miami University in Ohio and the author of several books and studies on the inner workings of FIFA.

“Maybe getting the federal subsidy for the World Cup, the kind of support to host an event that would generate $9 billion in revenue, was worth it all,” he said.

By all accounts, the friendship between Trump and Infantino is real, if ultimately transactional. While Trump called the FIFA leader “Johnny” and “boy,” Infantino caught his own staff by surprise by announcing the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize and presenting it to a president whose administration continues to bomb alleged drug ships in the Caribbean. threatens with military action against Venezuela.

The FIFA president would certainly like it if Trump dropped his threat to pull World Cup matches from blue cities (an improbable prospect this close to the tournament, but one that Trump seems happy to make nonetheless) and eased the travel ban for visitors wanting to attend the World Cup.

But at this point, the president will probably be content to let the show continue. And if the price is a reward for Trump, it’s a price Infantino is willing to pay.