Can Infantino survive as Fifa president? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC. I'm Jonathan Jalil and I'm. joined by our sports reporter Joe. Linskey. And Joe, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, faces growing. opposition from the football world after. his now cancelled plan to sell off. stakes in major tournaments like the. World Cup. Tell us about the backlash. >> Well, this has been a very fast-moving. story since Tuesday last week when those. reports first emerged that Gianni. Infantino was looking to sell off a.

subsidiary of um the FIFA tournaments uh. to private investors, essentially. opening up the men's and women's World. Cup and the Club World Cup to the. pressures of kind of external investors. and profit-driven football almost. And. the backlash to that was driven really. by UEFA, the governing body of football. in Europe, who were really the first to. come forward in terms of the. confederations and have very sort of. emotive and scornful rhetoric towards.

Gianni Infantino. To get us to a point. now uh 6 days on as we record from those. first reports, where we are now in a. position where those plans have been. dropped. Infantino has admitted defeat. He would not have had the uh votes. required to have get to get those uh. plans approved by the 211. uh FIFA member nations. The story now. has shifted towards the. future of the president himself, Gianni. Infantino. He was due to be up for.

re-election in March of next year. And I. think we can see just how big a gamble. it was because Infantino was set to. stand in that election unopposed. He was. uh due to uh potentially have a fourth. term in office. But having done this uh. last week, he has now opened himself up. to challenges. We are now waiting to see. what contenders might come forward. And. some of those nations that uh wrote. letters of support to Infantino in that. uncontested election are now starting to.

withdraw those letters. We have already. heard from the Football Association of. Wales who have done so and England, the. FA there is also set to send a letter. withdrawing their support for Infantino, too. So, yes, this has been very. fast-moving and I think it's going to. continue like that for the rest of the. week. >> And the controversies involving Gianni. Infantino go back years. >> Yes, well, Gianni Infantino has been in. charge of FIFA for a decade. He took. over from.

Sepp Blatter who ended up in all sorts. of bother at the end of his. reign as FIFA president. And yes, so. Infantino took over and he was sort of. bestowed with those controversial. World Cup host countries of Russia and. Qatar in 2018 and 2022. But ahead of that tournament in 2022, we. saw him really first start to emerge as. a kind of controversial and public. figure. We had that now notorious today. I feel. speech ahead of that World Cup where.

facing backlash around the treatment of. migrant workers in Qatar, around the. treatment of LGBT individuals there, Infantino sat down in front of the. world, in front of the cameras and said. things like today I feel disabled, today. I feel like a migrant worker, today I. feel gay. It became a pretty notorious. speech and one that really elevated him. into the wider public consciousness, really. And in as a controversial figure. within football. And as we built towards.

this summer's World Cup that of course. has now concluded, the theme of his. presidency again has been this link with. Donald Trump, the US president, particularly since 2024. Trump was a. very visible presence at the Club World. Cup that became Infantino's big project. It was hosted in the United States and. Trump was there to present the trophy to. Chelsea to some of their uh bemused. players on the platform at the end of. that final. We then saw in the draw for.

the International World Cup, Trump was. on stage and that was where he received. that inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in. December of 2025. and now we have seen with these. plans that Infantino put forward a link. to Donald Trump himself in what he was. trying to do. The investment group. Infantino wanted to lead this new. subsidiary arm of FIFA's commercial side. was led by Joshua Kushner who is the.

brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law. So. yes, it is a bit complicated but there. is a link there of course to Donald. Trump. But even him now, even Trump, the. US president has started to kind of. tentatively distance himself from. Infantino. He said over the weekend that. he was not consulted by the FIFA. president before these plans were put. forward. >> Mr. Infantino also overturned a red card. against the star player for the US side. at Mr. Trump's behest. So there has been. a very close relationship up until very.

recently between the two men. >> Yes, Folarin Balogun who received a red. card during the last 32 round of the. World Cup against Bosnia and Herzegovina. it was would normally have faced a. suspension but it then emerged that US. president had got involved, had been on. the phone to Gianni Infantino and that. suspension didn't happen. Balogun was. allowed to play against Belgium in that. last 16 game and that was the key.

controversy of this World Cup across. these three. nations and Donald Trump was at the. center of it. It really became a symbol. of how intertwined FIFA under Infantino. and the US president had become. >> Infantino when he took over from Sepp. Blatter promised to clean up football, but as you say there have been. controversies involving him since he's. been FIFA president. Why is it given. that it's only very, very recently that. his position as FIFA president has come.

into doubt? >> Well, I think the answer to that is um. Infantino's key agenda really has been. driving money and driving revenue into. this organization. We've had those. inflated ticket prices uh for the World. Cup, these big broadcast deals, these. new tournaments uh like the Club World. Cup, all designed to generate more. income. But crucially for Infantino, that revenue goes towards nations to. develop their football infrastructure. And for the smaller nations around the.

world, it is crucial to them. Uh and it. in turn leads to approval and votes for. Infantino. And in fact, heading towards. this election in March of next year, more than 200 of the 211 member nations. of FIFA had declared their support for. Infantino, including uh most of them in. Europe, including England and Wales and. Scotland here. in Britain. And that spoke to approval. for what Infantino was doing overall, driving money, driving revenue into.

these nations, and and and doing so with. new projects like the Club World Cup, uh. like the expanded uh international World. Cup which Infantino led towards being 48. teams. >> Could he survive? >> It is not easy to get ousted the current. FIFA president. They have to call. potentially uh an extraordinary congress. where then a vote of no confidence could. be called. Of course, if Infantino. resigns, that um undoes all of that. It.

it removes any of that complication. But. so far, Gianni Infantino in his reign as. FIFA president has been defiant. He is. not the kind of person you would think. who would step away easily. And as I. say, Infantino's strategy throughout his. presidency has been to keep those. smaller nations in particular on board. by promising that investment from these. big projects down to them. And when UEFA. had their meeting, there were some. questions over whether the smaller. nations in UEFA might actually side with.

Infantino. You know, you obviously have. France and Germany and Spain and. England, those huge nations that are. always there at the back end of major. tournaments, but you also have you know, Estonia and Latvia and Lithuania, the. Czech Republic. But actually UEFA. managed to have complete solidarity and. unity in getting those smaller nations. on board. in the unity against Infantino. And in. those extremely strongly worded. statements, of course UEFA said they. would boycott the World Cup if those.

plans, those proposals that Infantino. put through, went through. So yes, I think. Infantino's strategy in terms of getting. back on the front foot will be using the. mathematics of the 211 FIFA nations to. earn support back. There are still some. nations in Asia and Africa who are. publicly declaring their support still. for Infantino. There was Qatar that came. forward, Morocco who is co-hosting the. World Cup in 2030. They have come. forward and publicly expressed their.

support for Infantino. So it is It is. not unanimous by any stretch yet, and. with FIFA, it is not straightforward in. terms of getting to the next phase. So. we will see in the next few days how. this pans out and how Infantino might. deploy a strategy along those lines. >> How damaging has this been for FIFA and. for football in general? >> Well, FIFA, I think from the outside, fans will look at it and say, "We're. back where we were 10 years ago with. Sepp Blatter when he was ousted in. disgrace for bribery and corruption that.

went on at FIFA. during his presidency." I think that's. why many people and why UEFA. particularly have expressed expressed. that they feel let down by Infantino. He. was somebody who promised reform when he. came in. He had been a key leader at. UEFA for many years before becoming the. FIFA president in 2016. And more widely now FIFA perhaps there. will be pressure for them to have a. different model maybe that isn't so.

dependent on the president. and really that revolves around this. buying off of of smaller nations for for. approval really. You know, we don't. often hear backlash from those nations. about governance. You know, we didn't. hear backlash on this level around the. following Balogun incident for instance. You know, Infantino was still set to. have huge support when it got to March. 2027 for the election even despite that. It has taken this massive development in. the last week for that pressure to. really start to be exerted on Gianni.

Infantino. So yes, there will be perhaps. pressure now for a different model at. FIFA now where the president is not all. powerful and where perhaps. governance and strategy. and points of leadership come into play. and maybe form a different kind of. president and election going forward at. FIFA. >> Joe, really good to get your thoughts. That was Joe Linskey from BBC Sport and. if you'd like to hear more from the. Global News Podcast, please click on the.

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