State Department, FIFA deny report of Rubio-Infantino phone call
The Hill · C · trust 61/100
Comments: by Dominick Mastrangelo - 08/03/26 11:52 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Dominick Mastrangelo - 08/03/26 11:52 AM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING The State Department is denying the accuracy of a New York Post report suggesting FIFA President Gianni Infantino was set to speak with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as Infantino faces increasing pressure to resign following a failed bid to secure private funding for the World Cup.
The Post report , which relied on several anonymous sources, outlined that Infantino and Rubio were slated to speak Monday, just three days after the funding bid fell apart.
The Post also reported Infantino had been trying to reach President Trump since the bid fell apart last Friday.
“There are no plans for @SecRubio [Rubio] to speak with Infantino and there is no call this morning,” a spokesperson for the State Department wrote Monday on social media . “@nypost [New York Post] should check their sources or they could have just asked us.”
A source at FIFA, the international soccer governing body, also denied the Post’s reporting when contacted by The Hill on Monday.
Infantino on Friday backed off a controversial plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private equity, a bid that sparked international backlash and has threatened the FIFA leader’s standing.
Two of the top governing bodies in global football, UEFA and Concacaf, said their member clubs would boycott future World Cups if Infantino’s bid succeeded.
The plan would have been led by an investment firm helmed by Josh Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Infantino has worked in recent months to become a close ally of Trump and has praised him over the U.S. government’s handling of the 2026 World Cup, the first to be held in North America since the early 1990s.
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