Infantino's promise of reform: A transparent maneuver

There he is again: Gianni, the reformer. At least that's what parts of the letter that Gianni Infantino sent to the 211 members of the International Football Association sound like at the beginning of this week. He, the FIFA President, is willing to talk about “how FIFA’s decision-making processes can be further improved.” He is open to having FIFA's governance structures independently examined "for large strategic projects" (the idea of ​​selling shares in the World Cup at lightning speed to investors from Donald Trump's environment is probably big and strategic enough).

He even wants to talk about the president's role in such processes; This is what it says in the letter from which the international media is now quoting. Above all, Gianni Infantino wants to remain FIFA President. This is not just apparent from this letter - it is the obvious reason this letter exists.

The football world has known Gianni, the reformer, since 2015, when he first ran for FIFA president. Anyone who looks at how quickly Gianni, the reformer, became Infantino, the solo entertainer, knows how open this president really is to change.

Nevertheless, Infantino appears willing to talk, now that a wave of complaints, expressions of distrust and threatened lawsuits have piled up in front of him. After all, the wave isn't getting smaller; every few days someone from Europe adds a little pressure. Most recently, the president of the Belgian Football Association, who pushed for the FIFA Council to clarify the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of the ban against US striker Folarin Balogun. The water splashes into Infantino's living room.

The signal that he is willing to talk is now his attempt to direct the pressure into his own channels. To where the wave can break and the water can flow through the channels of the FIFA institutions. Infantino presents himself as a moderator, as someone who shakes hands with everyone and initiates improvements himself. And if he holds out his hands to everyone long enough, at some point everything will be lost.

As the President of the German Football Association (DFB) immediately noted, this is extremely transparent. “A maneuver to secure his re-election next year,” is what Bernd Neuendorf called Infantino’s letter. But that doesn't mean it has no chance of success. There are a lot of member associations in FIFA that would rather be appeased and paid than effectively reform the world governing body. Infantino does both, and his opponents know it. Which is why they have long since started playing the old FIFA game themselves.

Last week, UEFA and CONCACAF, the association for North, Central America and the Caribbean, made a demand: FIFA should distribute part of its reserves among the member associations - it could pay at least ten million euros per association on the spot. It's true that FIFA doesn't need five billion euros in reserves, that the wider football world is entitled to this money. But at the same time it showed that Infantino's opponents are also willing to press the buttons that have always been pressed in the FIFA world to gain support.

And so one thing can be learned from the two different letters that have been sent from two different camps in the past few days: that this power struggle is increasingly being played according to the usual FIFA rules.