{"id":1125,"date":"2026-07-20T13:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/fifa-president-gianni-infantino-set-for-fourth-term-despite-world-cup-controversies\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T13:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:36:25","slug":"fifa-president-gianni-infantino-set-for-fourth-term-despite-world-cup-controversies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/fifa-president-gianni-infantino-set-for-fourth-term-despite-world-cup-controversies\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa president Gianni Infantino set for fourth term \u2013 despite World Cup controversies"},"content":{"rendered":"

As President Donald Trump presented the World Cup trophy<\/a> to Spain at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the man in charge of world football\u2019s governing body, Fifa, seemed untouched by the competition\u2019s controversies.<\/p>\n

In a break with protocol, the final was staged with a glitzy Super Bowl-style half-time show<\/a> \u2013 at 27 minutes and 22 seconds, it was the longest in World Cup<\/a> history. <\/p>\n

The show included a performances from K-Pop super-group BTS, Robbie Williams in a bedazzled blue tracksuit and Madonna, who entered the stadium in a car driven by Brazilian greats Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. After the final whistle, the winning team, was issued with NFL-style winners\u2019 rings<\/a>. Trump, meanwhile, lingered awkwardly in frame<\/a> as Spain lifted the trophy \u2013 despite Infantino\u2019s apparent attempts to usher him away.<\/p>\n

All this less than a fortnight after Fifa caused controversy around the world by suspending Folarin Balogun\u2019s red-card ban under pressure from the White House.<\/p>\n

But the world of football has shown how little the affair has cost the man at the top.<\/p>\n

Trump lingered on stage, despite being ushered away by Infantino, as Spain lifted the trophy.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 200 of Fifa\u2019s 211 member associations have already endorsed Gianni Infantino for a fourth term<\/a> as president. <\/p>\n

A few European federations are holding out, Germany the most prominent among them, but Infantino is the only candidate, the vote is not until next March, and the result is not seriously in doubt.<\/p>\n

The associations lining up behind him are the ones best placed to hold him to account. Some reports say they were leaned on<\/a> from inside Fifa to declare early, the kind of pressure Fifa\u2019s own ethics code is supposed to forbid.<\/p>\n

Crossing a line<\/h2>\n

European foootball\u2019s governing body, Uefa, called the decision to suspend Balogun\u2019s ban \u201cunprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable\u201d<\/a>, saying Fifa had \u201ccrossed a red line\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even Sepp Blatter waded in<\/a>: \u201cRed cards are not overturned by political phone calls,\u201d posted the former Fifa president, whose own reign ended amid a corruption scandal and who remains banned from football<\/a> by Fifa. <\/p>\n

When Sepp Blatter can claim the moral high ground, there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

Fifa\u2019s disciplinary committee insisted that reviewing the consequences of red cards was \u201cnothing new in the modern game\u201d<\/a>. That\u2019s true: the same article 27 was used in November 2025<\/a> to trim Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s three-match qualifying ban, clearing him for Portugal\u2019s World Cup opener.<\/p>\n

\n<\/figure>\n

Yet this was reportedly the first time since 1962<\/a> that a player sent off at a World Cup finals avoided suspension. Moreover, the legal grounds for the decision have not been made public, which restricts any attempt at bringing FIFA\u2019s disciplinary body to account. <\/p>\n

The Royal Belgian Football Association said it was \u201castonished\u201d<\/a>, accusing Fifa of contradicting its own rules. Fifa rejected its challenge<\/a> to Balogun\u2019s eligibility, ruling the federation had no standing to appeal. <\/p>\n

The gap is clearest in how the rules are applied. Fifa has opened an investigation into two Argentina players for holding up a \u201cLas Malvinas son Argentinas\u201d<\/a> (\u201cthe Malvinas are Argentina\u2019s\u201d) banner after beating England. <\/p>\n

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\n World Cup \u2018Falklands are Argentine\u2019 banner is a foretaste of diplomatic challenges ahead for the UK<\/a>
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It is enforcing its ban on political statements to the letter \u2013 in the same fortnight it stands accused of setting those rules aside for a phone call from the US president.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for football?<\/h2>\n

The Balogun episode looks like football\u2019s governing body bending its own rules under political pressure. <\/p>\n

News agency AP has traced<\/a> the increasingly visible Trump\u2013Infantino relationship, including the Fifa peace prize awarded to Trump last December. <\/p>\n

Nor is Trump a special case. Courting powerful political leaders has been Infantino\u2019s strategy for a decade \u2013 one the rights group FairSquare<\/a> traces back<\/a> to the 2018 World Cup in Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia, via Qatar 2022, to Saudi Arabia\u2019s uncontested award of the 2034 tournament.<\/p>\n

The Balogun case raises the question whether Fifa must bend its own rules, structures and standards in exchange for the political patronage that keeps the machine growing.<\/p>\n

FairSquare<\/a> has already asked Fifa\u2019s ethics committee to investigate whether Infantino breached Fifa\u2019s political neutrality rules. Some 50 members of the European Parliament, joined by the Norwegian football federation, have backed<\/a> the complaint.<\/p>\n

Implications for the Olympics?<\/h2>\n

The pressure is now moving beyond football. Reuters reports<\/a> that FairSquare has since filed a complaint to the IOC, where Infantino has been a member since 2020, arguing that his conduct should also be tested under Olympic ethics rules.<\/p>\n

That spillover matters. The same US political climate will frame Los Angeles 2028<\/a>, and the IOC now faces the next version of the same question: whether neutrality is still a governing principle, or just the language global sport uses while it moves closer to power.<\/p>\n

Under Infantino, the direction of dependence has shifted. A decade of expansion \u2013 a revamped 48-team World Cup and now a 64-team edition<\/a> floated for 2030 \u2013 has been financed by ever-closer partnership with powerful host states. Fifa\u2019s legal and compliance division now operates from Miami<\/a>, servicing the very judicial bodies in this dispute.<\/p>\n

Fifa may look like any multinational \u2013 Amazon or HSBC relocate to wherever conditions suit \u2013 but it is not a company. It is a Swiss not-for-profit organisation whose statutes proclaim political neutrality. A corporation that follows power is doing business; a regulator that follows power is dismantling what makes it a regulator.<\/p>\n

Fifa has spent the tournament tightening its grip on everything it can monetise, and loosening the one thing it cannot afford to lose: the belief that its rules mean the same thing whoever is asking. <\/p>\n

Yet the electorate that decides his future has already spoken. The man heading up one of the most controversial World Cups in memory endures.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As President Donald Trump presented the World Cup trophy to Spain at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the man in charge of world football\u2019s governing body, Fifa, seemed untouched by the competition\u2019s controversies. In a break with protocol, the final was staged with a glitzy Super Bowl-style half-time show \u2013 at 27 minutes and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}