It's time to show Infantino the red card - the future of the World Cup depends on it, writes James Hanson

Brazil’s João Havelange, who ran world football’s governing body from 1974 to 1998, was subsequently revealed to have accepted tens of millions in bribes while awarding marketing rights for the World Cup. His successor, the equally venal Sepp Blatter, was forced to stand down in 2015 due to a corruption scandal of his own. Now it’s the turn of Blatter’s fellow Swiss Gianni Infantino to bring shame on the beautiful game.

The Fifa president’s outrageous plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors has united the world in opposition. Firstly, because there’s simply no need. For all the controversy in the build-up, this summer’s tournament was a huge success - with iconic matches, huge global audiences, and unprecedented cut-through in the United States. It was also enormously profitable, pocketing FIFA more than 11 billion pounds in revenue - roughly double what it earned in Qatar in 2022.

So on what possible basis does world football need extra investment, especially given FIFA already has reserves of around four billion dollars? The only explanation can be the naked greed of those who run it, specifically Gianni Infantino himself. According to reports, the launch of Fifa Forward Enterprises would have personally earned him tens of millions of dollars. He would also continue to serve as a commissioner even beyond the end of his final presidential term in 2031.

As if you needed any further convincing of the murkiness of this whole scheme, Infantino’s plan is backed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared. Infantino has been notoriously sycophantic towards the US President, from ludicrously awarding him a spontaneously invented peace prize, to getting American player Folarin Balogun’s red card overturned after Trump’s intervention. By way of reward, the US President recently proposed Infantino should be the next Secretary General of the United Nations!

Perhaps Infantino is so keen to stay in Trump’s good books that he’s decided imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. According to Forbes analysis, the US President earned an eye-watering 2.4 billion dollars last year. I suppose if you spend as much time in his orbit as Infantino seems to, there comes a point when the temptation to get in on the grift yourself becomes overwhelming, hence how we’ve ended up with the grotesque proposition of sticking a ‘for sale’ sign on the world’s biggest sporting spectacle.

If there’s a silver lining in all this, it is the unequivocal response from the rest of the world (or most of it). UEFA is rightly threatening to boycott the World Cup if these plans go ahead. The governing bodies of Asia, as well as North and Central America, have also expressed their opposition. The growing backlash raises inevitable questions about whether Infantino can even remain in post. The answer is simple: he shouldn’t. It’s time to show this avaricious, power-crazed bureaucrat the red card.

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Listen to James Hanson on LBC on weekends between 4 and 7am.

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