Those who don't support Gianni Infantino 'need their head examined', says White House chief

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FT Desk

Andrew Giuliani, the executive director for the White House Task Force on the 2026 World Cup, can't understand why anyone would want Gianni Infantino removed as the President of FIFA.

For many observers, Infantino's position at FIFA has become increasingly difficult to defend following the collapse of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, which would have allowed private equity firms to acquire stakes in the World Cup.

The proposal sparked such widespread opposition that Infantino was forced to abandon it within days. UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF have all backed calls for him to leave his position, whether through resignation or an election.

Infantino subsequently wrote to FIFA’s members to apologise for the poor communication surrounding the FFE plans, although he stopped short of apologising for the proposal itself

Adding to the controversy is Infantino’s relationship with United States President Donald Trump. His conduct has attracted scrutiny because FIFA is expected to maintain political neutrality.

If he doesn't resign, he will face major competition at the next presidential election.

Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani, believes Infantino should be retained.

“It’s politics. I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted President Trump from a political perspective. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted other people,” Giuliani told The Athletic.

“People are jealous when people are very high achievers – and what Gianni Infantino has done for FIFA is he’s taken them to a whole new level that probably they didn’t think was possible.

“You’ve got to remember, this is the first World Cup that Gianni Infantino was president for landing, right? He inherited the Russia and Qatar World Cups, and did a good job with those, but this is the first one. It’s his vision on this.

“What I’ll tell you is that for any soccer confederation or football federation president who is thinking about not voting for Gianni Infantino, it would probably be one of the most foolish decisions of your professional life.

“This guy literally just put on the largest global sporting event ever without any incident, making over four times the revenue of the last World Cup, and you’re thinking of ousting him.

“If Gianni Infantino doesn’t get re-elected unanimously, then whoever voted against him needs to get their head examined.”

UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF are already drawing up a shortlist of candidates who could potentially run against Infantino for the election next year.

Looking back on the scrapped FFE proposal, Giuliani said “Look, we are all human beings, and I think it’s one of those things where sport has become monetised and commercialised.

“I would just say that you have got to look at Gianni’s full body of work and to also realise that he’s always trying to improve his organisation, and I think that’s the thing.

“Just because you’re always trying to improve doesn’t mean that you’re not going to take a misstep here or there, right? As a human being, it happens, but I would look at the body of work and say this is the guy I would want leading.”

So far, Infantino has received messages of support from the African Football Federation (CAF), as well as Mexico and Argentina. High-profile countries like England have withdrawn their support, while New Zealand are the latest country to do so today.

The South American federation, CONMEBOL, will likely give him support as he is campaigning for an expansion to the 2030 World Cup which could mean more fixtures taking place in South America.

At the moment, three special matches will take place in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay before the rest of the competition takes place in Spain, Morocco and Portugal.