Infantino Defends FIFA Decisions Amid Protests and Controversies

Gianni Infantino’s speech on the eve of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is the stuff of legend. You know the one – the rambling, hour-long monologue where he told us all how he felt. He felt gay that day. He also felt disabled, Qatari, Arab, African and like a migrant worker. In doing so, the Fifa president engraved himself permanently into meme culture, and his remarks remain a popular source of online amusement to this day.

On Wednesday, amid a gaggle of reporters and photographers, Infantino once again took to the stage. He sat in a tent in the shadow of the Estadio Azteca – it has been renamed Estadio Ciudad de México for the World Cup – a place many see as the western hemisphere’s cathedral of football. On Thursday, Mexico will host South Africa in the opening match of the 2026 World Cup.

In 2022, Infantino’s remarks were a nebulous defense of Fifa’s decision to award the tournament to Qatar, a place with deeply regressive laws governing LGBTQ+ people, and where the tournament’s stadiums were constructed in part using migrant workers, often under the harshest conditions. His remarks Wednesday felt a bit like a redux. This tournament has its own issues and Infantino wasted no time in launching into a full-throated defense of Fifa’s role in them.

After a few throwaway remarks, Infantino went almost directly into addressing the situation surrounding Iran – players and staff of the team have struggled getting visas to enter the United States, one of the World Cup’s three host countries – saying he’d have driven them to the tournament on a bus if needed. He breezed right into a defense of the tournament’s eye-watering ticket prices, suggesting they were in line with prices for playoffs in major US sports, an argument that disregards the fact that the vast majority of Americans can’t afford to attend those playoff matches either.

There were other controversies to quell. Maybe most striking was Infantino’s defense of the US government’s refusal to grant entry to Omar Artan, a Somali referee. US officials say Artan has links to “suspected members of terror organizations”. Later, a British journalist asked Infantino about Artan’s case. Infantino wondered aloud whether Fifa should be allowed to alter the laws of the United Kingdom, the likely hosts of the 2035 Women’s World Cup.

“We are not the kings of the world,” said Infantino, perhaps one of the only sporting executives who actually needs to clarify that. “We don’t control everything. We try and discuss, and speak, and we’ll see. Maybe sometimes it is good as well to just chill, relax, we work on everything, we try and solve everything.”

Infantino later praised the renovations to the Azteca, recalling the stadium’s most famous moments – Pelé’s triumph at the 1970 World Cup, Diego Maradona’s mazy run during his brilliant goal at the 1986 tournament. He called the stadium “blessed”; just blocks away, Mexico’s huddled masses have gathered to protest what they perceive as unjust working conditions. Riot police have been outside the stadium for days and will have a greater presence in the days to come. Protesters have threatened to shut the opening match down entirely.

Infantino did eventually play the hits. All it took was one softball question from a reporter who asked him how he can help unite the world, and he donned his demigod cap.

“I believe in the magic and potential of the ball and of the World Cup trophy,” said Infantino, sitting inches away from the trophy itself. “Like all of you, I see the situation that the world is in. Additionally, we all have our own personal problems in every place in the world. But I think that an event of this magnitude and transcendent importance, like a World Cup, can help. I am convinced that human beings are good and not bad. Profoundly good, and not bad.”